However, as Violet grows, she becomes increasingly concerned that she isn’t the problem but rather that Violet is, as the avoidant, and the outright hostile behaviour she exhibits around Blythe is absent around Fox, Blythe’s husband and Violet’s father. Blythe gives birth to a daughter with the immense trepidation that she will fulfil the prophecy established by her mother and grandmother as a parent, and struggles when she is unable to form any connection to Violet. The central premise of the book is that Blythe, who comes from a line of women whose mothering skills are negligent at best and abusive at worst (the absence of any kind of trigger warning about this content is something I hope remedied in the non-ARC versions of this text).
With that said, there’s plenty of other thematic material which could unsettle a reader.
It’s worth noting I don’t have children of my own, but these are two themes which have always produced a strong emotional response in me. The Push certainly pushed – if you’ll excuse the pun – my buttons on two issues: finding motherhood difficult, and the fragmentation of a relationship once children become a part of a couple’s lives.
It’s always difficult to separate the quality of a book from your own instinctive, emotional reactions to its contents.
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