A propulsive page-turner about four families whose lives are changed when the unthinkable happens—and what is lost when we give in to our own worst impulses.

On Harlow Street, the well-to-do neighborhood couples and their children gather for a catered barbecue as the summer winds down; drinks continue late into the night.

Everything is fabulous until the picture-perfect hostess explodes in fury because her son disobeys her. Everyone at the party hears her exquisite veneer crack—loud and clear. Before long, that same young boy falls from his bedside window in the middle of the night. And then, his mother can only sit by her son’s hospital bed, where she refuses to speak to anyone, and his life hangs in the balance.

What happens next, over the course of a tense three days, as each of these women grapples with what led to that terrible night?

Exploring envy, women’s friendships, desire, and the intuitions that we silence, The Whispers is a chilling novel that marks Audrain as a major women’s fiction talent.

DNF – Stopped after 10% of the audiobook.
1 star based on the portion that I read.

I had heard a lot of hype surrounding this mystery/thriller, so I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, it ended up being a complete miss for me.

What I didn’t realize going in was just how much swearing and crude language there would be. It felt excessive and quickly became distracting rather than adding anything meaningful to the story, and completely turned me off to this mystery. On top of that, I didn’t connect with a single character. I found them either unlikable or uninteresting, which made it difficult to care about what happened next.

Since I wasn’t enjoying the writing, the characters, or the overall reading experience, I decided to DNF this one. While I can understand why it works for some readers, it was definitely not the book for me. I do not recommend!