This was a beautiful novella. I would have loved to see the themes more complexly rendered but I think it was as nuanced as possible given its length. A lot of interesting commentary about gendered power, reproduction, and desire and some very powerful scenes.

A SEASON OF MONSTROUS CONCEPTIONS is an uncanny tale about what it means to live in between worlds. After fleeing her hometown, Sarah ends up in London to train as a midwife under the tutelage of Mistress June in the Worshipful Company of Midwives. But late 17th century London has seen a spate of births of strange babies that seem to belong to another realm. As the din of whispers grow louder among city residents, the illegal guild of midwives--and high society with eldritch interests--plan how to harness this otherwordly power.

Before I jump into the meat of my review, let me first assuage any potential questions about the writing style. Because of the comparison to THE ESSEX SERPENT, I was concerned perhaps the writing would line up more with the styles of Bronte sisters or Jane Austen. Thankfully this was not the case and I read this novella with ease and interest. There were sentences that I felt needed to be shorter and less meandering, but that is my personal preference.

Both the title and official synopsis of this book accurately describe what the reader will encounter. There are births of strange-looking babies who seem both part of the human and some other world. I do wish a few more uncanny births, or at least stories of them, were described to increase the tension. But the point is clear. Many are stillborn or don't survive long beyond the birth. Still, others do, some of which can pass as human while others will find a life of living in the shadows.

This "in between" theme is the strength of A SEASON OF MONSTROUS CONCEPTIONS. The main character Sarah is betwixt worlds in more ways than one, most blatantly with the fact that she is a woman. Women are human and a part of society, of course, but that very society limits their actions. And their actions must always occur within the permission and gratuity of men. So, naturally, women find ways to work around and within these confines. Additionally, though Sarah is in a lower class, her apprenticeship as a midwife brings her to all classes of society. Rich or poor, the pain or mess of birth doesn't discriminate. This is how she happenstance meets Sir Wren, a well-known architect with an avid interest in the other world. Sarah also harbors hidden secrets that allow her to pass, but would result in a shunning if society were aware.

For a 160-page novella, I felt Sarah's characterization was well written. I liked following her as she moves between high and low society. I even learned some new vocabulary when she spends some free time in some "less savory" areas of the city. I do wish there were more details about the Other World. I found myself wanting just a little more from this story that I can't quite put my finger on. Though, perhaps this is the result of a novella- rather than novel-length read. Regardless, as the weird events seem to reach a fever pitch, Sarah finds herself torn. Does she sacrifice herself for the desires of the illegal midwives guild? Or should she instead harness power to form an unnaturally perfect world free of pain?

A SEASON OF MONSTROUS CONCEPTIONS is a supernatural ode to finding self-acceptance in a messy world. Society at large may have too many rules and etiquettes, particularly 17th century London. But having agency for oneself is a boon as is the ability to create a life on one's own without being beholden to another, whether out of fear or a hunger for respect.

[This review will be posted to my blog on October 19, 2023.]

A Season of Monstrous Conceptions, unlike most books, if I were to give a point form summary of what occurred, I doubt it would be a spoiler because simply knowing how it ends would actually fail to capture what this story is about and what makes it so intriguing.
To put it plainly, this novella is not the type of horror meant to scare you. There’s no serial killers or vengeful ghosts. Instead it is horror in the same way that Eldritch lore or Lovecraft is—in that so much about what makes it unsettling lies not in the who or the why, but in the uncertainty and inevitability of the events that occur and whether or not the idea of autonomy is just that, a very nice idea meant to placate us.
In that regard, this really is an existential gothic horror. Almost nothing about the main mystery—the “monstrous” babies being born—is explained. Yet, the resolution still feels complete because in its open-endedness all of the catharsis for the reader is channeled into the characters’ acceptance or denial of the situation. What they choose doesn’t matter, only that the decision was made.
The book pulls on these threads while simultaneously focusing its plot around feminist theory. Pitting traditionally accepted avenues of feminine power, such as motherhood and childrearing against their taboo counterparts; sexuality, intuition, and the sharing of knowledge, but doing so in a way where all of this discourse occurs within a singular identity—the protagonist, Sarah; her history and her relationships with those around her.
All that being said, while I liked this book and would certainly recommend it, it will leave a bad taste in your mouth if you are someone who needs definitive answers and neat conclusions.

I felt very meh about this whole book. On one hand, the concept is incredibly intriguing. On the other, I don't think it fits neatly into 160 pages -- I wish it had been a short novel, rather than a novella. I was pretty bored at the beginning, and I felt like once the story actually gained momentum, so much happened at once that it felt unbalanced. I would have loved more development of all the relationships, since I think that would have made things more engrossing.

Not at all bad, but also not a favourite either.

Oh, I absolutely loved this! I was a bit worried since I didn't really vibe that well with the authors other novellas, but this one was exactly what I want in a novella. And it was such a wonderful mix of things I like in stories:

Bold main character? Check.
A group of midwives with magical abilities? Check.
Eldrich horror? Check.
Feminist themes? Check.
Queer themes? Also check!

It really discussed themes of othering so well, with many of the characters (along with the main character) having "beastly" physical characteristics to go along with their magical abilities.

Content warnings for childbirth and child death!

3.5 / 5

A Season of Monstrous Conceptions is a short, queer, cosmic horror slash historical fiction novella that takes place in 17th century London. We follow Sarah, a midwife apprentice with a preternatural sixth sense of sorts. All around London, babies are being born with increasingly concerning abnormalities; traits like razor sharp teeth, fur, extra eyes, and horns. Sarah finds herself unraveling what is causing these defects, how it connects to her own past, and the lengths the people around her will go to obtain these same answers.

I personally don't think this was truly a horror - it's got sort of a gothic vibe to it, and there are absolutely some heavy/grotesque things going on, but it felt more like a grim historical low fantasy. I thought the queer elements were well done and added an element to the story that I found interesting. I didn't feel particularly invested in any of the characters, most likely due to the story's length, but overall I think the page count was adequate. I'd recommend this for anyone looking for a macabre tale with queer, feminist, & body horror elements!

Thank you to Tor, NetGalley, and Tina Rather for sending me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I very much enjoyed this memorable novella of historical fiction set in an era not often covered, the late 1600s, and spiced liberally with queerness and the uncanny.

Sarah is our bi protagonist with a dark past, now an apprentice midwife in London of the late 1600s. She is supernaturally gifted by the same force that is resulting in mutant births across the world: children with horns, bat wings, too many eyes, and more. I was surprised as anyone that a plot largely focusing on pregnancy would interest me, but I love to be unpredictable! In a historical context I find the topic approached much more pragmatically and just - differently, I guess.

The wild thing about this book is that it was fulfilling for me, as a novella that took upon itself a pretty steep challenge; present a historical setting, layer its fantastical plot over that, and give me characters to care about. And somehow it succeeds; if plot was liquor, then rather than a fully fledged cocktail, this book is a shot glass. A dose of concentrated storytelling with just enough worldbuilding to let it stand on its own. Sarah's past, her powers, the glimpses we get of a menacing, parallel world; I think the story really is best as a novella without overexamining its innards through a full-length book.

While I had some doubts about what these characters could get away with - the late 1600s felt treated more like the Victorian era here - I overall very much enjoyed this dark look at a surrealist, alternate history of England. I'd highly recommend it if you enjoy both fantastical elements and feminist overtones.

A novella great for the spooky season. Monsters, witches, and a mad-scientist!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor/Forge Publishing for the opportunity to read this novella for exchange of an honest review.

I enjoyed this novella. It was short and full of action and mystery. Set in 17th century London, Sarah is a midwife's apprentice and strange babies are being born all over London.

This story really took me for a ride. I wasn't sure where it was going at some points. I was looking for a spooky read for October and this did not disappoint.

I loved this novella, or whatever it would be classified as lol it was very short. I do wish it was longer because the world building was so fascinating and the characters were too.

The story moved really quickly, sometimes period books can be a bit of a drag for me but this one I finished in only a few hours. It was about a midwife in a fictional version of 16th century London where a lot of strange, not quite human babies are being born. The midwife is a little bit strange herself and feels a connection to the babies. I really wish we got more at the end, like I said this book actually would've benefitted from being longer but overall it was a great read for this time of year and I'd definitely recommend it if you're looking for something dark and fast paced.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy.

My thanks to Netgalley for an opportunity to read this book pre-publication for an honest review. These are my opinions.

I'll start with what I didn't like: the story ended too quickly! I would have liked more than 160 pages to scratch my feminist side. The story is set in 17th century London, and apprentice midwife Sarah works to save mothers and infants of difficult pregnancies, especially now that the frequency of babies born with 'special features' are increasing. Sarah herself was such an infant, and she's retained a connection to the "Other Side," a parallel realm where creatures with horns, tails, and fantastical features exist. This magical land, accessible to women with 'other' talents, seems to parallel the patriarchal London of witch burnings and the male-dominated Royal Society that focuses on science instead of wonder.

It's this duality that is fascinating as the story arc in the book. This idea of twin opposites is again portrayed in the beautiful cover art, with the reverse images of a midwife and a monster. I would have loved to have read more of Sir Wren's quest to tap into the powers of the Other Side, and also the secret cabal of midwives and their apprentices. One hundred sixty pages was simply not enough for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

A Season of Monstrous Conceptions is a perfect novella for the spookyn season. Strange births+witches as midwifes=yes, please! I would have prefered a longer book just to see more interactions between characters, but overall I really enjoyed it!

This was super short, shorter than I expected, but it still packs in everything it was intending. It was riveting, with a phenomenally written atmosphere.

Set back centuries from current time, this is about a woman, a midwife, who is touched by the uncanny herself, working to deliver babies that are different. People are scared of these children, born with abnormalities, thinking an evil is upon them.

When Sarah is entrusted by the Wren family to deliver Lady Wren’s baby, her husband Lord Christopher Wren takes an immediate liking to her, recognizing her connection to the uncanniness. He wants to find the border between this world and the beyond, believing she can help him find it.

I really enjoyed the writing and the characters, especially Sarah herself. There is a power in her that awakens and I loved it!

Wow. I love this. Life for women in 1600s London was hard enough but to have babies with some serious birth defects would make it a lot worse.
Sarah is a midwife's apprentice, a widow, and she is secretly like the "monstrous" children being born. She can also predict things by tapping into another world.
This was weird and interesting.

A Season of Monstrous Conceptions by Lina Rather is set in 17th century London. There have always been ... abnormal ... births, no doubt due to witches and demons and the like, but they've always been rare. For unclear reasons, they're now happening quite frequently in London. The protagonist of this novella is an apprentice midwife, who can sometimes sense when a baby is going to be born less than (or more than) human. An interesting and compelling read; I'd like to read more of Rather's work in the future.

I love Lina Rather's other novellas, so I have to admit when I saw she was coming out with a new one set in 17th century London and involving Lord Christopher Wren my inner heart and my art history degree demanded that it be read. I was lucky enough to be able to pick up an eARC through Netgalley and the publishers and I was not disappointed.

The characters, the writing, and the pacing were all excellent. I was curious to see where it would go involving Wren with witchcraft and I have to admit it was interesting and not quite where I thought it would go. There is also sapphic romance involved for anyone interested. I guess if I had any complaint it would be that it was too short and I think it would have been really interesting to see it developed as a full length novel. Generally, though, another highly successful novella from Rather, if it is rather different from the space nuns.

A Season of Monstrous Conceptions by Lina Rather, 160 pgs, Pub Date: Oct 31st

Genre: Dark Fantasy, Cosmic Horror, LGBTQ
Overall (out of 5)⭐⭐⭐💫
Prose ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Pacing(1=slow 5=fast)⭐
World Building ⭐⭐⭐
Character Development ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Library or Buy-worthy: Library
Similar Vibe: The Death of Jane Lawrence by Caitlin Starling, The Hollow Places by T Kingfisher, The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle

***Caution Spoilers Follow ***
I love weird books and this novella definitely makes my Best Uncanny book list of 2023. Witches, alternate dimensions and a Victorian outlook on congenital anomalies (TW for pregnancy loss) all add to the unusual atmosphere that author Lina Rather has created here. With anatomy in its infancy, we see an alternate London through the eyes of a couple of ladies from The Worshipful Company of Witching Midwives. There is the thought that the number of uncanny children being born is a portent of some sort.

If you like dark fantasy with female centric beautifully written prose, cosmic horror type other 'worlds' and a bit of unique magic then give this one a try. I loved all the books I've compared this one to above, so take that for what it's worth. In general I usually always like books that take historical fallacies and imagine "what if they were real". The author does a great job of that here. The only issue I had was slow pacing, which lost my interest at times. All in all a nice short read that sucked me into it's world quickly. I liked it.

This is probably the Halloween night novella I'll be shoving at the most people. It's creepy and unsettling and heartfelt and sad. I could describe the plot, but I much prefer when reviews describe the feels, so I'm going to give that a shot. Sarah is an outcast that can pass as normal, but that passing makes her a bit of an outcast from the outcasts even. She's spend her whole life looking for love, praise, or even just basic acceptance. You'll want to give her a hug the whole time, basically. This has horror elements, but it's really about the quest for belonging and how that can blind us or set us free. A deeply human story about the need for love.

3.5 stars

I have the same problem with "A Season of Monstrous Conceptions" as I do many other novellas: I need more from it. A mere 160 pages just isn’t enough for Lina Rather’s amazing story.

Sarah Davis is a midwife’s apprentice in 17th-century London. It’s a time of great strangeness for the city, with women giving birth to monstrous babies and citizens whispering of the Devil roaming the streets. Struggling to find her footing as an independent woman, Sarah is tired of being used as a pawn, as a tool for others’ goals. So when she finds herself trapped in a dangerous game of magic with the fate of the world at stake, she must decide what’s more important – her own dark whims or humanity's survival.

There’s so much here for Rather to work with. From Sarah’s feminist fight to her hidden past and the dark rage within her. To the fascinating setting of 1675 London, a time when academics neither have discovered gravity nor even understand the science of conception. And then there’s the Other World, the mystical source of Sarah’s magic. It’s all ripe with potential, and the narrative could be developed so much further.

Can I please get a rewrite? A lengthier, denser, more epic historical fantasy novel instead? I’d give a lot to read a deeper dive into this story.


"A Season of Monstrous Conceptions" publishes October 31st, 2023. Be sure to grab a copy because, novella or not, it’s very much worth a read.

My sincerest appreciation to Lina Rather, Tordotcom, and NetGalley for the digital review copy. All opinions included herein are my own.

I was fortunate enough to receive the EArc of this from Net Galley.

I was surprised when I first got into the story that it was a novella and not a full length novel. But it had a very compelling start that really pulled me in.

This Historical fantasy - alternate reality London in the late 1600’s, was such an interesting setting for a world where suddenly babies are being born strange and uncanny. With the backdrop being one that most readers would be passingly familiar with, it let you focus on the new and unfamiliar parts of the story.

I was very intrigued by the world and the main character Sarah. I found myself wishing it was a full length novel. However the story it told was a very start to finish story and didn’t need to be expanded to make it effective.

There is some great queer representation both literally and through metaphor with the uncanny humans.

Some of the sentence structures and choices were a little off. They could be confusing or rambling at times.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it

I really wanted to like this. The premise seemed so intriguing, and I've enjoyed what I've read from the author previously, but this novella fell flat for me.

I think it primarily struggled with pacing. For the first half of the book, nothing really happened - and then in the second half of the book, it felt like everything was happening too fast. I think it could have been improved by being longer, to allow for more world building and to give a sense of purpose to the story and conflict. I wanted to know more about The Other Place, I wanted to explore the characters more, I wanted more of the monstrous babies.