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    The Need
    The Need
    The Need
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Need

    Written by Helen Phillips

    Narrated by Alex Allwine

    3/5

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    About this audiobook

    ***LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN FICTION***
    Named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Best Mystery and Thriller Books of All Time

    “An extraordinary and dazzlingly original work from one of our most gifted and interesting writers” (Emily St. John Mandel, author of The Glass Hotel). The Need, which finds a mother of two young children grappling with the dualities of motherhood after confronting a masked intruder in her home, is “like nothing you’ve ever read before…in a good way” (People).

    When Molly, home alone with her two young children, hears footsteps in the living room, she tries to convince herself it’s the sleep deprivation. She’s been hearing things these days. Startling at loud noises. Imagining the worst-case scenario. It’s what mothers do, she knows.

    But then the footsteps come again, and she catches a glimpse of movement.

    Suddenly Molly finds herself face-to-face with an intruder who knows far too much about her and her family. As she attempts to protect those she loves most, Molly must also acknowledge her own frailty. Molly slips down an existential rabbit hole where she must confront the dualities of motherhood: the ecstasy and the dread; the languor and the ferocity; the banality and the transcendence as the book hurtles toward a mind-bending conclusion.

    In The Need, Helen Phillips has created a subversive, speculative thriller that comes to life through blazing, arresting prose and gorgeous, haunting imagery. “Brilliant” (Entertainment Weekly), “grotesque and lovely” (The New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice), and “wildly captivating” (O, The Oprah Magazine), The Need is a glorious celebration of the bizarre and beautiful nature of our everyday lives and “showcases an extraordinary writer at her electrifying best” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

    Editor's Note

    An ‘Oprah Magazine’ Best of 2019…

    “In an ingenious, edgy speculative fiction that finds the monstrous in the notion of domestic tranquillity, Phillips leads us into a fraught daymare in which a young mother’s anxiety — exacerbated by insomnia and her husband’s absence — serves as a parable for all that keeps us up at night,” according to “O, The Oprah Magazine.”

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateJul 9, 2019
    ISBN9781508279778
    Author

    Helen Phillips

    Helen Phillips is the author of six books, including the novel The Need, a National Book Award nominee and a New York Times Notable Book. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award. Her collection Some Possible Solutions received the John Gardner Fiction Book Award. Her novel The Beautiful Bureaucrat was a finalist for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. A professor at Brooklyn College, she lives in Brooklyn with artist/cartoonist Adam Douglas Thompson and their children. 

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    Reviews for The Need

    3/5

    316 ratings33 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 5/5
      Helen Phillps has a wonderfully creative mind. I discovered The Need via its inclusion in my Scribd recommended reading feed. I was wholly captivated from word one of this extraordinary book. It was that good.

      5 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This is the first fiction audiobook I've read, and I could not have chosen a better first one. The lyrical, suspenseful prose grips you and never lets go until the last page (or spoken sentence, for that matter).

      2 people found this helpful

    • 1/5
      I tried to follow the storyline. I even pushed through and finished the book, but I'm so confused!

      2 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Dark, ambiguous ...and mesmeric. Comparable to “I’m Thinking of Ending Things.”

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      It's a good book overall but hard to follow at times.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I am still trying to track the story line...I just don’t know what the fuck happened.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      I feel like I didn’t understand a word of it at all.
    • 5/5
      Wonderfully crafted. Loved every minute. Can’t wait to recommend to my friends.
    • 5/5
      Mind bending, suspenseful and creepy. Narration is perfect tone for the feeling of the book. I’m still processing the ending...but an excellent, creepy read.
    • 3/5
      Just strange. I did finish it rather quickly as it does move along nicely but I’m left feeling…unfulfilled and slight lot baffled. The narration was great and the storyline is definitely different.
    • 5/5
      Simply outstanding. Incredibly measured, tense, thoughtful prose; and an utterly unique storyline.
    • 5/5
      A strange intense book about motherhood. I liked it a lot, but it is not what it seems
    • 1/5
      Literally the worst book I’ve ever listened to. Storyline is so weak and rambling.
    • 1/5
      This is a pointless book, a complete waste of time.
    • 1/5
      I really wanted to know how it ended, made it halfway but just couldn't continue. The book was hard to follow and kept repeating.
    • 2/5
      Boy did this one start out strong! The alternating timelines/stories (and super short chapters) quickly built up the suspense through the first 2 Parts and really hooked me. Then the big reveal hit (Shock! Gasp!) and then the novel completely fizzled out.

      What I thought was going to be a thriller-ish take on an alternate reality (multiverse) story told from the point of view of a mother trying to protect her children, instead turned into essentially the telling of a completely over-worked mother trying to parent her 2 young children while her husband was away. I really lost interest about 1/2 way through part 3 but I wanted to keep reading as I thought it would pick back up again, and it just never did.

      Also: WAY too much emphasis on breastfeeding and her milk dropping. I understand that those are extremely important parts of mothering and welcome the topic in novels, but I just felt that the number of times the story told of Molly's milk and breasts was just too much.

      The one bright spot I would certainly give to this novel is the way that Helen Philips wrote this novel (the use of language and metaphors) was really beautiful. The overall story direction just didn't do it for me.
    • 5/5
      Like a cross between Us and Annihilation! Very interesting and unique.
    • 1/5
      A few days ago, my sister, who generally dislikes fiction, got into my car. The book was in its early stages. This morning, after a few minutes of listening, she looked at me with a puzzled expression. I said, “Parallel universe.” She went on to ask what happened in the book that had been playing on Friday. Again, I said, “Parallel Universe.” On Friday, she had exited just after the intruder had left the main characters house. Which was suspenseful and well-written. We were both on the edge of our seats. At that point, I thought I had stumbled across a true story-teller. I pictured myself binging on her other books until I had read every last word. The story devolved rapidly. Then, it kept devolving. It devolved to the point that I listened only to see how much more ridiculously bad the story would become. It was bad. Really, bad. In fact, the two parts of the book are so different I’d speculate the author had a deadline to meet despite an earth-shattering bout of writers block she suffered partway through.
    • 3/5
      Far too tedious and repetitious, and it devolved into a fable about motherhood. But it started out distinctly science-fictiony and horror-inducing, in a concrete physical world. I imagine mothers might feel very differently about it, and might appreciate the homage to the tedium and repetition that is motherhood.
    • 3/5
      Tough Work

      “Tough” is a word that describes the faceted character of Helen Phillips’ protagonist Molly in The Need. Molly, a paleobotanist and mother of a toddler and infant, works at an excavation and at home, and both places are challenging and increasingly difficult. She’s a woman grappling with her emotions, and maybe losing her mind, both regarding the extraordinary items she’s found in the excavation pit and at home, where her peripatetic musician husband leaves her to care for their two young children, and where she comes to face two sides of life, with her children, and without them. Marginally, it’s a horror tale, but at its heart it’s more a meditation on the hardships of modern working mothers who carry responsibilities for work and home, and sometimes find themselves schizophrenic over the whole deal.

      Molly has discovered some disturbing items during an excavation, items that shouldn’t be there, like a bottle of Coke with the name slanted in the wrong direction, flora that have no evolved descendants, and, most troubling of all for the furor it arouses, a bible with the wrong pronoun. It’s this last item that draws people to the site to marvel and violently express hatred. Could these be items that have leaked over into our world from a parallel dimension, where things might appear the same but also vastly different?

      All this upsets her to the point that at home she begins believing that an intruder has entered her home. Sure enough, one has and as the book promo hints, it is one who knows way too much about her. To reveal the intruder here would spoil the one startling aspect of the novel for you. But it’s this intruder who launches Molly into an ongoing dialogue with herself regarding the care of her children, from the often frustrating mundane tasks of care that she relishes as love, to the fear of what it would be like to lose them. Not that she wasn’t tough before this experience, but she emerges tougher, stronger in all regards, after it.

      If you discount the supposed horror and the parallel worlds aspect of the novel, many readers will find things to like about The Need. Women readers with children will readily identify with Molly, particularly with all she has to do, for the burdens of child rearing fall squarely on her shoulders. Male readers might find the constant enumeration of Molly’s tasks, of her concerns for her children, of the loneliness of being left alone pretty much to fend for herself for long periods of time, and of continuously battling herself over whether she’s mother enough, revealing and, maybe, helpful in better appreciating their partners. As to the horror and multidimensional component, if you buy the book with this in mind, you’ll certainly find yourself disappointed.
    • 2/5
      I had to use gifs on Goodreads to describe my feelings about this one, because I can’t insert a selfie of my WTF expression. I’m not exaggerating: just check the reviews on Goodreads and you’ll see I’m not the only reader where the verb “confusion” is an understatement regarding this book. Some found it easy to understand, thus “brilliant”. Me on the other hand...Molly is a mother of two who works as a paleo botanist. During her excavation she comes across some odd artifacts, which draws the public’s interest. One night, while her husband is away, an intruder appears in Molly’s home, who seems to know everything about her, and Molly has to fight for everything she knows and loves. Sounds like your typical domestic thriller, right? That’s where you would be wrong, my friend. I’m not going to reveal much about the plot, because this is one of those books that unless you read it for yourself, you’ll understand why it’s so difficult for me to explain it to you. I will say it is a brutally honest take on motherhood, particularly the ugly sides of it. I saw some reviews where readers were put off by the many mentions of nursing & pumping, and as a woman and a mother I have to roll my eyes at their brazen immaturity. Reading this book I kept drawing comparisons to the movie “Tully”, and wondering if the reveal in the book (if there was one) would reflect the surprising one in the film. It might have? Or it may be something completely different? See, there is where I’ve become lost, readers. I’ve read the ending several times and I still can’t make sense of what happened. I’ve read spoiler filled reviews, but none of those explained it to me. So if you HAVE read this book and know what is going on, please DM me. This was a quick little read, and I did enjoy the author’s writing style, even if I’m still confused by the substance. Some readers have compared this to “Bunny”, another bizarre book I read earlier. But to this reader, as bizarre as “Bunny” was, I understood the plot much more than I did here.
    • 3/5
      In general, I don't select much science fiction reading. Occasionally, however, I stumble onto a novel and discover that it is sci-fi. Ok. That just happened. This book is a deep, deep dive into the psychology of motherhood in the midst of a collision between parallel universes. Yep. Imagine your worst day as a mother, as a working mother, and then multiply. An archeological dig unearths items from a parallel universe and then the games begin. Mom Molly and her doppelganger, Mol duke it out psychologically. Dad is out of town for work, so archeologist mom is stretched a bit thin. Enough. It's not bad, and that is coming from a non-sci-fi fan. Decide for yourself whether to take the plunge.
    • 5/5
      A book about the fears and pressures of motherhood, love, and loss, but told in a way that I wasn't expecting. The writing and imagery in this book kept me rapt and I just really loved this.
    • 1/5
      I hated this book. But I realized something about my reading taste! I'm okay with books about families, or about children, or about women who are mothers. But I cannot effing stand when an author gives voice to a young child so they can whine endlessly or prattle on about nothing. I'm not interested in books reflecting upon motherhood or parenthood to kids in that stage either. I hated Room, I hated Fierce Kingdom, and I hated this book too. I didn't mind the weirdness or find it confusing. It was actually the only part of this book I found interesting, and it wasn't really that inventive. The author is a competent writer, but I was so absurdly annoyed by the children in this book that I can't give it more than two stars.
    • 4/5
      I don't feel like I can adequately review this without spoilers. I will say it's completely unexpected and the "intruder" ends up being a huge twist. The main character, Molly, is very well developed. Her insights into motherhood, particularly breastfeeding, were spot on. The storyline is strange. Very strange. That didn't bother me as much as the ending. I found it so clever along the way, but the ending was abrupt and disappointing.
    • 1/5
      This is my first book by Helen Phillips. I regret to say it will be my last. It has gotten lots of great reviews (4 & 5 Stars) which I had not read. I don't like to know a lot about a book before reading it, so I use other ways of choosing what to read. Maybe I should start reading reviews before reading books! I don't know what genre this novel would fall under, probably "Thriller," but if there is one entitled "Strange", that's where I'd put it. It's mainly about motherhood and since I a mother and grandmother, I thought I'd enjoy and relate to it. But I was drained reading about the exhaustion of this working mother, a paleontologist, with two children. The older was 4-years-old and the younger was a nursing baby. Her husband, a musician, worked when and where he could get a gig, and of course, this novel is set while he is out-of-town.The endless diaper changing, breast feeding, breast pumping, breast leaking, and "coming down" of the milk was very monotonous as was the constant whining of the 4-year-old. It all just made me feel impatient with the situation. There was a lot of repetition throughout the novel.There is a tie to science fiction and it's a very strange, immersive concept. I won't even try to describe it and I don't want to include any spoilers. But it's just plain weird. I did like the very, very short chapters which encouraged me to keep reading until I finished the hardcover version of 258 pages.
    • 3/5
      The Short of It:I’d be lying if I said I fully understood everything that went on in this novel.The Rest of It:Molly is a scientist. I believe a paleobotonist if I’m remembering correctly. She spends her day analyzing fossils and giving tours to people curious about her team’s findings. Of late, some strange things have shown up in the pit, including an alternative Bible where God is a “she”, a shiny penny, and some pottery pieces. These items are odd enough to draw an interesting crowd. Religious fanatics begin to show up along with dozens of pieces of hate mail.When not at work, Molly is completely overwhelmed by motherhood. One morning, while her husband is away on business, she finds herself scrambling for safety within her own home when an intruder shows up and threatens the well-being of herself and her two young children. An intruder, wearing a deer’s head mask.This is a bizarre read. It’s labeled as speculative fiction and I would agree with that. I honestly did not know what the heck was going on. Is Molly out of her mind? Is she dead? Dreaming? On drugs? What? In a short amount of time, the identity of the intruder is revealed and then it gets REALLY weird.Without giving anything away, I will say that if the point of the novel is to emphasize how motherhood can completely overtake you and change you both physically and mentally, then Helen Phillips accomplished that. Molly’s adventures in motherhood completely drain her. She is literally sucked dry by her breastfeeding son, and her daughter’s astute observations of what is going on serve to remind Molly just how much her brain has turned to mush since becoming a mother. This part, is very accurate.But the rest of the story is very Twilight Zone-ish and odd. Some of it was disturbing to read only because it made me uncomfortable. Much of it is raw and blunt. The scientific element was interesting but not fully explored. I hesitate to say that this would be a good book for a club to discuss because I can see many hating it. Especially those who have never been a mom. But, it’s odd enough and pieced together in such a way that it warrants a discussion. In that sense, it would be great book to discuss.Have any of you read it? From the cover, I thought the story would be about alien plants. Seriously.For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter.
    • 3/5
      Very unusual and left me a little puzzled.
    • 3/5
      This is a bizarre one and one that left me wondering what really happened. In it, Molly is a paleobotanist, excavating a site behind a defunct gas station where a large number of plant fossils are being found, including some new discoveries. She's also finding some newer, odder artifacts -- items that are just slightly off, like an Altoids box that is shaped differently or little army men with tails. She also finds a Bible in which only one detail is changed, and that is causing an influx of visitors, which is helping to finance the work. Molly also has two small children and a husband who travels for work. While she does have a full-time babysitter, she feels isolated and overwhelmed by her two children. She's not sleeping well and she's worried that she's overreacting when she hears someone in the house one night. She hides with her children, until she decides she was imagining things, but later that evening her daughter asks about the man in the house and soon after she finds a menacing note in her daughter's favorite picture book.This is playing with two different premises, that an overwhelmed Molly is slowly losing hold of what is real and the idea of an alternate universe, accessible through the dig site, and how the things leaking through are altering the world Molly exists in. It's a lot, and because Phillips is keeping her options open, neither possibility is fully realized. It's certainly a book for those who like things odd and ambiguous. And also for those who are fine with a lot of details of life with very young children.
    • 4/5
      I love a story that defies the limitations of genre. I also love stories that seamlessly blend genres. The Need is a story that does both, but could also be viewed as living in multiple genres at the same time while also living fully and only in one genre from one perspective or another from a different perspective.Motherhood, working while raising young children, the otherness of mothers, the fear, the joy... being a woman AND a mother, being a partner AND a mother... giving up your self freely and recklessly to those tiny humans while also clinging to your self, your separateness... duality in its purest form... all these things and more.I couldn't put this down. The short chapters spilled into the next and I just couldn't stop. There were a couple times Molly felt a little "woe is me," so that's why 4 stars instead of 5. Phillips delivers yet again.