Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review.
Continuing my recent trend of perfect little genre novellas*, Obstetrix was exactly what I was wanting it to be. We follow Liz, a doctor who was recently prosecuted for performing the last abortion in North Dakota (the jury deemed her not guilty). Fresh off being traumatized, she is then kidnapped by a Christian fundamentalist cult to be their OBGYN.
*A short novel? It’s just over 200 pages, my cutoff for novels/novellas.
I’m not sure why this is being sold as near future sci-fi. It’s now, the future is here, there is no made up tech or speculative science here. It’s all very real. There are passages where Liz recalls scenes from a fantasy novel that she has read to comfort herself since she was a child, but that’s the most genre it gets.
With that said, obvs I gave it five stars, and it doesn’t matter that Tor chose to publish this despite its actual genre (suspense/contemporary fiction); I’m just glad they did! It’s an extremely relevant book that is thought provoking, harrowing, relevant, and entertaining.
I was a bit worried going in to this book that it would be inaccessible writing-wise, or it would be too emotionally removed, but my fears were unjustified. The story is told in an emotionally compelling first person POV from Liz, who is resourceful and compassionate. There is no triumphant moment of violence in this book, just FYI. The meat of the story is Liz dealing with her situation, and coming to care for her patients, many of whom are underaged girls forced into marriage and pregnancy by their cult leader pastor and the group he’s created.
Also, I learned about bicornuated uteruses! They’re super weird!
The audiobook narrator did a great job. I’ve listened to books narrated by her before, and she always brings heart to her performances that some narrators lack. Also, the story really lends itself to the audiobook format. Highly recommend this one. Will be buying myself a copy.
