Reviews with content warning for Miscarriage - Future Home of the Living God

Read this if you want to: explore the political climate of the late 2010s/early 2020s through fiction; read about real, specific people navigating the end of the present world; and/or be made deeply aware of your body and its evolutionary history. Also, if you're into transitionary dystopias.

It's very frustrating to like this book less than The Handmaid's Tale because I think this book is arguably better--it has higher and more specific spec-to-fic ratio, characters that were real, and a really graphic description of watching someone give birth--but I read THT years ago, and I read FHOTLG in 2023. It's the day after my state put in an emergency stop for all trans healthcare. Roe v. Wade is dead. Abortion pills may be next. And I think right now, forced birthing centers, pregnancy policing, and a rising Christo-fascist government just feel a bit too real.

Maybe I'll be able to reread this in a few years and be able to really take it all in, appreciate it for what it is, but wrong place, wrong time.

Content Warnings

maria_elizabeth_harden_pope's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

I think there's really too much going on in this book. The meditations on women, on new life, on pregnancy, on the divine are really beautiful, and I appreciate the main character and her perspective a bunch. But the plot well.... it's hard to follow... there's maybe not quite enough exposition about the world (which is maybe intentional- but it could have been executed better)... and a lot of plot points feel sort of out of the blue/ not well-incorporated. I also think that the way that the main character's indigenous identity was explored felt like an afterthought. It could have been more integral to the book or not done at all.

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lela's review

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

gripping

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sephypear's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

When reading this book, I would be absolutely engrossed until something pulled me away; and then I'd be hesitant to pick it back up.
This story was engrossing, the atmosphere was tense and palpable.
Do I recommend? Yes. Will I read again? I'm not sure I can put myself through it again.

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ellecama's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

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rachaelwho's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Narration by the author is great.
I think the people who didn't like this book wanted it to be spookier and more sci-fi. This is a book about motherhood, womanhood, pregnancy, autonomy, family, ancestry, and what we owe each other. Authoritarianism and institutionalization, too. It is also about climate and catastrophe, near-future dystopia. The sci-fi conceit isn't superfluous, but this isn't quite "genre fiction" and if you wanted to get into that, I guess you probably wouldn't love this one. Reviews hung up on the "science" of the setting not making sense are... Really stunningly, jaw-droppingly missing the forest.

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