Alexandra Pierce Reviews A Season of Monstrous Conceptions by Lina Rather
A Season of Monstrous Conceptions, Lina Rather (Tordotcom 978-1-25088-401-5, $20.99, 160pp, hc) October 2023. Cover by Andrew Davis.
In A Season of Monstrous Conceptions, Lina Rather presents London in 1675. It’s London after the Restoration of the monarchy and a bout of the Black Death. It’s also after the Great Fire has ripped through the city, which means there’s lots of rebuilding, particularly directed by Christopher Wren. All of these are things that you will find in a history book. What is not in history books is much about the lives of women like Sarah – young, widowed, an apprentice midwife; and most assuredly there will be no mention of the number of ‘monstrous conceptions’ born at this time: babies touched by the uncanny, born with the wrong number of eyes, or gills or fur. Or tails, as in the case of Sarah herself.
After being widowed, Sarah was taken on as an apprentice by Mrs June; this act has saved her from either another marriage or being hanged on suspicion of witchcraft, depending on the whims of her village. Mrs June’s motives aren’t selfless: she knows Sarah should find it easier to access the Other Place – source of the uncanny, and therefore of magic – than she, untouched by the uncanny, does. And so Sarah is in London when coincidence brings her into the path of Lady Faith Wren, who is very pregnant, in need of a midwife, and married to Sir Christopher Wren – currently Surveyor of the King’s Works, and like Mrs June, interested in the Other Place. His motives, however, are very different from those of Mrs June and her fellow midwives.
Much of the tension motivating this story comes from the tension of a scientific, ‘‘rational’’ worldview versus those who crave the magical; those who desire an entirely ordered, rational world versus those who desire magic – and power – to be more accessible. Sarah finds herself torn between the two worlds, longing both for the academic education she might have via Wren and for the magic of the Other Place. A world with more magic would also mean more acceptance for those like her, and the babies she helps be born. This conundrum and Sarah’s experience of it is what makes this novel so appealing. Sarah is no one special in this world: a sixth child, born a daughter, and with a tail. She was widowed under dubious circumstances, and midwives like her aren’t even allowed to become a guild. Nonetheless, Sarah is a forceful and passionate woman, chafing at the restrictions placed on her by society. She wants to experience life, she resents the obstacles in her way, and she certainly doesn’t always do what’s expected. Of such things compelling characters are made, and Sarah is one.
A Season of Monstrous Conceptions is a fast-paced, queer, sometimes dark, ultimately hopeful novel that gives early modern England a wonderful fantastic twist. More please.
Alexandra Pierce reads, writes, podcasts, cooks and knits; she’s Australian and a feminist. She was a host of the Hugo Award winning podcast Galactic Suburbia for a decade; her new podcast is all about indie bookshops and is called Paper Defiance. Alex has edited two award-winning non-fiction anthologies, Letters to Tiptree and Luminscent Threads: Connections to Octavia E Butler. She reviews a wide range of books at www.randomalex.net.
This review and more like it in the August 2023 issue of Locus.
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