I really wanted to love this - an extreme dystopian surveillance state where, on the surface, crime is all but eliminated as people hop from body to body to escape preventable death, but in reality sexism is rampant and the bodies of former criminals are viciously and strictly monitored even though they have new occupants.

However, the writing style just ain’t it. Loooong paragraphs of winding, semi-contradicting sentences, big infodump passages that don’t entirely make sense (how do you know how many lifespans and body hop seasons you’ve had? 70 years? 200 hundred years? I literally had no idea how that was supposed to work) and then there’d be whole chapters lauding this crazy system as a utopia and then our narrator would go on at length about the corruption, racism, sexism, and classism inherent to the system. The chapters have assigned dates and times but they don’t seem to be followed at all? There were several flashbacks or flash forwards that came out of left field and left me even more confused.

I legitimately couldn’t follow the story

The ideas explored in this story are amazing, but I’m not invested in any of the characters. I don’t need a likeable character, but the main character came across as whiny, and everyone around her felt like a caricature. I just couldn’t care less about the story.

My desire for strong character work overwhelms the intriguing plot. While I think Womb City has intriguing and necessary themes to talk about, the execution leaves much to be desired.

My first read by this author and I was mind blown! There's so many big twists and plot points that the story constantly balances on the edge of becoming ridiculous, but by the seer talent of the author and by xer writing skills I'm willing to believe everything she tells me. I had my jaw to the floor the entire read. Anything you could imagine being in this type of dystopian futuristic book is probably in this. READ THIS BOOK! #netgalley #wombcity

Amazing. I can't stop thinking about this book. Seeing the way society had progressed to considering the body as something that is exchangeable. It really shook me seeing how the body was treated as something that wasn't an intimate and irreplaceable aspect of themselves but was instead something that could be traded and altered to suit the needs and wants of others. Seeing how, especially for women, that their value is not in their own actions or who they are as a person, but the value of the body they have. It was a horror story before it even started getting to the really juicy bits and I loved it. 10 out of 10 would recommend.

I really wanted to like this one. An ambitious and intelligent project, I was intrigued by the concept and design of this dystopian future. However, I felt lost in the dense writing and disconnected from both the plot and Nelah after an initially strong start.

DNF @ 22%

Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Books for the advanced reader copy.

A unique, intelligent, interesting read. I really enjoined the concept and thought it was very timely. Would for sure recommend to those who like the genre!

DNF @ 12.3%
I really wanted to fall in love with this but the lack of character work is making that impossible. It's extra sad because this is sci-fi by an african author and we get so few of those. I love me a preachy book but this lacked the characters to carry the story for me and make me care about the plot.

I received a copy of this from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I originally requested this as the synopsis reminded me a bit of Altered Carbon, with the fact that consciousnesses can body jump. That is where the similarities seemed to end. Rather than pushing the plot forward, the first 40% or so of the book felt like one massive info dump. It felt a bit repetitive, with the same things being mentioned over and over. For example, I understood that Nelah's main goal was to have a child pretty much from page 1, however, that seemed to be her sole focus. We only get narrative from her, and she isn't really that interesting outside of being in a borrowed body.

The really interesting ideas there explored, like body jumping, memory wipes and how Nelah is subjected to violations of her memories, but rather than really digging deep, they were only ever mentioned on the surface level.

There was a fairly good twist that came near the end, and the pacing did pickup about halfway through, but it did feel a bit late. If I wasn't' reading this for a review, I most likely would have DNF'd before things actually became interesting.

African science fiction is somehow always connected with ancestral myths and traditions, but without trespassing into fantasy. This is also well understood in Womb City, which is particularly focused on the female condition. In a society that has 'mechanised' reincarnation and devised a method to keep the population's criminal impulses under control, the protagonist, reincarnated for the third time in a 'criminal body' and then microchipped for control, discovers how precarious her situation is and how those she considers the cornerstones of her life do nothing but betray her - and all women - to maintain a status quo based on a culture of manipulation and rape.
Although the premise is very interesting, one gets the impression that the author has put too all at once and that at some points she has resorted to continuity solutions and non-sequiturs to carry the narrative forward. Moreover, apart from the protagonist, the characters are a little too two-dimensional.

The concept is intriguing, and the world-building ideas are solid. Unfortunately, I found the characters unlikable, and the writing style dense and unexciting. As a result, the book tired me. I attempted to take a break and approach it with a fresh perspective, but unfortunately, I still encountered the same issues. Ultimately, I decided to mark it as Did Not Finish (DNF) at the 48% mark.

I went into this book with good expectations, but I quickly learned that the writing style was not for me. Instead of pushing through only to give this a negative rating, I decided to DNF this one.

While the pacing starts off somewhat slow and the reader is handed a lot of information to keep track of, from backstory to plot to world, then the latter half of the book ties together everything amazingly. It's worth powering through, in my opinion, if you don't mind rereading a couple of paragraphs at times to make absolutely sure that you're on board with wherever the story has gone and is currently going. The finale is glorious if you do. This is perhaps partly due to the unapologetic emotional resonance of the book that never seems to falter. And the lyrical, decadent prose also deserves an honorable mention here. If you're dubious, keep going. It's very likely that you'll be very happy if you do (for me, this is a pattern with a lot of Erewhon books that I've learned to trust by now).

I'm wondering if this book just got lost in translation? It seems as if it was written by someone who is still learning English. The writing and plot are quite good. I recommend this.

I want to kiss the author. This is madness! How were they able to conceive this?!? I feel so proud that a book like this exists 😍

Haunting, and with a powerful punch. I cannot say it was a pleasant read or I enjoyed myself. It's been a long time since I read a dystopian novel this aware of its message, with a thought through and unconventional world building. The plot took some time to gain momentum and exit the slightly awkward exposition part, but once it did as a reader I was not able to relax for one second. It was complex and disturbing but in a raw way, and even when it became a bit over the top it never felt silly or funny. Must read for a feminist readers of disturbing fiction that hits a bit close to home.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me a free eARC of this book to read in exchange for my review!

I enjoyed this African dystopian sci-fi.
It had darkness and tackled some important issues. Lovely world building, totally loved the vibe.

Grateful for the opportunity to dive into the ARC of this book, though it didn't quite captivate me enough to reach the final page.

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*

"Womb City" is wildly imaginative and a wonderful dystopian novel with a Botswana setting and mythology. I really enjoyed reading it, it was a rollercoaster of revelations and plot twists. It also strongly reminded me of the clearly feminist stance of novels like "The Handmaid's Tale" but with a good focus on intersectional themes like ethnicity, queer identities while also tackling eurocentristic privilege.

Having said that, I think the novel tried to do a bit too much and sometimes it would've been nice to process new information before this too is overturned again. It was also grotesquely violent and while I did like the supernatural take, the ending did not quite convince me, I was left part confused and part unsatisfied as to how the situation will now improve. While the book tackles issues like being trans or non-binary, the relationships in the book were mostly conventional and hetero. I also did not really like the relationship of our protagonist and Jan, it felt quite superficial, more like a party, drink & drugs affair and nothing substantial. I think, until the very end, both world building and magic system parts left me confused, which is why this is not a 5 star rating. But I really enjoyed this one. Can't wait to read more from the author.

4.5 stars