Uncanny babies are being born in 17th century London and an assistant midwife with uncanniness herself is trying to get to the bottom of the mystery of why there are suddenly so many children being born different and survive herself in a world where she is constantly othered.

I really enjoyed this novella. The description of London and the lives and relationships of the characters was intriguing and immersive. I do wish the more fantastical elements had been fleshed out and explored more. But I'll be thinking about the end for a while!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for the e-arc!

In the meticulously crafted world of "A Season of Monstrous Conceptions", Lina Rather transports readers to 17th-century London, a time when the known scientific boundaries were being fervently challenged. The city stands as a cauldron of both intrigue and mysticism, with tales of monstrous births and devilish encounters whispered in hushed tones in every alley.

Our protagonist, Sarah Davis, isn't just another face in the crowd. As a budding midwife's apprentice, she embodies the spirit of a burgeoning feminist era, challenging societal norms and seeking her autonomy in a world where women are often relegated to the shadows. Yet, as Rather masterfully reveals, Sarah’s ambitions aren't just about her profession. She wrestles with her past, her burgeoning magical abilities, and an internal turmoil that often walks a fine line between dark desires and the greater good.

The novel's historical backdrop is intriguing; a period when fundamental theories of gravity were yet to be understood and conception remained an enigma. Overlay this with the ethereal realm of the Other World, the source of Sarah's arcane powers, and you have a tapestry that's both rich in detail and expansive in scope.

While "A Season of Monstrous Conceptions" may be presented as a novella, it doesn’t feel constrained. Yes, one could argue that diving deeper into this vivid world would be a literary treat, but Rather has presented a narrative that, in its current form, is both concise and compelling.

Conclusively, this is a testament to Rather's narrative prowess and her ability to conjure a world that is as engaging as it is evocative. I wholeheartedly recommend adding "A Season of Monstrous Conceptions" to your reading list; its potent blend of history and fantasy deserves a stellar 4-star rating.

Interesting story. I currently prefer my fantasy short and fast-paced, so this was what I wanted. But I still felt like the book could’ve used a few more words, not to add more plot, but to deepen the characters and make the setting richer. Even as it was, the blend of mundane and fantastical was seamless and the mid-17th century setting felt genuine. Childbirth is seldom (never?) a topic in fantasy, so this is a welcome addition.

- thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc to review!

- a thrilling story about otherworldly magic, strange babies being born, and a midwife intent on living for herself. with sapphic characters, cunning villains, and a cult of magic, this story captivated me and held me in a chokehold as i read. Sarah is a great protagonist, remaining stoic at moments, but then showing what she desires as you follow her journey. a good story all around.

- trigger warnings: childbirth, stillbirth, death, consensual sex scene, blood

I loved the witchy-midwife vibes, though overall it was less horror than I wanted it to be.

The cosmic-horror aspect also wasn't very lovecraftian - more generally otherworldly. Not bad, but not as adveritzed.

I loved the midwife aspects, as well as the plot around the unnatural babies, even though it was also heartbreaking.

This was a novella, and I think the book would have benefitted from a bit more length. I wanted more exposition on the witchy midwifes, on the unnatural-vibes in general, and a bit more characterization for pretty much all of the side characters.

The romantic subplot was nice, but too secondary and rushed for me to truly be invested in it.

Overall great and short historical fantasy read that I enjoyed, even if not in the way I thought it would end up being.

Glorious! I adored SISTERS OF THE VAST BLACK so expected good of A SEASON OF MONSTROUS CONCEPTIONS (Release October 31) and was gratifyingly rewarded--superbly so. This historically-founded Sapphic Paranormal tale is super out-of-this-world (figuratively AND literally). The characters are perfectly drawn; the plot is irresistible; and always, always, running just below the surface is the constant high-strung tension and threat of danger, both as women in the Medieval era, and especially as being women of magical power. Constantly is the perception that at any moment, the hue and cry of "Witch!" "Monster!" "Hellspawn!" could arise, and mob violence and ultimately execution, would follow. Very tense and suspenseful, inducing of Paranoia, but so worthwhile a read!!

This was really good overall I really liked the magical world building and the victorian setting. However it was only a three star because I did not fall in love with the book, nothing was particularly wrong to me just the pace slowed down too much by chapter 8 and it became hard for me to fully be in grossed again. I feel like this is a great starter book and I can see a lot of creative potential in the author. I recommend if you are interested in fantastical historical fiction with a bit of a darker tone to it.

A delightful quick read, perhaps too quick. I love Sarah & some other female characters, though we don't see a lot of them. This story is strange, queer, feminist, & a bit romantic. It's not scary, but I didn't expect it to be. Overall it's a lovely novella

Gosh, to spend five minutes in Lina Rather's head would be an absolute trip! How does she come up with this stuff? Never stop, please never stop. I loved the Space Nuns series, and was so excited to jump into this one- a midwife in the 1600s who has to deliver some... unnatural, shall we say, babies. Full disclosure, I have always been wildly fascinated with genetics and the making of a human being. It's wild to me that cells can multiply and bam, whole person. Only sometimes it doesn't go right, because of course it doesn't. But in this case, it isn't just your random genetic misstep at play. It's... something more sinister.

And Sarah is a midwife who happens to know all too well about these mysterious babies, for she was one herself. She's an apprentice at the moment, but she's hoping to be the best at baby birthin' so she can eventually start her own... midwifery practice? Is that a thing? Idk, she wants elite folks to call for her specifically for their pre-hospital birth era needs, basically. As we all know, the hoitier, toitier sort will pay more for a midwife they think is worthy.

But in order to do that, she has to A) keep her own mysteriousness a secret; B) keep her whole past on the downlow; and C) deliver some babies who are actually, you know, breathing. That last one is harder than it sounds, when you combine seventeenth century infant mortality rates and bad magic. It's an adventure for sure, and I am always impressed by how the author has us caring for these characters so deeply in a mere hundred-or-so pages. But she does, and I did. So between very complex characters and an infinitely entertaining story, I was hooked. I think my only complaint is that I wanted more.

Bottom Line: Lina Rather legit has the coolest book ideas ever: space nuns, wonky old-timey babies... frankly, I cannot wait to see what she has in store for us next!

A lush and atmospheric snack of a book. This is a neatly contained story of monsters and (wo)men, and which are truly which. Sarah is an outwardly stoic yet soft hearted heroine, my favorite kind. Lina Rather brings her to life and into her own humanity with a simple yet intriguing plot.

This had the potential to be a much larger, grander book but its succinct (almost perfunctory) story was delightful nonetheless.

Tbh I dont really have a lot of thoughts on this Novella. It was very middle of the road for me. Personally for me, for a novella it was a bit too much plot and not quite enough vibes.

A Season of Monstrous Conceptions
by Lina Rather
Novella Horror Occult
NetGalley ARC
Publication Date: October 31, 2023
Tor Publishing
Ages:16+

Babies are being born and they are not normal. Some have eyes to see in the dark, or more than one set, webbed fingers and toes, horns, and other abnormalities. Sarah Davis was born with a difference, but as an infant, her grandmother cut it away, but her differentness didn't leave her and when she needed to start her life anew she became a midwife's apprentice, where that specialness within her is more of a gift when it comes to delivering newborns.

But what started as a few over past years, have turned into multiple children being born different every day and with more drastic abnormalities. Christopher Wren claims he knows how to fix it; with Sara's help.


While this story started out interesting, it quickly fizzled out and I had to force myself to read. There was little action and it and the interesting babies were all revealed in the first twenty pages, and those following hundred and some pages left seemed to ramble on to the point where I felt they were doubling with every page I read and it would never let me finish.

Thankfully I found the end of the story and it was a disappointment. Maybe if the author wrote an additional hundred pages so they could have spent more time with descriptions and mystery it wouldn't have felt like a chore to read.

1 Star

In so many ways, I wish this was more than just a novella. I truly think we were jipped on a full novel that could have been well flushed out and well rounded to give us a better understanding of what was going on. I give this a full 4 stars because I was drawn into the world and the story which unfolded in Lina Rather's tale but I also feel as though it was too much in too short a literary piece.
Our main character Sarah is a midwife's apprentice and is one of the strange who has entered the world and survived. Though there are some, they are becoming more and more common. I love the supernatural elements and all the things which could have been done with this story. I think Sarah and her love interest only get a bit of a whirlwind nod.
I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an advanced copy of this novella in exchange for my honest review. I would love to have given it 5* and think it was working it's way there.

The author created a good sense of time and place, a real atmosphere for the story. You never get a full explanation as to what is going on and why, yet it doesn't feel like much is missing. Perhaps if this was more than a novella there would be fewer questions.

The premise of A Season of Monstrous Conceptions appealed to me, but the book simply isn't substantial enough to fill the promise of its premise. It has wonderful elements: a setting in 17th Century London; a bisexual apprentice midwife wife with unclearly defined otherworldly powers; Christopher Wren and the rebuilding of London after the great fire; and those monstrous conceptions of the title—babies with too many eyes, too much hair, scales, tails, the wrong number of limbs.

At 160 pages, this book moved quickly, too quickly, with not nearly enough detail. Readers were told all those elements were there, but never allowed to sink into them sufficiently to feel as if they were experiencing them. I left it feeling as if I'd read a preliminary sketch that was never fully realized as the novel it might have been. I makes for a fun evening's reading, but doesn't have the kind of riches that call for rereading.

I received a free electronic review topic of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.

DANGIT -- this was so good.

I've been pining after this one for some time due to the cover art and synopsis alone, and when RB Media granted me audiobook access, I dropped everything on my to-do list to devour this one. A Season of Monstrous Conceptions is set to hit shelves on October 31, 2023, the perfect Halloweenie read for this spooky season.

Sarah Davis is an apprentice to a famous midwife in 17th-century London. Mrs. Davis, freshly widowed after the sudden death of her husband (which she may or may not have had some hand in) is reacting as any concerned caretaker would in her position, as many pregnant women are giving birth to half-human/half-creature-like monsters. This is hardly a coincidence, and I wouldn't say Sarah is frightened, for she was one of these creatures at birth and was spared her life but has been deemed a witch by her hometown.

When Sarah and her Master Midwife are hired by a couple whose patriarch is quite interested in the supernatural side, Sarah fears her life is at risk for the Wren family knows her best-kept secret. At first touch, Sarah can tell that this new Wren child is of the "other side" and not like any normal child, but still she has duties to uphold and a state of professionalism to manage.

This time in England is past the horrors of witch hunts and hangings, but yet there is still a tinge of hate in the air for those who like unlike everyone else.

I really enjoyed this. The themes of gender, sexuality, expertise, and childbirth were explored in an interesting way using the tight frame of the novella. I'm not an expert on the historical setting with regard to childbirth and medicine outside of what I know from Ehrenreich and English's Witches, Midwives, and Nurses, but it felt vivid and believable, particularly when put into conversation with the (male) scholarly establishment of the Enlightenment era.

This was a funky little book. Cool, abstract horror without being too gross about the real-life disgusting horror that is pregnancy.

The nitty-gritty: Lina Rather combines cosmic horror and a fascinating historical time period in this engaging and uplifting tale.

A Season of Monstrous Conceptions is an immersive story set in 1675 London with some wonderfully creepy cosmic horror elements. I loved Lina Rather’s Our Lady of Endless Worlds series, so I was curious to see what she would do with a different genre. This novella is completely different from her science fiction series, but just as beautifully written.

Sarah is a midwife’s apprentice, having been rescued from a dire domestic situation by Mrs. June, who took her under her wing and is teaching her everything about midwifery. But strange things are happening in London. Babies are being born with monstrous features, like extra eyes and appendages, gills, horns or fur. Most die as soon as they are born, but some survive and are eeking out a life among humans in secret. Sarah calls these babies “uncanny,” and in fact she has a touch of the uncanny herself. She was born with a tail, which her grandmother promptly chopped off, and now she bears not only a scar, but the ability to reach into the Other Place (where these uncanny babies come from) and pull power from it. Others like her have banned together to form a guild of sorts, although murmurings of witchcraft keep them from divulging these powers to others.

When Sarah helps a pregnant woman on the street, she is whisked into the strange life of the famous Sir Christopher Wren, an architect and scientist who senses that Sarah might be able to help him with a project. The world is out of balance, and Wren believes he can set it to rights. As Wren’s wife Faith gets closer to giving birth, Sarah must decide whether giving up the secrets of the guild will save the world, or put everyone in danger.

I was not expecting to love the historical parts of the book so much, but I was fascinated by Rather’s descriptions of the gritty, harsh lives of Londoners in 1675, especially women. I loved that midwifery is truly women’s work and is not meant to be interfered with by men. Sarah is shocked when Christopher Wren demands that he be in the room when his wife is giving birth, something that just wasn’t done in that time period. The author makes a connection between midwifery and witchcraft, which I’ve seen done before, but in this case that connection is literal. All the midwifes in the guild have a touch of the uncanny and can use the power of the Other Place in small ways. 

I also liked the idea of using a real life historical figure—Sir Christopher Wren—in the story. It gives a nice heft to the time period Rather has chosen, and I found the relationship between Wren and Sarah fascinating. Wren opens up a new world for Sarah, by showing her the mysteries of science, but later he threatens everything she believes in.

As the for horror, the monstrous births are presented as anomalies, something that will go away once the worlds are aligned again, and Rather gives these creatures an otherworldly, cosmic twist by suggesting they come from another world. Sarah, having uncanny blood herself, has a connection to each creature she comes across and is almost a mother figure to them. The horror elements in this story are subtle, and I ended up mostly feeling sorry for the poor babies who will never be able to fit into society, even if they survive.

There’s also a sweet romance between Sarah and another uncanny named Margaret, who was born with horns and keeps them covered with a head wrap. Their relationship is more in the background, but it was nice that Sarah had a soft place to land with Margaret outside of her hard life as a midwife.

The final climax was very weird, but that’s cosmic horror for you. The story ends on a hopeful note, and I was happy for once to read a horror story that doesn’t end in, well, horror. I would recommend A Season of Monstrous Conceptions to readers who love historical fiction with a touch of otherworldly horror.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

I loved this dark novella! The setting is 1675 London. The city still bears the scars of the Great Fire and famed architect Sir Christopher Wren is building his monument in remembrance of the event.

Midwives across London have noticed a significant uptick in uncanny births. Babies are being born with gills, tails, horns, or any number of monstrous appendages. Mothers are convinced they’ve been cursed by a devil.

Sarah is a midwifery apprentice with a sketchy past. Her survival in the city is dependent on the goodwill of Mistress June, the experienced midwife who is training, housing, and feeding her.

Sarah is drawn into the orbit of Christopher Wren after assisting his pregnant wife. Wren has a theory that explains why these strange babies are being born and a plan to set things right. But he needs Sarah’s help to achieve his goal.

A novella, with its economy of words, must inform and entice the reader with its very first sentences. Author Lina Rather does this effectively by dropping the reader directly into the action. We immediately know the plot’s crisis, the setting, the societal conventions, and the relationship between two of the main characters.

I was quickly drawn into the narrative, and the introduction of Sir Christopher Wren as a character was delightful. I have long been interested in the Great Fire and Wren’s rebuilding work. Rather employs both brilliantly in plotting this book.

I highly recommend A Season of Monstrous Conceptions to anyone looking for a tightly crafted dark historical fantasy.

Thank you to TorDotCom and NetGalley for this ARC. It was the perfect October read!