Did you love umbrella academy? Cause this will hold up! Set in 17th century London babies are being born with a special ability.

Every couple months or so, I'll read a book that's so good, it'll make me wonder why I hadn't heard of the author before. A Season of Monstrous Conceptions is just that. From the first chapter down to the very last, Lina Rather had me hooked, even though eldritch horror isn't typically my genre.

In just over 150 pages, Rather crafts a stunning tale of strange babies born in 17th century London, a thinning veil between two worlds, and two women in love, who are both caught between worlds and hiding their own monstrous secrets. I don't want to give away much more than that, but there are layers here that the English major in me absolutely swooned to read. Queerness, gender roles, and the persecution of otherness combine to make both a statement on our current world and an unsettlingly spooky read.

I could have lived in the dark world that Lina Rather crafted for at least another 200 pages (and might have even stayed for sequels). Everything from the pacing down to the prose is perfection. Rather's characterization and dialogue is incredible, particularly the relationship between Sarah and Margaret, and her historical details are impeccable. I really felt like I was breathing the same air as her characters. 10/10 would purchase a copy once this comes out, and you better believe I'm buying one for everyone I know.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Tor Publishing, and Lina Rather for giving me this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!

A season of Monstrous Conceptions was a fantastic read. Everything from the time period to the characters and the plot made this novella a well you couldn't help but fall into. Misfits and outsiders will feel a definite connection with Sarah, as she struggles to understand where she fits into the world around her. Honestly it had something for everyone including a Sapphic love story. Absolutely brilliant, I'll be reading this again in the future.

This is Feminist English Historical With Minor Fantasy Elements and Light Foreboding Vibes (Medieval & Queer Options Selected).

If you like this kind of thing, you will probably like this thing. I don’t think there’s anything exactly wrong with it but I feel like I’ve read it multiple times before. I kept turning pages hoping the book would add something different, say something new - so far, it hasn’t. And three highly anticipated Libby holds just arrived so it’s not worth continuing this. DNF @ 41%.

A Season Of Monstrous Conceptions is a unique novella that blends the strange and unusual with magic and mystery.

Our FMC, Sarah, is a midwife with a touch of magic that allows her to prematurely see if a baby will be born "other"/with physical ailments such as a tail, horns, etc.

She gets herself into a situation with a wealthy family and the man of that family just wants to use her for her power but makes her feel special and needed so she overlooks it. If it weren't for this basic trope I would have liked this novella so much more.

Thank you Netgalley for approving me for this ARC.

"The world would be all ablaze soon, soon there would not be a world like this at all"
A Season of Monstrous Conceptions is a dark, often macabre novella with an underlying queer romance. Babies are being born with hints of the unnatural. Sarah, an apprenticed Midwife, herself was once one of these unnatural children and can feel and manipulate the Other Place, the antithesis of our world. The very seams of reality are being into break down and Sarah may be the only one who can hold them together. She becomes the midwife for the Wren family, who may be seeking more power than they could possibly manage.

I have mixed feelings about this novella. I loved the world that Lina Rather created and wish that story was slightly longer. Pieces of the story feel rather rushed and I wish we got to see more of Sarah's relationship. I really enjoyed the ending and how cosmic/horrific it felt and hope that this is not the only time we get to visit this world. Even with my mixed feelings, I would still recommend A Season of Monstrous Conceptions, especially for those looking for a quick Cosmic Horror read. Thank you to Netgalley and Tordotcom for providing me with an E-ARC.

I really enjoyed this! I was super intrigued by the synopsis and I wasn't disappointed. The idea of a different London and witches and midwifery was super compelling, and I quickly devoured the story. I wish this was longer, but the taste we got was great! I will definitely be picking up more from this author especially (fingers crossed) if it's set in the same world.

“Now she was just a woman sick with rage, defend by the screaming and the ringing of her own pulse, and the crowd who should have feared her laughed and cheered all around at the chaos they did not understand, as the dark sky that harkened the end of the world fell upon all of them.”
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Reading this book was nothing like I ever imagined. A harrowing story told through beautiful prose, this book is the perfect spooky read for those who enjoyed Plain Bad Heroines.

The novel follows Sarah Davis, a woman born with an unnatural connection to a world other than our own, as she partakes on an adventure to learn more about The Other Place and the powers she has within. When her experiences as a midwife’s assistant bring her to Sir Wren and his wife Elizabeth, she must decide between protecting her secrets and her need to belong in a world that has never accepted her. However, with each passing day, more and more babies are being born with characteristics that reek of evil and Sarah might not have time to save the world before everything unravels.
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This was a harrowing short story full of beautiful prose and delectable descriptions. Lina Rather has a stunning way of weaving words into a monster of a tale that sinks its teeth into you. Even days after I finished this book, I still find my mind traveling back to this world and puzzling through the mechanics of what is and isn’t real.

Before I knew it myself, I was attached to Sarah. The way she yearned for acceptance and fought against her own best interests in the hope of becoming something better makes my heart ache. The small spots of queer love and joy, the cosmic horror of Sarah’s reality, the fighting for recognition, all of it created a masterpiece of a novel.

This book transforms the reader's expectations into something no words can accurately describe. I cannot wait for this book to hit the shelves because I need everyone to read it.

A season of monstrous conceptions

A really interesting and unique novella set in ‘another London’. I found myself strangely invested in the midwifery as well as the witchcraft aspect of the novel. There is a queer love story underlying the novella but the romance is definitely not the main aspect of the story.
All in all, a short but really interesting story which I would really recommend!

A fantastic magical and monstrous adventure in historical London with a queer main character!!

Having Sarah be uncanny and an apprentice midwife was fantastic. She was a character who was on the brink of letting her life’s troubles overcome the happiness she had recently found. In letting her melancholy dictate her actions, the world of this reality and The Other Place are at risk of colliding and devolving into chaos.

Can Sarah find the strength to shape herself and her future and restore the balance of the spheres? Read this novel to find out!

I would’ve liked to see Sarah attending more births first hand, maybe more monstrous ones, but that’s just the nurse in me!

Thank you so much to the author, NetGalley, and Tor Publishing for a copy!

Set in 17th century London, this dark historical fantasy is a big departure for Rather, who gave us the fantastic nuns-in-space sci-fi series “Our Lady of Endless Worlds.”

Sarah, looking to restart her life, arrives in London and becomes an apprentice to a midwife. She also has otherworldly abilities that are slowly revealed, leading to her being hired by a famous architect whose wife is soon to give birth. But said birth may be the catalyst to a new era on earth … and beyond.

Rather blends witches, sorcery, and a nice blast of cosmic mayhem in this quick but powerful novella that should satisfy fans of historical and creature-based tales. The prose here is slick, and the author’s descriptions of supernatural beings and dimensions give this the feel of a much bigger story.

*A Season of Monstrous Conceptions* follows Sarah, a midwife’s apprentice running from a dangerous past and who has quite a few secrets to keep. When strange infants - with fur, feathers, and fins - being born at increasing frequency and the line between this world and the Other World becoming less and less stable, Sarah must draw on her own uncanny abilities to try to put the world to right and keep the powers of the Other World out of the wrong hands.

3.5. I really liked the establishment of the setting for this book — 17th c. London was certainly researched, and the entire novella is strongly atmospheric as Rather brings the sights and sounds of the city to life. I enjoyed the representation of queer culture and Sarah’s relationship with Margaret, and thought Sarah’s relationship with her teacher Mrs. June was also well developed. The novella is beautifully written and wonderfully eerie, and themes including grief, guilt, and the devaluing of women’s expertise are all handled very well. What I didn’t always love was the emphasis - I was more interested in the background of the story, and found the central plot to be a bit too predictable; I wish the plot were messier, in a way: more complicated.

*Content warnings:* birth / labour, sexism, misogyny, religious bigotry, body horror, death of a child, medical content, homophobia

*Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for this review*.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

I fell in love with Lina Rather's writing style when I first read Sisters of the Vast Black: lush, surreal, emotional, dark. This novella is no different. The elegance of the prose contrasts with the subject matter in a beautiful way that I really loved. It's certainly dark, eerie, and a bit disturbing, but even with actual "monsters", Rather gave them a humanity that made me very sad for them. We all know what it's like to be thought of as "other" or "weird" for something we can't really control (visible birthmarks, excess/lack of hair, motor issues, etc); the strange babies and people just have that to an extreme. And in late-1600s London, yeesh. Sarah's compassion and empathy for those babies she helps deliver that are rejected by the parents because they have gills or claws or extra eyes is very emotional.

There's definitely a good amount I didn't fully understand (the machinations of the monument Wren and Sarah worked in, the logic of the Other Place and the collision of the spheres of reality), but in all honesty I don't really need to. I don't need to know everything because the characters themselves don't. The theme is the same: the hubris of man, the rejection of the strange and unusual, the gentle and innate compassion of others.

I greatly enjoyed this story and I look forward to reading more from the author!

A review of this novella will appear in Locus magazine in the coming months. (The short version is I loved it.)

Lina Rather has shifted her talent for speculative queer fiction novellas from science fiction to fantasy, as she pivots from space nuns to monster midwives. Sarah is a midwife in 17th century London with a murky past and a talent for bringing children into the world. A spate of strange births has caused panic in the city, babies being born with horns and tails in addition to toes and teeth. Sarah applies her own unique skills to the care of these children and their mothers, and is drawn into a world beyond her imagining.

I feel like I learned a surprising amount in this story, unusual for a novella of this size. Rather has carefully researched both early modern midwifery, and combines this with an enthusiasm for the burgeoning scientific revolution of the time. Many of the discoveries she cites are actual medical advancements of the time, as are the troubling practices of stealing and dissecting bodies for the sake of science. However, this educational angle came at the cost of the story occasionally veering into info-dump territory, eating up precious space in an already slender novella. In particular, explanations of the Other World could have been pared down and left more to the imagination - I always find more showing and less telling to be the hallmark of a truly excellent novella.

Despite this, I enjoyed Sarah as a character, and especially her debonair companion Margaret. It is foolish to wish for more space in a story of this scope, but I think the novel could have been improved with them playing a larger role in the story, and learning about the exact structure of the magic taking a backseat.

Some novellas are perfectly formed little worlds, a taste of something you might wish was longer due to charm, but nonetheless an ideal length for the story told. Others are long short stories that are artificially padded, stringy meat put on the bones of a slenderer tale. And then there's the third kind of novella - the kind that spends too long on some subjects, and not long enough on others - underbaked, and rather vague.

Regrettably, this last one is "A Season of Monstrous Conceptions" to me. Lina Rather is an excellent writer - I found this strange, eerie version of London instantly enticing - but the characters feel bland, particularly the main one. Relationships are hinted at, not really defined. The central "plot" mentioned in the summary is lightly touched on, but not enough time is spent on it. This might have been a full length novel with a little more care put to it, but as it is, it's a novella that just doesn't stand out from the pack due to weak characterization. The plot, the atmosphere are all lovely, but the whole is rather tasteless.

This was an amazing horror novel and I cannot wait to own a physical copy of this! The whole concept of these "unnatural babies" and the magic that surrounds this it becomes such an amazing story! Also Christophers obsession with Sarah is borderline insane and Lina Rather just writes this beautifully.

A delightful historical fantasy novella, A Season of Monstrous Conceptions was truly a pleasure to read. I loved the magic system, loved the queer themes tucked within, and loved this story about strange children and mismatched worlds and all the people caught straddling realities where they didn't quite fit in. The historical London setting was an extra treat, helping this story's world feel quite lived-in and making it very easy to jump in as a reader. I highly recommend to fans of urban fantasy, historical fantasy, and anyone looking for a unique and relatively quick read.

*Many thanks to the publisher for an eARC of this one in exchange for an honest review!

*3,5/5

A Season of Monstrous Conceptions is a novella heavy in its dense, thick atmosphere, and the uneasiness of it—and of the monstrous children in the center of it—draws the reader close with each word. With its length not considerable (less than two hundred pages), its plot flows quickly in a way that does not leave much time for in-depth development. The main character, Sarah, a midwife apprentice, is likeable, if not developed as much as she could've been; particularly, the relationships she has with other characters seem to be skimmed over, even though they play a crucial role in the alienation she feels from 1700s London society on several axes, from her gender and sexuality to her otherworldly abilities.

Likewise, while the historical setting is well-researched (yet not hermetic to a modern reader), there's a promise of its intricacies that remains unfulfilled. Lina Rather is a skilled writer, but I believe that perhaps her abilities would shine brighter in a longer form, where there would be time not only to explore all of the interesting concepts that make up the worldbuilding but also flesh out the characters more. Still, a promising read.

Thank you, NetGalley and Tor Publishing, for an ARC in exchange for a review.

Lina Rathers's A Season of Monstrous Conceptions is an eldritch historical fantasy of midwifery, monstrosity, and the rending of the world.

Sarah Davies is a midwife's apprentice who gets in the middle of a cosmic mystery. In 17th century London, inhuman babies are being born, and, since Sarah's own nature is of the uncanny, she soon finds herself caught in-between two worlds. Others grapple for her powers in a combat of science and magic, as the world will be forever changed.

This short, little story absolutely blew me away. It has everything I could ever want: queerness, social commentary, magic, mystery, conflict between the Old and the New, and angry women making their own choices in a world not built for them.

Sarah is a sharp and bristly young woman, and I adored her. She really stood out on the page, with all her messiness and desires, and I loved getting to experience this story through her eyes. Her romance and her introduction into the queer community of 1675 was so beautiful and heartfelt (and steamy), made even more so by the themes of self-acceptance, homecoming, and queerness-as-magic.

Rathers's writing is tactile, flexible, and clever, without the style overwhelming the substance. Considering the shortness of the novella, I am so impressed by the wide array of themes that was covered, but the concise storytelling got them all across safely.

My only complaint is that I wish there was more.

This book had me crying, shaking, screaming, and even now, just thinking about it, I'm tearing up. If you're looking for a book about anger, humanity, and creating your own world, I am begging you to read A Season of Monstrous Conceptions.