Womb City

De: Tlotlo Tsamaase

Narrado por: Christel Mutombo

This genre-bending Africanfuturist horror novel blends The Handmaid’s Tale with Get Out in an adrenaline-packed, cyberpunk body-hopping ghost story exploring motherhood, memory, and a woman’s right to her own body.

Nelah seems to have it all: fame, wealth, and a long-awaited daughter growing in a government lab. But, trapped in a loveless marriage to a policeman who uses a microchip to monitor her every move, Nelah’s perfect life is precarious. After a drug-fueled evening culminates in an eerie car accident, Nelah commits a desperate crime and buries the body, daring to hope that she can keep one last secret.

The truth claws its way into Nelah’s life from the grave.

As the ghost of her victim viciously hunts down the people Nelah holds dear, she is thrust into a race against the clock: in order to save any of her remaining loved ones, Nelah must unravel the political conspiracy her victim was on the verge of exposing—or risk losing everyone.

Set in a cruel futuristic surveillance state where bodies are a government-issued resource, this harrowing story is a twisty, nail-biting commentary on power, monstrosity, and bodily autonomy. In sickeningly evocative prose, Womb City interrogates how patriarchy pits women against each other as unwitting collaborators in their own oppression. In this devastatingly timely debut novel, acclaimed short fiction writer Tlotlo Tsamaase brings a searing intelligence and Botswana’s cultural sensibility to the question: just how far must a woman go to bring the whole system crashing down?

“A fierce, furious, and fearless debut that has its finger on the pulse—no, the gushing wound—of our world's most invasive cruelties.”—Daniel Kraus, New York Times bestselling co-author of The Shape of Water

©2024 Tlotlo Tsamaase (P)2024 Recorded Books

The parallels of today’s world.

This was well written. It is was very intriguing and thought provoking. I Highly recommend! I can see this being a movie. Sci-fi with a mix of religious elements and the futuristic elements of the world.

Dystopia futuristic love it

Was a easy listen because of her voice , storyline , characters , just a great story.

An Afrofuturistic Epic

A fantastically imaginative and empowering creation story. These are the stories that will transform Africa.

Very interesting but sometimes hard to follow, 3.5!

I have ADHD so it may be a bit of that, but sometimes this book was hard to follow. Overall I liked it but the story took a huge turn and it was not expected. Overall I enjoyed it!

Excellent Narration

The narration was so good that I couldn't not finish this novel, even when the story seemed a bit messy.

10/10

Loved this story I could not put this book down it was so good I loved it

Couldn’t stop listening over 2 days…

This is so not a genre I usually read, but it has everything: romance,infertility, misogyny, control, family dynamics, betrayal, racial & economic status, revenge, heinous crimes to solve, belief systems, faith, sins, motherhood, desperation, hope, power….set in futuristic time but all relatable topics. It is beautifully written with fantastic narration.

If anyone struggling with infertility, IVF treatments, miscarriages, domestic abuse, etc. this could be triggering

Scary consequences

I disliked the main character but loved the science fiction/horror aspects. I had to use discipline and motivation to get through the first couple of chapters because the world building/status of modern science on the microchips is explained by the characters. In this unpleasant look at women’s roles in this futuristic horror story Nelah makes a very grave mistake making her the target of her victim’s ghost. By the middle of the book, it was on - a fast paced frightening race for retribution for a main character who was not particularly likeable. I had to give this story a 4 because I judged the character and was hostile to her despite all the things she discovers along her nightmarish journey. Jan, I also had missed feelings when his back story came up. So 4 because the author’s first book had all the bells and whistles I like in a science fiction book but also drew me in enough to dislike Nelah.

Intrigued

Afrofuturisum mixed with the “Handsmaids Tale”, and the 2002 movie “Minority Report” then add a sprinkle more of revenge murder mystery and you’ve got yourself Womb City. Hope it gets picked up and turned into a movie.

A bunch of great ideas, terrible execution.

I really wanted to love this book, and there are a ton of great ideas in it. Unfortunately it also feels like the author couldn't pick a clear direction for the book to go in, and instead tried to include too much. Many of the ideas in the book are in direct conflict with one another. The protagonist is at once famous and wealthy, but also broke and despised. This is just a brief example of a problem that continues throughout the novel.

The actual plot of the book doesn't begin until about two thirds of the way through, and everything before that is world-building and setup. Normally I wouldn't mind this, but the protagonist is unfortunately insufferable, and that combined with the conflicting ideas throughout the worldbuilding makes this part a slog. However some of the world ideas and background details are very interesting--interesting enough to be a novel unto themselves, if they weren't so bogged down by everything else.

Lastly, this book could have been about six hours shorter if the author would just trust the listener to have half a brain. But no, every time she wants to make a point, the protagonist has to make a huge speech about it. It takes up way too much space and gets very tiring.

All this said, Christel Mutombo's performance was fantastic. I'd certainly listen to more books she's narrated.