Reviews

Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase

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dinosaursauce's review

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.75

devsreadsnrambles's review

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I have realized that I just can't do Sci-Fi. I think the writing and the premise were so intriguing but I could not keep up with all the science based plot of it.

j_e_n_n's review

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dark emotional

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

4.0

daja's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

When I started this book, I didn't know much about what this story was about. I knew a woman was trapped inside of a body that wasn't hers and I knew that there was a lot of commentary on the policing of women's bodies. The beginning of this story really plays into these ideas that I had. A lot of it built up the world and the relationship between the main character and her husband to really question just how it is like to be a woman in this world. For lack of a better word, I "enjoyed" the speculation part of this part of the story. It was very slow but I did not mind the questions that it brought up about women's autonomy.

Then we get to the 25-30% mark of this story and everything takes a drastic twist. Instead of being a slow, thought-provoking story, it becomes a horror/thriller. The drastic shift in the tone/mood of the story took me away from enjoying it for the next 10% of the story. The crazy thing is that if I would have read the description of the book, I would have known that this is what the book promised to be; the ghost of the girl she killed and buried coming back to haunt her for revenge. However, it's not the content that made me have an issue with this second part of the story. The shift just felt disjointed from the first part of the story so that they almost felt like two completely different books. I did make myself continue the story, though, and eventually, I began enjoying the horror/thriller aspects. The reveals were great and I still enjoyed exploring this messed up society.

Another part of this book that kind of detracted from my enjoyment of the book is the characters. I enjoyed the inner monologue of the MC but it just started to be a little too much. In the beginning, it was really used to set up just who this character is and explain the world. But almost every single time she would have some kind of thought, I felt that it would go on for too long. And then when you get to the second part of this story, the inner monologue still meandered in the middle of this thrilling scene. I just started getting sick of her, especially because she is an unlikable narrator. None of the characters are particularly likable, and while I love unlikable protagonists, this character just kept being so annoying. Her "side-piece" as the description calls him, does nothing but be there for her and she treats him terribly. Again, none of them are blameless in this society and it's not like she acted like she was above him, but I hated how dirty she kept doing him when all he wanted was to help her at all costs.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and I think I would try more from the author. I just needed a little less experimentation with genre and better pacing and I probably would have enjoyed this more. Again, I don't think a lot of people are going to like this story, but I'm hopeful that it will find its audience.

krtlszlv's review

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challenging emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.5

shelasher's review

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3.0

3 Stars

I had high hopes for this one, the premise sounded really interesting, and I loved that this book’s post-apocalyptic world was based in Africa, something I had never seen before. The cover art is phenomenal, which I know doesn’t make a good book, but it does mean the author has a clear vision for how they want to book to be perceived. The first third of the book had me captivated, I found the world building to be interesting and unique, Sci-fi world building is one of my favorite things about the genre so a novel idea, is thrilling. As the book progressed, it started to get very slow, the pacing was off to a point whereby about 75% I kind of lost all interest until suddenly it picked up swiftly. The ending was decent, but the author should have cut out some of the meandering plot and been more curated about the plot twists to make them have a bigger impact.

The writing was good, but the pacing was off. A shame for me considering I think I am the sweet spot target consumer for this novel. I also found it hard at times to listen to some of the FMCs inner monologue and reasoning for her actions. There were also times where I think the author added it details for the shock factor, which is never a hit for me. I would be interested to see how this would be adapted for on screen, I see a lot of world building potential that the author didn’t tap into (shame).