The ideal of what the TorDotCom novellas ought to be: fast, fun, richly textured, and weird. This one takes place in the 1670s, during a season of (as the title implies) weird births -- and Rather quickly brings in quantum physics and Sir Christopher Wren alongside queer identity struggles and workplace dynamics to weave a rich blanket of story. You can and should read this one in an afternoon, ideally as the shadows grow longer and the sun sets sooner. Eerie, not scary, and full of marvels.

A Season of Monstrous Conceptions by Lina Rather was an incredible journey!
A magnificent fantasy/horror novella.
This story was utterly compelling, very entertaining and so atmospheric.
The writing was amazing. Rather did a superb job with the world-building.
The only negative thing I have to say about A Season of Monstrous Conceptions is I wished it was longer.
This book was so fantastical that I lost myself in it and didn’t want to return.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and Tordotcom for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Witchy, fantasy, historical fiction, and a splash of science! While I don’t know what genre to truly place this novel in, I can confirm it’s a one-sitting read and a beautiful look at the attitudes towards witches. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

This was a stunning witchy fantasy novella that had me immediately looking up the author. The writing style held so much suspense and it was well paced throughout. I loved the concept of the uncanny children and having a same sex romance was the icing on the cake.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for seeing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This horror-fantasy novella is set in 17th Century London, England, where babies are suddenly being born with creepy mutations: gills, horns, extra eyes, or fur. 

Sarah Davis is a young queer woman training to be a midwife who is hired by a wealthy family to deliver the wife’s baby.

I loved the atmosphere in this novella. The world of 17th century London and the paranoia about women’s magic is vividly rendered.  I loved Sarah’s murderous backstory and her plucky drive to make more of her life.

I found the magical elements a bit hazy and I was a bit disappointed there wasn’t more focus on the mysterious children by the end, but overall I really enjoyed this novella.  

A Season of Monstrous Conceptions comes out on Hallowe’en and is a wonderful quick, creepy read to close out a spooky fall night.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tordotcom for my review copy of this novella.

A Season of Monstrous Conceptions is a short story that has some hard-hitting themes, especially when considering what it means to be a woman in today's world and the backward slope we tend toward. However, the story was so easy to devour and ended up being cute and, for all the wild events that took place, pretty entirely wholesome at the end.
If you like witches and magic and wondering where men get the audacity, give it a read!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the eArc.

This was truly a quirky read. For a short novella, it was quite satisfying. I appreciated the historical and witchy vibes sprinkled through the story.

This never quite drew me in all the way. It felt like it wanted to be a novel. More expansive. More fleshed out. Sarah was special but why more so than any other strange birth? And her time with Sir Wren and learning to grapple with her power felt too glossed over. Some lovely prose moments though.

I really enjoyed this! I was initially a bit disappointed to discover it was only a novella, but A Season of Monstrous Conceptions needed to be; it’s exactly the right length to make the story punch as hard as it possibly can. A short story form would have suffocated it, and forcing it to be a novel would have stretched and padded it beyond repair.

This read more like historical fantasy than horror to me – I never felt disgusted or horrified by the monster-babies, for example, but they and the issues around them might hit harder with readers who have children of their own. And I should probably admit that I didn’t really understand, or buy into, the explanation for why these babies are becoming Other in-utero.

But it’s still a great little book. I really liked the main character, Sarah; I loved seeing her discover London’s underground queer community! There’s a pretty interesting (and from what I understand, historically accurate) enmity between midwives and Men Of Science, which here is not just about medical trade secrets but views on the Other Place and the powers that can come from it. And whether those powers should be used, and if so what for. I wish this had been a little less women vs men – that kind of ‘battle of the sexes’ is something I’m bored of, but it was kind of unavoidable seeing as Rather clearly wanted to stay true to the historical reality, which means no well-regarded women scientists about, alas.

And there’s something very compelling about the Worshipful Company of Midwives; I liked that they weren’t sweet and lovely, but quite unlikable, and I could understand why they kept their secrets close and hoarded their knowledge, why they were so passionately invested in the Other Place. They want power in a society that doesn’t grant them any; I would too.

I wish I’d actually felt a sense of otherness re the Other Place; it never felt really alien to me. But this is still a quick, great read, one that surprised me a number of times (both happy surprises and not), and I very much recommend it for anyone looking for a slightly darker queer historical fantasy!

A beautiful fusion of the magical and the mundane. I adored this novella for how much could be packed into such a short amount of pages and it still feel rich with detail and momentum. I loved how midwifery and the Other World worked together in an alternate history to tell of the "monstrous" births. It shone light on how, unfortunately, your livelihood always came before anything else and pivoted your life even if you had to swallow down everything you ever wanted. Plus the sapphic relationship and the nod to the culture during the 1600's was so beautifully told.

INCREDIBLE. I freaking love a novella anyway, but this one is just absolutely perfect. We're making this our first book of the month subscription book!

It has--everything? A queer love story; a mystery; cosmic horror (done incredibly well); witches; midwives; monsters. Just--all around great.

Thanks to NetGalley for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This story combines some of my favorite themes: magic, feminine power, and historical medical practices. It follows the story of an uncanny young midwife who learns that she is the bridge between spheres of enormous power. She has to to find her way through people and forced who want to use her for their own ends.

The book is more novella and novel, which is a shame because I would have enjoyed more of it - more world building and backstory. But overall a satisfying read!

a beautifully written, captivating story that is both easy—and a pleasure—to read! it's both dark and twisty, as well as a little bit magical.

This book was a short, interesting read. I adored the sapphic romance and the eldritch horror but I feel as though the world and side characters could have been developed more.

Lina Rather’s space nuns duology is a very tightly paced and expansive novella duology, so I was first in line when I saw she had a new historical fantasy novella coming out. I also say the above to explain that I am not one of those people who think all novellas should be novels. But I do not think this story was well served by the novella format. The premise of this book--that the women of London have, after the great fire, begun giving birth to half-animal, half-human hybrids, portending a time of great change and possibly great destruction is a promising one. Rather sets a scene well, and the atmosphere is immersive, however, unlike her previous books I found the plot transparently predictable, and unmotivated.

I saw the main twist, and several of the minor ones coming from page one, and the characters did not seem as well fleshed out as they might have been. It felt like a short story with a lot of padding, or a novel missing some pieces. I will still follow Rather's career with interest, as this feels like a book that needed one more editorial pass, not an irredeemable mess, but I think she’d make a better first impression if you start with her first novella Sisters of the Vast Black.

This review feels more negative than I want it to--it wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy parts of reading it. Individual scenes were very fun, and I enjoyed the atmosphere, but the structural deficiencies meant that it was merely good, when I saw the potential for it to be great. Perhaps also my expectations were set too high by the author’s excellent prior duology. If you like historical lesbian romance with a side of the macabre and body horror, you might enjoy taking this one for a spin. If that doesn’t sound like your speed, maybe give this one a pass.

I received an advance copy from the publisher in exchange for this honest review.

Read A Season of Monstrous Conceptions by Lina Rather if you love starting over, midwifery, London, the veil between worlds, being an outsider, witchcraft, science, blood, queerness, the end times, women's knowledge, tools, molding the world you want; and glittering, broken glass.

A Season of Monstrous Conceptions follows a midwife in 17th century London as she deals with the growing number of strange and unnatural babies being born. Although it is only about 160 pages long, this book was a compelling and intriguing read. Cosmic horror is a very difficult genre to get right, but the author manages to find the perfect balance between the known and the unknown. Additionally, I found the focus on midwifery to be very impactful. A shift towards more female-centric topics in fantasy and horror is inevitable and I am excited to see what the future has in store for these genres. I appreciate books, like A Season of Monstrous Conceptions, that take risks and explore new topics and ideas. I would recommend this book to fans of Lovecraft, feminist horror/fantasy, and historical fantasy.

This haunting little novella was a joy to read: part historical fiction, part cosmic horror, part low fantasy, all well-written and all fundamentally queer. If you’re looking for a quick, compelling read of slippery genre, I highly recommend picking this one up!

I’ve enjoyed Lina Rather’s previous books, and I went into this one with high expectations, which I was very pleased to find were absolutely warranted. The plot revolves around Sarah, a midwife in training, who has seen firsthand that more and more babies are coming out “odd” — with strange, inhuman features, not entirely of this world. (She’s got compassion for them: she was born that way herself.) When she unexpectedly gains herself a wealthy client with an odd, scientist husband, she finds herself swept up in a plot to bring her world and another one into contact.

The writing was lovely and evocative, the plot was tight and engaging, and the characters were very human and very compelling, even those whom we met more briefly. I do think this could have stood to be longer, in order to let the story “breathe” a little more — parts of it felt rushed or unsteady because of the simple fact of How Much Stuff Was Happening — but all in all it was a really good, really readable story, and definitely cemented my plan to keep picking up Lina Rather’s work.

Recommended, and thanks so much to Tor and Netgalley for the early review copy!

I enjoyed this book it is creepy and somewhat Gothic .It is a tense , brooding, novella a short, read, but perfectly crafted

The author mixes magic and reality in a skilful way so that it all feels totally believable. As a medical professional I was aware of The old wives tales of what causes a baby to be born deformed. These range from the pregnant woman having seen the devil to getting chilled by water, and having a baby born with his limbs fused. The author skilfully mingles brings these old wives tales into the story.

In the story,an increasing number of babies are born, either still born or with very marked abnormalities. The novel looks at one of the midwives delivering these children who happens to have magical qualities herself and be in contact with black magic.
I liked the fact that actual historical figures such as Sir Christopher Wren appeared as themselves in the story which is set in the time after the Great Fire of London when he was overseeing the rebuilding process
I would recommend this novel if you enjoy magical reality in a novel the blurb compares the novel to The Essex Serpent this would seem a good novel to compare it to.
I read an early copy on NetGalley uk the book is published in the uk on 31st of October 2023 by Tor publishing group
This review will appear on NetGalley, UK, good reads and my book blog, bionicsarahsbooks.wordpress.com

Thanks to Netgalley and Torbooks for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

First, let me say that the scope of the plot and the pacing of this novella was very tight, which is just! very hard to do with novella's so I have huge respect for it there..

Outside of that, my feelings hover around the 3.5ish mark— part of the problem for me is that I grew up reading Poe and Lovecraft and all of their ilk, and then as an adult, went on to think a lot about the connotations of the gothic imaginary of a witch and stories about corruption in bloodlines and the cultural values encoded into those, especially around class and race. And while this book did not lean into those tropes in ways that would have had me give it a far lower star, it also didn't interrogate them behind a surface level discussion of gender and class, and I really would have liked more from a book that sets itself up to be a response to witch and monstrous child type tales.

Beyond that though, it was cleanly written, and again, had good pacing and I cannot overemphasize how important good pacing is to a book!! I wish I had liked it more, but it really did need that final step + spark to get to the place it seemed like it wanted to be at.