I am pregnant at the moment, and alongside all the responsible nonfiction reading I've been doing to navigate pregnancy and prepare for bub's arrival, I have also really enjoyed dipping into fiction that deals with pregnancy and parenting's darker or less discussed sides, or with fantastical or playful twists on these themes.
During this time I've read:
– Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin (side note – I totally recommend reading this and then immediately reading his later novel The Stepford Wives, the thematic throughlines of communal and spousal betrayal and the role of well-meaning medical professionals in failing to protect women from violence are compelling when read side by side)
– Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich (a pregnancy-related sci-fi flavoured dystopia with less of a sci fi focus and greater attention to some fascinating Christian and Native American sociocultural and spiritual themes, made me want to learn more about Hildegard of Bingen)
– So Thrilled For You by Holly Bourne (centred on a baby shower/gender reveal that triggers a bushfire, and concerned in part with birth complications and postpartum depression as well as pressures in friendships arising from different attitudes to mothering and relationships)
– 100 Days by Alice Pung (I suspect this is great if you're interested in stories of parental resentment and abuse of a child/teen, but I work in social work and that sort of story is something I already engage with daily, so, not being in the mood, I DNFed it)
What should I try next?
by fetishiste
15 Comments
School for Good Mothers
The Mad Wife. I read it a few months ago and it still lives in my head. Some TW but I was hooked
Nightbitch!
The yellow wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Chouette by Claire Oshetsky!
The Need by Helen Phillips
Lilith’s Brood by Octavia Butler. Future Earth, most humans have been wiped out. A benevolent species wanders by and decides to resurrect some humans and bring them into their species as breeding partners. It’s wild.
Also by Octavia Butler, the short story Bloodchild. One of my favorites but not for the squeamish.
Just Like Mother by Anne Heltzel
Bloodfire, Baby by Eirinie Carson
Sounds like you’d love We Need to Talk about Kevin
Nutshell by Ian McEwan. It’s a thriller told from the POV of a precocious fetus.
I haven’t read it personally, but I’ve heard a lot of Rosemary’s Baby comparisons to Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer
Dearest by Jacquie Walters is amazing!!
If you’re up for a series, The Dark Tower. The first book is more like an epic poem that explains the world, then you get three excellent books and then the super freaky pregnancy stuff happens.
The Push