I absolutely loved Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase!
I was so excited to read this book as it sounded amazing, and I'm a big fan of sci-fi horror books, and this one did not disappoint!
It ended up being an amazing and unique read!

The world building was a little difficult for a bit, but once I understood it, it was amazing!
I thought Nelah was a great main character, and I really loved the ending.

I definitely highly recommend this book!
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This review was made possible view an ARC through NetGalley.

Wow, wow, wow. I was drawn in from the first page. The voice and prose really worked for me as did the cyberpunk and Queer elements. Tlotlo Tsamaase has a real talent for making you feel close to xer characters and world. The Motswana mythology elements were woven in naturally and really made Womb City feel specific and unique.

The twist really worked for me as did the ending, but I can see why it might read as conspiracy theory for some and be a turnoff. Everything felt like it was leading up to the big reveal and it tied in with the themes. Nelah's drive to become a mother and her pain from multiple miscarriages plus her affair with Jan all felt tangible and natural. Nelah is probably one of my favorite MCs so far this year and I ached for her more than once. I also loved the details of the bodyswapping worldbuilding in an Africanfuturism Botswana.

I'd recommend this to people who love cyberpunk and are open to themes around motherhood, infertility, abuse, and more. Womb City deals with a lot of uncomfortable themes but it never feels like it's for shock value; it feels purposeful and is there to make you consider what is being said. This is Tlotlo Tsamaase's adult debut novel and I'm beyond excited to see more from xem. The cyberpunk elements with the horror elements in a Queer Africanfuturism framework worked for me in ways I genuinely wasn't expecting.

DNF @ 6%, the earliest I have ever DNFed something. Unfortunately, I've been trying to get into this for ten days now, and have had to accept that it is just not for me.

As has been noted by other reviewers, Womb City makes use of many, many futuristic technologies (including, but not limited to, body-swapping and behaviour-monitoring microchips) to explore race, gender, corruption, and power, among other things. The result is discordant: it feels sort of like watching every episode of Black Mirror simultaneously, rather than engaging with a single, thoughtful, considered narrative that delves deeply into any one of these concepts.

I'd also like to note that, at this point in the book, my experience (including my dissatisfaction) is limited to its sci-fi elements - the horror has not yet been introduced. I would still like to thank NetGalley and Erewhon Books books for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Take one part Minority Report, one part The Handmaid's Tale, and one part Altered Carbon, shake well and start a science fiction novel. When half baked, add a good ghost story and turn it into a horror novel. That's the best I can do to describe this amazing novel without giving anything away.

The premise of this book is SO interesting. I loved that it's a fantasy smashed into a scifi world. That being said, for at least the first 60% of the book I found myself continually having to reread entire passages because the heavy handed world building kept losing me. And when I say heavy, I mean HEAVY. There was so much going on that it felt almost convoluted at times. I felt like I was sludging through the first half and then being whiplashed and flying through the last half at hyperspeed.

That being said, Womb City was truly gripping. The action -packed last portion of the book was fun to read. I definitely reccomend if your jam is dystopian horror that throws an entire world on your head and doesn't allow you even a moment to grab your bearings. I would've rated it 4 stars but by the end the story just felt like TOO much.

This book started out so promising. The story was different and I could see a whole world unfurling in front of my eyes. But then the author tried to fill an entire book series on one book. It was just to many ideas and it simply became to hard to follow the different ideas presented. I would have loved for this to be a series rather than a single book. I feel like the author could have allowed the different plot points to breath and developed on their own.
It wasn't a bad book, the prose was right up my alley and as stated, the ideas were great. Just to condensed.
Thank you to netgalley and Kensington for this eArc

I can easily see this being a fan fav. The drama, the sci-fi, the love triangle was all perfectly done. I finished wanted more from the characters. Great job to the author.

3.5 stars

Nelah lives in Africa in a futuristic dystopian society where consciousness can be uploaded and transferred into other bodies. Naturally, this leads to a hierarchy where the rich are basically immortal and eternally young while the less fortunate live short and often miserable lives. Society is also very patriarchal and women are heavily monitored to ensure a domestic supply of infants (future bodies for the rich to use.) Nelah’s status is middle-class, and she gained her wealth from her successful architecture business. But due to various circumstances, her consciousness was placed into a former criminal’s body, which means she must have a microchip implanted to make sure she stays in line and doesn’t display signs of criminal tendencies. Her mind must be regularly reviewed by her husband and she must perfectly pass his and the government’s mandated reviews if she wants any chance at getting that microchip removed and her freedom back.
But after a nightly rendezvous with the wealthy man she’s having an affair with goes wrong, passing the exam is the least of her worries. With both the government and the spiritual world after her, surviving will be hard enough.
This was an interesting novel that sparks some thought about various topics, but I felt it could’ve benefited from more editing. There was a lot going on and it didn’t feel very cohesive. The supernatural element was suddenly introduced and took the story in a completely different direction, which was jarring.
If edited more, I think this would be a great, thought-provoking sci-fi novel.

Womb City was a fascinatingly original story with such an interesting technological and governance system that sparks the imagination. Nelah is a compelling character facing such relatable struggles and dilemmas, and it was an exhilarating (albeit harrowing) ride to follow her on her journey throughout the book.

I found the concept interesting here, but the worldbuilding felt a little overwhelming and heavy-handed to me.

Womb City is an incredible dystopian novel that has so many twists and turns. Once you have adjusted to the new situations that the main character experiences, the reader yet again is brought to that feeling of suspense and uncomfortably. After reading countless books throughout the years, it becomes easy to figure out the plot or ending, however with Womb City, everything is unpredictable. Very refreshing and boldly written.

"ɪɴ ᴏᴜʀ ᴄɪᴛʏ, ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ ʟɪᴠᴇꜱ ꜰᴏʀᴇᴠᴇʀ. ʙᴜᴛ ᴍᴜʀᴅᴇʀ ʜᴀɴɢꜱ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀɪʀ ʟɪᴋᴇ ᴍɪꜱᴛ."

• This is a very unique plot, unlike any other that I have read before. This is a sci-fi, futuristic dystopian horror novel set in Botswana. In this world the consciousness can be floated between different bodies but there are rules and women are less valued & more likely to be tagged as criminals.

• Do check the content warnings before diving in. This book was thought provoking and made me question a lot of things. It was definitely immersive but I felt there was a lot going on consequently. I kept getting lost and the storyline dragged in between.

• I'm sure it was meant to be written like that, with the world building and the character developments but I only started enjoying it when it was around 30% left.

I did enjoy the ending but I feel it could have been more concise.

There were things I loved about this book, and other things that didn’t work for me. First of all, I think readers of thrillers will really like this book. As someone who prefers sci-fi and horror, I don’t think I was exactly the right audience. But, I did like many of the characters, I loved the feminism and ableism discussions, and I loved how things started all tying together in the last 20% of the book.

Among things that didn’t work for me was, firstly, the exposition that made the book seem like it would be a dystopian sci-fi novel. The sci-fi setting, themes, and tropes were all described in a telling rather than showing way, and were also unnecessarily complicated and confusing. I think this story could have been even more effective with the lifespan, consciousness-jumping, and wombcubator elements totally taken out, so a reader could focus on the microchipping, surveillance issues, murder trials, and supernatural elements without getting muddled and confused or slowing down the pace to try to explain. Ultimately for me, there was too much going on in the book to keep track of, especially in the first half, and it took me a while to discern which elements of the plot were most important. I think other great ideas, like the lifespan and consciousness jumping, could have been used in another very interesting story with different plot and issues.

Secondly, there were parts where the pace was clunky because characters would pause in the middle of a very tense scene to reflect on their feelings or on the past. I don’t think this was needed - some of the exposition, again, only complicated things rather than clarified, and the characters’ values and feelings were clear through their actions without the need for these reflective moments.

Ultimately I would recommend this book to thriller lovers, as the style reminded me of popular thriller books like Woman in the Window, Girl on the Train, and the Silent Patient. I also am eager to read other work by this author even though this particular book didn’t quite work for me.

seriously i'm surprised this book hasn't been talked about more. It feels so important to the Sci-fi Genere and the world in general. this book for me is right up there w A handmaiden tale, 1984 and anything Phillip K Dick. This is book is Legendary good. Tsamaase emerges you in. world that doesn't feel too far off from our own, aside from the body swapping and wild science. It is thought provoking and and a powerful statement on misogyny, sexism, racism and control in any form.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. The novel’s premise is very intriguing—especially the idea of an ancestral deity being harnessed in the development of immortality technology—but I had serious trouble following the plot.

As some other readers have pointed out, the first third of the book reads slow and confusing. Nehla is a successful architect, unhappily married, has had a number of traumatic miscarriages, wants nothing more than to be a mother, and doesn’t know the history of her current body, including why she has a bionic arm. Microchipped and regularly interrogated by her policeman husband and state-mandated AI that lives in her bedroom mirror, she needs to prove that she isn’t a criminal, even though she hasn’t done anything wrong—apart from having an affair (which is not a crime in the world of the book, I think) and inhabiting a body whose former host was a supposed criminal. So far so good. Then things get shifty. Often, the narrator seems to contradict herself (did she have three lifespans? four? what’s the difference between lifespans and seasons? did or didn’t get Eli his promotion? editors could help here!), and the nuts-and-bolts parameters of bodyhopping technology and Botswana’s patriarchy are strangely undefined, hard to grasp. What year is it? What does the international order look like? What, exactly, counts as a crime in Nehla’s country? What kind of government is in charge? Does everyone know about Matsieng, the deity that governs the ancient watering holes and that is being used to keep the crime rate down? In this part of the book, I found it difficult to get my bearings. It was hard to tell sometimes how much time had passed between two scenes (even though each chapter has a time code); things felt sort of fluid. I also noticed that the narrator, apart from her fervent wish to be a mother and her rage at patriarchy, doesn’t appear to have a well-defined personality. She’s often all fury, for example when she lashes out at her brother. I can identify with that, but it doesn’t seem to mesh with the image of a successful architect.

Once the main action starts, it’s all action until the end, and the book improves, although I still had questions about what exactly was happening. Nehla and Jan are trying to figure out the logic behind Moremi’s haunting, and the novel seems to make it up as it goes. Sometimes, during moments of intense action, Nehla stops the narrative for internal or spoken monologues, punctuated with endless strings rhetorical questions. This could have been tightened up during the editing process. Keep it moving! Eventually, the onion’s skins have been peeled away and we get the final revelation of what’s happening in Nehla’s world, who she is, who Moremi is, and whether her lover is loyal. So, there’s definitely a payoff in the end.

I think my greatest problem with getting a firm grasp of the story and setting had to do with the narrator’s often florid, overwrought language. Nehla says things like “the froth of darkness embalms me,” “silence screams into my vertebrae,” and "his spiel spills rage into my body.” I laughed out loud at “Jan’s taut muscles writhe in his arms.” Like, not every noun needs to be personified; sometimes less is more. There were some malapropisms and grammatical errors, too, which I hope the editors will catch before publication.

Still, I enjoyed this dive into African feminism, body horror, and techno-dystopianism. Great ideas, great gore, and lots of things to ponder.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for providing me with this ARC of the book for my free and unbiased review.

In "Womb City," a genre-bending African futurist horror novel, Tlotlo Tsamaase weaves a gripping cyberpunk ghost story exploring motherhood, memory, and a woman's right to her own body. The protagonist, Nelah, seems to have a perfect life but is trapped in a loveless marriage with her every move monitored by a microchip. After a desperate act, she finds herself haunted by a vengeful ghost, putting her loved ones in peril. In a futuristic surveillance state where bodies are government-regulated resources, the book delves into power, monstrosity, and the struggle for bodily autonomy. Tsamaase's debut intelligently explores patriarchy's impact and the cost of fighting against oppressive systems.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with this ARC of Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase. Looking forward to reading more upcoming titles!

Futuristic black handmaids tell. Makes me happy that I still have my bodily autonomy and sad that even though this is set in the future women live like this.

"Womb City" is an important contribution to the science fiction genre, pushing the boundaries and encouraging us to reflect on the implications of power dynamics in society. It is a story of liberation, strength, and resilience that will resonate with readers long after they finish the last page. A must-read for anyone seeking a powerful and uplifting narrative about the triumph of the human spirit.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with this ARC of Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have read it and give feedback.

I want to say, straight off the bat, that this is 100% a fantasy set in a science fiction world.

Womb City is an interesting book. When it’s at its best (the first third), it’s a great exploration of inequalities, identity with body hopping, sexism, and a possible future for Botswana. This gave the book an intriguing, if not depressing, start. For me, it all fell apart once the supernatural/fantasy elements were introduced.

What I’m about to say is in the description, so it’s not really a spoiler. The introduction of the ghost, to me, felt overdone and on the cheesy side. There was emotion there, and the previous elements I enjoyed were there too (inequalities etc), but I lost interest when it became about the main characters saving themselves from this blood-thirsty ghost. The further along it went (especially when shadowy organisations came in), I was just confused.

I saw another reviewer say the make-up of this book is 1/3 sci-fi, 1/3 fantasy, and 1/3 conspiracy theories. I couldn’t agree more.

In terms of writing, this was amazing. Tlotlo Tsamaase has a beautiful voice, and I love the way xe writes. I’ll happily pick up any future sci-fi books or short stories from xer.
The characters were less intriguing. While I understood their struggles and differences, they weren’t particularly likeable to me.
As I said before, I loved the world. A lot of thought and care really went into worldbuilding here, and it was by far my favourite part of the book.
Length-wise, it felt a touch too long for me. It honestly could have been a novella (strictly exploring the sci-fi side) and it would have been a 5 star review from me. As it stands now, I'd like to give it 2.5 in the middle of the road, but Goodreads and Netgalley don't do half stars, so I've rounded it up to 3.

All in all, I’m glad I read it. I try not to read too much of the book descriptions before I pick up a book because I like to be surprised. This is one of the few times that surprise bit me, as I would have been more prepared for the supernatural elements.

Well, this book has so many ideas: body-swopping, microchips monitoring behaviour, flying cars, a gas that seeks out crimes, prisons for souls/consciousness, sentient ghosts, mythological entities as well as misogyny, control of women, human trafficking, racism, corruption etc etc.
I felt that there was too many concepts, perhaps enough for several books. Needless to say there was some repetition, especially in the first half, to describe the world and set the scene. I'm not too fond of SF/fantasy mash ups, and while this was certainly an ambitious book, it was not fully successful for me.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Erewhon books for the opportunity to read this e-book.