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A review by kimacus
Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase
5.0
"Womb City" is a searing, genre-defying debut that grips you from the first page and refuses to let go. Tlotlo Tsamaase masterfully blends speculative horror, Afrofuturism, and noir to craft a deeply original narrative about memory, justice, and bodily autonomy. Set in a haunting near-future Botswana, the novel follows Nelah, a woman whose every move is monitored in a surveillance state, until a single decision unravels everything.
The writing is lush, visceral, and unapologetically bold. Tsamaase tackles themes of gender violence, colonialism, and spiritual reclamation with both rage and grace. It’s brutal, but also poetic and profound. The worldbuilding is rich and unsettling, and the story pulses with the urgency of survival.
I was particularly struck by the parallels between the reproductive surveillance in Womb City and the current erosion of women’s healthcare and bodily autonomy across the globe. Tsamaase doesn’t write from a place of speculative fear so much as sharpened realism; exaggerating systems that already exist to expose their inherent violence. Nelah’s struggle echoes the lived experiences of those whose rights are stripped under the guise of safety, morality, or tradition. In this way, "Womb City" becomes not just a chilling dystopia, but a mirror held up to the world we’re already living in.
The writing is lush, visceral, and unapologetically bold. Tsamaase tackles themes of gender violence, colonialism, and spiritual reclamation with both rage and grace. It’s brutal, but also poetic and profound. The worldbuilding is rich and unsettling, and the story pulses with the urgency of survival.
I was particularly struck by the parallels between the reproductive surveillance in Womb City and the current erosion of women’s healthcare and bodily autonomy across the globe. Tsamaase doesn’t write from a place of speculative fear so much as sharpened realism; exaggerating systems that already exist to expose their inherent violence. Nelah’s struggle echoes the lived experiences of those whose rights are stripped under the guise of safety, morality, or tradition. In this way, "Womb City" becomes not just a chilling dystopia, but a mirror held up to the world we’re already living in.