Carrying

by Samantha Josephs

An audacious, inventive debut and a cult classic in the making, from a thrilling new talent in fiction.

Martha is a trans woman and the picture-perfect Los Angeles housewife, though she is concealing her identity even from her own husband. When she is struck down by a mysterious illness, she begins a series of bizarre experimental treatments that awaken strange new appetites in her and even leave her seemingly – impossibly – pregnant. Equal parts inventive, funny and compulsive, Carrying mixes the sensational body horror of The Substance with the transgressive camp comedy of John Waters in a style that’s all its own, and announces the arrival of a thrilling new talent in fiction.

Genres: Horror, Adult, Contemporary, Queer

304 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication October 6, 2026

Reviews

[Sidney · Rating 3 out of 5]

wow wow wow! i'm just now realizing this is a debut?! Samantha Josephs i've got my eye on you. if you're a fan of "weird girl" horror or lit fic this is for you. Carrying is by far the most original, completely unhinged book i've read recently, & to say it's a lot is an understatement. at no point did Carrying have any chill—it goes from crazy to crazier by the end.

she did what i needed her to do when i picked her up. i laughed, i cringed, i read some parts of this peeking through my fingers while saying "oh no pls don't do thaaaat!" i really enjoyed how the author was able to mix body horror, nasty pregnancy horror (the more pregnancy horror i read, the more i don't want kids) & social commentary together while still finding a way to make it comedic.

i PROMISE i am not typically one of those girls that's like "i HaTe AlL MeN blehh", i dislike us all equally, but why is it always a man that has the audacity to tell a woman how to live her life & what to do with our bodies??? i'm talking to you LEON. ooooHHHHH i despised this man & how dare Samantha make me take his side later on in the book!? Leon was so caught up in having a soccer team family that he had ZERO sympathy for Martha & her wellbeing. it felt like every time he was on pg he just walked around dry humping Martha's leg begging "give me a baby, give me a baby, give me a baby!" SIR CAN MY GIRL RECUPERATE?! she is suffering from a mysterious illness can you leave her alone, now is not the time?! i hate to say it, but his reaction to her “treatments” was valid. ugh, what else was he supposed to do?? how else does one react to something like that?

where the story lost me was maybe the last 20% of the book. it goes completely off the rails & not in a good way in my opinion. the ending is just too ridiculous that i could not take it seriously at all. it went from 100-1,000,000 real fast...i'm sorry, but giving birth & being like " im so serving right now. this is the most cunt i've ever been. i'm newborn baby cunt💅🏽💅🏽" STOP IT.

another thing that kind of got under my skin was the half explanations...we find out HOW Martha was able to get pregnant but we don't find out how she got sick or like a firm confirmation of what exactly it is? it seems like she got pregnant & sick at the same time, so i thought it was connected but then we find out they're not? HOW WHEN WHERE & WHY does Bruce find these so called cures...GASOLINE HELLLOOOOO? is the explanation in the room with us? how were these treatments not affecting the baby while in the womb like at all?! i don't always need everything spelled out for me but i do think these are important questions? for these reasons i've settled on a 3.25 rounded down for gr.

it's still a fun wildly entertaining read & i definitely recommend to anyone who thinks it sounds even a little bit interesting — there's a certain part in this that gave Frankenstein vibes, but make it freaky iykyk. i honestly can't wait to see what else Samantha Josephs cooks up for us in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review

[DaniPhantom · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC!!

In the words of Martha, the main character of this lovely trans body horror, she is mega cunt. She is super cunt. She is so cunt, that she is pregnant. She is a pregnant trans woman, and she will do ANYTHING it takes to have this baby. Oh… and she has a craving for spoiled meat.

Trans body horror will always have a special place in my heart, because being in the wrong body is pretty fucking horrific. Even though Martha has her faults, like roping her doctor best friend in on her schemes, and being a bit judgmental, I think we can all relate to her anxieties over having full control of her life. We see the good & bad sides of her, and that makes me like this story even more. Dealing with body dysmorphia and missing out on motherhood can make anyone feel bitchy and insane, while also feeling ooey gooey inside about finally having a mini you.

[Raaven💖 · Rating 5 out of 5]

“You’re too cunt to die” is my favorite quote from a book

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carrying centers the unclockable (to cissies) and inimitable Martha as her stealthily maintained heterosexual marriage is threatened by the unexpected proliferation of her life's dream: she is carrying a child. After her neovagina turns medical miracle pussy, blossoming into full blown reproductive system (ovary: check, cervix: cunt, i mean check, uterus: present), her trusted gay best friend-cum-gynecologist wants to make a fortune from her unexpected fruit, meanwhile her husband just wants to keep her, and their unborn child, alive. As Martha grapples with the possibility of maternal mortality, she seeks treatment (fed to her by her TikTok algorithm) for strange cravings in the night that unexpectedly offer her a glimpse of T4T butt-chugging ecstasy she left behind in the pursuit of perma-passing. DIY vaginal discharge recipes and phrases like "newborn-baby cunt" counterbalance the horrors Martha undergoes--and eventually engineers like a madwoman, enacting her transsexual (re-)birth right to hysteria. This novel reads like a John Waters movie. It horrified me to no end but left me splitting with laughter. Samantha Josephs is a talent to watch.

[Shelby Sweet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fear I will never shut up about this book. It is the pinnacle of girlhood — you’re laughing, crying, screaming, throwing up, and throwing your book across the room. Everyone I’ve convinced to read it (and I’ve convinced A LOT of people) has come back to me with a different takeaway, and they all loved it just as much as I do.

This story is truly something special, and Samantha should be so proud of what she’s created.

[Mikey ಠ◡ಠ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martha is absolutely Mother!

In this book we follow Martha who is a stealth trans woman who has it all: an adoring husband (I know, we'll get there ok), an adorable stepdaughter, and the jealousy of every other mom in the neighborhood. What more could a girl want? The thing is her husband really wants another kid and that's kind of a problem because Martha can't...really...do that. Except for it turns out apparently she can because Martha falls impossibly pregnant. Insanity ensues from there.

I do find pregnancy horror to be especially horrifying for me personally. Listen, the treatments Martha does to cure her mystery illness may have raised my eyebrows, it was definitely weird. But did it disgust me? Turn my stomach? Make me squeamish? Not really. Martha's illness aligning with pregnancy symptoms such as losing teeth & hair and her feet & hands ballooning painfully had me writhing in horror and reading on my phone between my fingers.

I wanted this book to be to my personal taste of horror comedy and campy, but I fear this book lost me in the last 30%. The pacing got absolutely bonkers and the climax was a little silly. Both forgivable sins. You know what's not forgivable? You get NO answers for Martha's illness! When she gets sick and meets other people who suffer from her illness (most of whom appear to be trans and queer) and I thought there might be a reason for that, but then something else is mentioned that throws a wrench in my theory. That's fine, I don't NEED to be right, I have fun speculating while reading so no worries. I thought there might be a correlation between her pregnancy and her illness. Not that we discover. How did Bruce figure out the ah, creative use of gasoline as a cure? No idea. Honestly you, dear reader of this review, have the same amount of knowledge about the hows and the whys of Martha's mystery illness as I do and I read the book.

Also I HATE when a book makes me defend a man. Especially a man as shitty as Leon,. That man did not care about Martha and just treated her as an incubator for his baby eeeyyuuuuccckkkk! But I fear that if I came home and found my spouse doing the treatments Martha was doing, I would lose my shit too.

I found a lot of the spoken and unspoken social commentary of this book really interesting, particularly how it seemed the way society treated Bruce, a trans man vs Martha, a trans woman. And their lived experiences with sexism. Bruce kind of irritated me but I wish we had gotten to know more about him over say, Roger. Who, without getting into spoilers, I don't think Martha treated very kindly in the end. Like girl he was literally just worried about you and your health & safety as his oldest friend! (Although Roger has his shitty moments too.) And of course the commentary regarding motherhood and pregnancy I found to be interesting as well. And since we're talking about mothers & motherhood, I would adopt Enid in a second. She seemed so sweet!

I will absolutely commend this book for being the most unpredictable book I have read in quite a while. I thought I knew where the plot was going at every turn and it turns out I had literally no idea what was going to happen next and I do love a book that can surprise me! I will be very interested in seeing what Samantha Josephs comes out with next, this is an author we're all going to want to keep our eyes on!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance DRC and provide a review, all opinions are my own.

[Sara Ratliff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Samantha is an old friend from college, so I was super grateful to get an arc of her book from netgalley. This book is completely outside my wheelhouse — I read very little general fiction and satire so I'm not particularly familiar with the genre. With that said, this was absolutely batshit in a way that worked really well for me. From the get-go it's clear that this story is gross and outrageous and at times very uncomfortable. I think most people will know whether this works for them from the first few pages. This is a story focused on what it means to survive as a trans woman at any — and I do mean any — cost.

This book is grotesque in its reflection on womanhood and pregnancy and bodily autonomy, but at its core there's also a deep affection for womanhood and motherhood, despite what they cost Martha to maintain. The setting of LA, and Martha's life as a housewife within it, defines the shape this story takes and some specifics of the social pressures, but the impossible standards Martha faces (and reinforces herself) are very familiar. There's an obvious dissonance between how Martha talks about her own body and value and the bodies and perceived value of the adult women around her, and how she wants her 11 year-old step-daughter to view herself. I found this really compelling in its inconsistency and how realistic this is to many women's relationships with their mothers. There are so many forms of motherhood in this book — pregnancy and biological motherhood, step-motherhood, old and new found family — and so much respect for all of them and for the ugly costs they can bring.

This story centers on Martha seeking very controversial treatments after developing a debilitating chronic illness. These treatments are, frankly, disgusting. I kept wanting her to stop, to talk to her doctors, to do anything but continue these treatments. This reading experience was so interesting because as the reader, I did not trust Martha or her medical decisions, but the narrative did. Martha's experiences lie at the uncomfortable intersection between the real dangers of pseudo-scientific home "medicine" and the reality of people who are dismissed by the medical system and whose life-saving treatments are often labeled as disturbing or "perverted" by outsiders.

There's so much more I could say, I find myself wanting to discuss and analyze this book for hours. But beyond how interesting I think Carrying's ideas are, I genuinely enjoyed the reading experience, even in its most uncomfortable moments. I didn't always like Martha as a person, but I did sympathize with her and I was invested in her story. At least as someone with minimal experience in the genre, this was an incredibly unique reading experience. The more I think about it, the more I appreciate this story.

[Brittany MacDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5✨

Vibes: 🤮🦷🤰👑🍖🔪🩺💅🏻

WOW! What a debut from Samantha Josephs.

This book follows Martha, a (nearly) unclockable trans woman living in LA with her hot, loving husband and sweet step-daughter. To everyone else looking in, Martha has it all. She keeps a perfect home, cooks amazing meals for her family every night, and her body is tea.

Her husband wants another baby more than anything, but since he doesn’t know she’s trans, she has spent years maintaining a facade that is becoming hard to keep up. She develops a mysterious illness that leads to bizarre cravings she must hide from her family. She fears it might all fall apart until one day, her pregnancy test is positive. Like, ACTUALLY positive. Martha realizes that the only way to keep herself and her baby healthy during this pregnancy is to pursue these odd cures for her illness, and she will stop at nothing to protect her baby.

I loved this concept. Martha uniquely traverses the experience of womanhood as a young trans woman, a stealth trans woman, and a trans woman who is miraculously pregnant. Initially, she desires to be a Stepford wife, but as she suffers from her illness and eventual pregnancy, her bodily autonomy is stripped away and she has to rethink all of her priorities. I think the author nailed this perspective and how it is to live as both a trans and cis woman. As Martha gets deeper into this crazy journey, the standards she holds herself to are destroyed, which was liberating to watch.

I wanted to understand her illness more, which is my only critique for this book. The minor characters she meets through her illness stand out and I would love to know more about them.

The last 20-30% goes off the rails in a very ‘The Substance’ type of way (which I love), but I know that is not for everyone. This book is funny, campy, and downright grotesque.

Thank you the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Addie DiPalmo · Rating 2 out of 5]

𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬 𝙤𝙛 𝘼𝙍𝘾 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙉𝙚𝙩𝙂𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙮

I find myself sincerely humbled thinking that I fell into the target audience of this book.

From the opening two chapters, I was hooked. However, at the 50% mark, the book became disgustingly shock-value “horror” and it never recovered. At times it felt like the author was trying to write a romance novel or some twisted erotica hidden in a horror novel.

I think the concept of not having decades of research on long-term effects of HRT was an exceptional plot, it was the execution that fell flat. I thought from Phase 1 of the Treatment that this book was heading down a cannibalism path. Tell me how we ended up with gasoline…

There will be certain crowds this book resonates with, there is (what I believe to be) humor and flamboyancy, but the final product was not cohesive as being comedic horror, shock-value horror nor even kink-focused erotica.

This has nothing to do with the main character being a transwoman, the communication between other trans characters in the book was honestly quite tasteful and profound. I would love another horror novel focused on HRT growing ovaries and a uterus in long-term recipients. My negative review has (nearly) everything to do with gasoline… iykyk

(seriously what did i just read??? the 50% mark was a completely different book riddled with disgusting “horror”)

Thank you to NetGalley, Samantha Josephs, and Putnam Publishing for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Cas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was truly unhinged and insane. This novel was possessed by a body horror subtype akin to such giants as 'The Substance' and 'Jennifer's Body'. There is an exploration of womanhood, of motherhood, of queerness—of pregnancy as body horror in it of itself. I think the uncanny choices served that ultimate goal well. side characters were well fleshed out, while also often acting as satirical stand ins for particular types of people—a very difficult line to draw, but one I thought was done very well.

It was at times difficult to track the passage of time throughout this one. I know the premise requires inherently a hefty suspension of disbelief (trust me when I say I did NOT see phase two of the experimental treatments coming), but I did struggle to completely buy into the circumstances of everything. Perhaps the pacing was the issue—some parts seemed to drag at points, while the escalation in the last 100 pages or so felt sudden to me.

What's more to say? This was camp! It was funny! I hope to see more of this unhinged material from Josephs in the future. A very promising debut!

Thank you to Putnam Books for providing an eARC of this novel for review!

[✩｡°⋆ Lala ⋆｡°✩ · Rating 5 out of 5]

•ARC 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝘄•

[Carrying]
🔥 Release Date: [Oct 06 2026] 🔥
Thank you to Putna, Samantha Josephs, and NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!
★★★★★

This book said we’re doing body horror and emotional devastation today, and it absolutely delivered.

Samantha Josephs builds dread in a way that really gets under your skin. It isn’t loud or flashy horror. It’s the kind that settles in your chest and gets heavier with every page. Watching Martha deal with the illness, the impossible pregnancy, and constantly being dismissed had me furious.

The writing is sharp, visceral, and weird in the best way. Josephs balances domestic tension, surreal nightmare logic, and deeply personal horror without ever losing control of it.

By the final act, I was stressed. The ending landed hard, horrifying, cathartic, and emotionally devastating. I needed a minute afterward.

Five stars for a bold, brutal, deeply effective horror novel with far more emotional weight than I expected.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had hoped this would be as horrific as it actually was and by god, she delivered. The horror of what it means to be a woman, a girl, a trans woman, a mother - all intertwined and replete with detail. There's so much room, too, to dig in deeper to find something personally meaningful to the reader to seize on; for me, I gravitated toward the commentary on the medical system - insurance, pain, money, belief all tangled together into a grate that lets people slip down and prevents them from coming back up again. But there's so much more to say about what it means to be yourself, what it means to transition medically or socially, what it means to be visible. Martha was such a complex ball of emotions, of code-switches, and procedures and I really loved her. I loved the homages to classic and body horror, and moreover this was a FUN read.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is this book realistic? Absolutely not. It was a wild ride. I'd describe it as My Strange Addiction meets The Substance and I was here for it.

Martha is a trans woman with a picture perfect life. A great husband and stepdaughter. The impossible happens when she becomes pregnant, which in no way should happen considering she doesn't have a uterus. Her husband (Leo) doesn't know she's trans and overjoyed to become a father again.

I was surprised this was a debut book. It was well written, entertaining, and didn't have the awkward writing style and character conversations a lot of debut writers have. I'm looking forward to seeing what this author puts out in the future.

This book definitely won't be for everyone but the girlies who love weird girl lit will eat it up.

Thank you Samantha Josephs, NetGalley & Putnam for the ARC of this book. ❤️

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carrying was everything I wanted it to be and more. It’s a weird girl cult classic in the making. It’s gross, it’s campy, it’s raw … literally. I was so intrigued by Martha, hearing her weigh both agonizing sides of her secret from Leon. To me, her sickness felt like the secret eating at her, going deeper and deeper with every lie she tacked on each month from her husband, while the pregnancy was ultimately the truth coming to fruition. I found the speculative elements fascinating, à la The Substance. I never wanted to put this book down; each chapter ended in the perfect place, keeping me ravenous for more. Samantha Josephs crushed it with this novel, and I’ll be in line for whatever she does next.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an unrelenting read. I found myself disgusted and horrified but yet fascinated? I felt like I needed to stop reading for my sanity but I couldn’t stop. I’m a horror fan and not sensitive to gore, but the body horror and descriptions in this one had my blood curdling. I went from feeling sorry for Martha to being scared of her!

Overall, I can honestly say that I have never read a book like this, and it is truly unique. Please do mind your triggers on this one!

Rating: 3 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Dani G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

I love a weird lil book. It tied together its themes of womanhood, bodily autonomy, gender expression/dysphoria, and motherhood very well. It got some points knocked off for being marketing as horror when it really didn’t feel like it. It’s very comedic at times with some great quotes, but I think that having nasty imagery doesn’t make it horror. I think this book is gonna join the pantheon of weird girl litfic.

Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the digital ARC!

[Lydia Hephzibah · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

setting: California
rep: trans protagonist & author

This book is (as Martha would say) so cunt. I was rooting for Martha the whole time - I loved her as a character and I loved where the story went and how it ended. The synopsis markets it as horror but I'd say this is way more Weird Girl than horror, and I dug it! hope this gets the love it deserves once it's out!

[justclayreads]

I actually couldn’t look away from this book. It’s honestly disturbing. The entertainment value is a 10/10.
This book is certainly not going to be for everyone.

I need some time to ruminate and maybe I’ll update this to be more cohesive.

Thanks to Putnam for an early copy!

[Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

hey, what?!

I have a feeling this book might be a love or hate it! type book because it's definitely not going to work for everyone. I loved it, it was unsettling, it was weird, it was horrible, and it was fun. The final scenes were wild, sort of campy and cinematic, and I loved it.

[rebeccareads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carrying is a gripping, gory, and deeply refreshing take on how violent womanhood can be. It’s charmingly and memorably voiced, both laugh-out-loud funny and deeply touching, and packed to the hilt with some
wild, fun body horror. I couldn’t put it down, and couldn’t stop imagining it on the big screen. Incredible debut from Samantha Josephs!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

[Ruth Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carrying is gonna be one of those books that's polarizing. You'll know if it's for you from the first couple scenes. And let me tell you, this book was for me. It's crass-body-horror-as-incisive-critique-on-autonomy-and-gender-performance cunt.

Martha is a stealth trans woman who relishes her role as a perfect wife to Leon and stepmom for his child Enid. Too afraid to lose everything she has worked so hard for at best, and her life at worst, she keeps her past to herself, wishing she could give Leon the child they so desperately want together. When she starts to get truly unusual cravings, two little lines on the pregnancy test throw her carefully-curated life upside-down. There are no lengths Martha won't go to to feed her unborn child, and no end to Leon's quest to keep his picture-perfect family picture perfect. But Martha is starving, and it's gonna take a second miracle to keep her and her baby alive.

I loved this. It was fast-paced. It was disgusting. It was laugh-out-loud funny. The supporting characters were compelling (and a great reminder that not every gay is queer. Looking at you, Roger). But what I appreciated most was the trust that Martha knew her body best and what she needed, convention be damned, because the true horror in this book is the loss of autonomy and self determination.

Add this one to the canon of Weird Girl Lit immediately. 4.5 stars, rounded up. Movie version starring Bosco, when??

Many thanks to Putnam for the ARC via NetGalley!