Fetal Position

by Carolyn Huynh

From the author of the Good Morning America Book Club Pick The Fortunes of Jaded Women comes a heart-pounding speculative novel in which a burnt-out corporate woman joins a startup that promises domestic ease and meaning through enforced motherhood—but as women begin to disappear, she must confront the violent cost of complicity before the state-sanctioned solution claims her body for good. Set moments in the near future, “high-value” intelligent women are recruited by a mysterious start-up called Hatch to become traditional wives, to help combat the historically low birthrate and the male loneliness epidemic. The incentives? You’ll no longer have to work your corporate job, you’ll get a subsidized house, land, and a robot butler that’ll do all your errands and domestic labor for you. The catch? You simply trade in your corporate labor for child labor—through being inseminated with organic sperm through a male match. Women in this timeline no longer care for children or marriage, and if they choose to have a child, there’s an option of being inseminated neo-vitro with lab-grown, artificial sperm. The men really are dying out. Hatch believes they’ve privatized a solution to this, but providing incentives upon incentives, and specifically recruiting lonely, corporate women. Lena Do is one of those women. She’s been stuck in corporate America for far too long—even though she’s exceptionally good at her job, she hates her life. The loneliness of the capitalistic milieu and grind is her entire world. She’s lonely, but not in the sense that we know. Like many people around her, she has no nuclear family, no cousins, no support system. Family trees have shrunk the past few generations—and she has residual resentment towards her late mother, the great scientist, Gemma Do, who had her neo-vitro. Lena has no biological father, but the mystery of why her mother chose to have her has haunted her ever since childhood. When Lena gets an invite to Hatch, she leaves behind everything she’s ever known to join a cause she’s been taught her whole life to hate. But when women start disappearing and dying around her, she races against the clock to uncover the truth behind the company before her insemination is successful, and she’s trapped forever. With biting social critique, Fetal Position examines survival, complicity, and the chilling reality of what happens when government policies decide who deserves love—and who deserves to live.

Genres: Asian Literature, Fiction, Dystopia, Science Fiction

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Expected publication December 8, 2026

About the author

Carolyn Huynh is a novelist, screenwriter, and playwright. She loves writing about unhinged women who never learn from their mistakes, but yearn for joy. A homegrown Californian, she resides in Los Angeles with her partner, daughter, and demon girl dog. When she’s not writing, Carolyn daydreams about having iced coffee on a rooftop in Ho Chi Minh City.

Reviews

[Mai H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

ANHPI Month 2026 #6

Carolyn's first book is an in-depth discourse about women in the Vietnamese diaspora, set up and down the west coast.

Her second features the racism and struggles Vietnamese refugees had to face in a small fishing village near Houston.

This book goes in a completely different direction, taking AI and the tradwife narrative and giving it a very Vietnamese American spin. It's giving Silvia Moreno-Garcia.

Part 1: Red

I am obsessed with the tradwife discourse. I have at least two other books on my shelves dedicated to this topic.

In a near world where men are bottom feeders, Lena is a "high-value intelligent woman" that is exhausted from the corporate grind. Her yellow eyes deem her as other, namely that her mother used artificial sperm to create her.

Pippa is a peppy blonde mom of four sons for Hatch, a semi-secretive startup where women are taught to leave behind their hatred for men and expected to rest their bodies for insemination with "natural" sperm.

Here the men aren't degraded. Here they are allowed some freedoms, such as choosing the gender of their future children. All the children at Hatch, from babies to age four, are boys.

We meet James, Lena's match. Every so often, something causes Lena's memory to glitch. Let's hold onto this for later. When it happens with James, she overlooks it, but I didn't.

Who is he? Why are they given the nicest house at Hatch? What was her mother really doing in her lab? Can we trust the AI bots?

Part 2: White

I powered through this part and the next, because 1) the mystery is eating at me and 2) I was on a plane and decided not to work.

Who are Ori's parents? Why is his name making my ears ring like Lena's? Am I AI enhanced? Just kidding.

I'm very curious as to Pippa and Martha's roles in this whole endeavor. Every time I see a "women supporting women" meme I shake my head, because women do not support women.

I won't lie. I never trusted James. I'm not even sure who first said this to me, and my dad loves repeating it, but "he's just a man."

How are the Domexes involved? Obviously, we can't trust the bots. But how much can't we trust the bots?

And this is where it gets interesting. When Lena stumble upon the boys, namely Ori, he is far more intelligent than his age suggests. And the recruited mothers are getting dumber by the day. Are the children inheriting intelligence? Or stealing it?

I suppose we can go back to Pippa and Martha, and the role of women as a whole. Not that I think Pippa is smart enough to back anything solid, but why is a board of women promoting the creation of intelligent boys? It's giving blue pill women.

Lena's brain goes through it best when it's not glitching. What happened to the other women? Why are the rest of the women getting dumber and losing their learned skills? Did the women that left really leave? Did they die?

Part 3: Blue

I knew they were stealing intelligence from the women. I'm so smart. I'd get conned by Hatch, too. How does one live a life of leisure without having to birth four sons?

In wanting to know who was behind this, I knew we couldn't trust a certain man. He's based on a tech billionaire. Make your guesses as to which one. The man is literally insane.

Fantastic dystopian discourse aside, I think my favorite part of this book is that Lena can just be Vietnamese American without the whole book being about that. We're given Lena's surname in Part 1. Her mom makes her thit kho (not named as such, IYKYK) in Part 3. And that's basically it.

On that note, I'd say this is more about fragile masculinity than race. Men should be lonelier.

📱 Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books

[Carm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Fetal Position takes place in a future where women largely run society, robots handle most labor and men have become increasingly irrelevant both economically and reproductively. Birth rates are collapsing, there’s a full-blown “male loneliness epidemic,” and women no longer even need men reproductively thanks to lab-grown sperm. Enter Hatch: a company offering women financial security, beautiful homes and lifelong support in exchange for motherhood. The pitch is simple. Leave the grindset behind and become tradwife propaganda with excellent healthcare.

Hatch never feels cartoonishly evil... but hella creepy. Like if your Instagram feed also had A24 trailer energy. Carolyn Huynh understands exactly how appealing this kind of system would become in a world built on burnout and isolation. Lena isn’t weak for wanting rest or connection. The horror comes from the way autonomy, ambition and identity slowly start getting reframed as obstacles to joy. The book has a very polished, curated kind of creepiness to it. Everything looks comforting on the surface while something deeply wrong buzzes underneath. Strange behavior from the children. Memory glitches. Unsettling AI interactions. The growing sense that women at Hatch are giving up far more than they realize. It all builds into an atmosphere that becomes increasingly unsettling as the story progresses.

If I have any complaint, and believe me, it’s minor, I struggled a little with how quickly I saw certain reveals coming compared to Lena and the other women recruited by Hatch. These are supposed to be some of the smartest, most successful women in society, after all. Why did a DEI hire like me see the red flags first?! 😅 There’s maybe an in-universe explanation for that, but I’m not entirely convinced the timeline fully supports it. Still, I had an absolute blast with this overall.

[Abby · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oooooph. This book did not work for me, which is unfortunate because the premise and description had me hooked and excited to read. I found the writing of this author to be particularly immature and juvenile, which will work well for some readers but didn’t work at all for me.

A lot of the twists were blatantly obvious way before being announced, which made this book ultimately pretty boring. This is an idea that I feel could have been better explored by a different writer maybe? This just came across to me as Tradwife fic handled poorly. Not my fave.

Thank you NetGalley, as always, for the advance read!

[Raymond Muraida · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished reading Fetal Position by Carolyn Huynh last night and then I turned off my iPad, rolled over, and slept like a baby. I know that’s a pretty lame way to start a review. But, what really should have happened when I finished the book was me lying in the dark, wide eyed, concerned, and unable to sleep as Ms. Huynh’s vision of the near future and a society where high-value intelligent women are recruited to become traditional wives in order to combat a historically low birthrates, and, if the women agree, they will get riches, housing, land, and a robot that will wait on them 24/7 all for the price of being many-times over medically inseminated, go full term if pregnated, and then start over again, should have worried me, enthralled me, and thoroughly convince me that the premise of Fetal Position was indeed a brutal portrayal of our very near future.

Well…as I mentioned, I slept like a baby.

Fetal Position has a great premise and a super main character in Lena Do to journey through this dystopian world. However, I felt the emotional aspect of the novel fell flat, even from the beginning. Lena did not seem like someone who would sign away her life to Hatch. As a person who could see patterns in everything, the Lena portrayed would have seen from the start something was not exactly good with Hatch.

Many times, throughout the novel, I felt Lena was acting like Lois Lane from Superman who had slyly infiltrated Hatch to work on an expose. She was always hearing and seeing things that she should not have ever heard or seen unless she was on an actual fact-finding mission to expose Hatch. And for goodness sakes, when she did hear or see things, I kept thinking RUN LENA RUN, but no. Like a good Lois Lane, she was gonna get the story no matter what happens next. The reason I kept thinking RUN LENA RUN was because Hatch, a huge corporation that was even more powerful than initially described, would have killed off Lena, disappeared her, or shackled her in a dungeon to continue their nefarious business practices. Plus, if she could read patterns so well, she should have been miles away from Hatch; but instead, she used really weak reasons to stay.

The robots were never portrayed consistently as in some scenes they seem to act as super-cops with infrared capabilities and then two scenes later, more like Barney Fife with a broken flashlight.

For the most part, ignoring some of the not-so-great scenes and plotting, I was intrigued by Fetal Position as I was hoping for a satisfying ending. The first half of the book did move well and kept my interest. The last few chapters, well, they kind of had things that made me sit up and say “wait…what?” I mean, seriously, deus ex machina much!

I will say that I enjoyed reading Fetal Position and, more than likely, many readers will. I’m just disheartened that the full potentials of this novel were not met. Fetal Position could have been a contender!

An E-ARC of Fetal Position by Carolyn Huynh was provided by Atria books via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fetal Position by Fetal Position was the kind of dystopian novel that made me uncomfortable in a way that felt intentional and honestly a little too realistic for comfort.

As someone who raised her daughter to be independent, ambitious, and never define her worth through a man, this book hit a nerve for me. The entire concept of women being gently manipulated back into “traditional roles” under the disguise of comfort, luxury, and fulfillment was honestly terrifying. Carolyn Huynh takes the tradwife narrative, corporate burnout, AI, loneliness, and reproductive politics and twists them into something that feels believable enough to make you stop and think.

Lena Do is exhausted from the nonstop corporate grind and gets pulled into Hatch, a company promising women a softer, easier life through motherhood and domesticity. At first glance, Hatch almost sounds appealing—beautiful homes, financial stability, robot assistants, no more hustle culture. But underneath all of it is this unsettling message that women should shrink themselves to solve society’s problems and make men feel important again.

That’s where this book really worked for me.

I appreciated that Lena wasn’t written as weak for wanting rest or connection. She’s lonely, burned out, emotionally complicated, and trying to figure out where she belongs. But the story never loses sight of how dangerous it becomes when women are pushed to sacrifice their intelligence, independence, and identity for the comfort of others.

The atmosphere throughout the book is incredibly creepy without relying on nonstop action. There’s this constant feeling that something is wrong. The memory glitches, the AI bots, the disappearing women, the strange behavior of the children—it all slowly builds into something much darker than I expected.

I did figure out parts of the twist fairly early, and there were moments where the pacing felt repetitive for me, which kept this from being a full 5-star read. But overall, I was still very invested in the bigger commentary and flew through the second half.

What I also loved was that Lena’s Vietnamese American identity existed naturally within the story without becoming the entire story. It added depth without overshadowing the dystopian themes.

This book feels like a warning wrapped inside speculative fiction. It’s about power, control, loneliness, capitalism, fragile masculinity, and the ways society still tries to convince women that becoming smaller is somehow the answer.

And personally? I’ll always root for women choosing their own success, their own identity, and their own future—regardless of what a man or society says they should want.

[Autumn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first 100 pages of this book were a disservice to the rest of it. It felt like such a long and at times repetitive introduction into the society it takes place in. After the first 100 pages I flew through this book very eager to find out if I was right about a lot of my assumptions which for the most part I was.

Fetal Position is such an interesting look into how women play a role in our own oppression. Even in a matriarchal society women are still working to the bone and pitting ourselves against each other. This book was such a fascinating look into how we view career women as well as mothers specifically within a capitalist society.

That all being said, there were a lot of gaps and a few questions I had throughout this book that never got answered. For example the book says the majority of men are asexual so I assumed that lesbianism would be brought up at some point but it’s actually not mentioned at all in this book (no the ending didn’t count). I know a huge part of this book is about how capitalism overworks people which means they don’t have time to have lives outside of work but considering this book takes place in a matriarchal society and men are looked down upon I assumed women would be seeking relationships with other women but that was simply not the case which I thought was very odd and a misstep. Another thing that threw me off was that using lab grown sperm was so deeply shamed despite that seeming hypocritical considering a woman would have to sleep with a man or be inseminated with a man’s sperm in order to have a baby. Wouldn’t that also be shameful in this society since men are so looked down upon? If having a child is embarrassing isn’t it inherently embarrassing that your parent(s) chose to have a child whether the sperm was lab grown or not?

Despite my grievances and confusion about some aspects of this society this book is very socially relevant in terms of talking about trad wives, the male loneliness epidemic, the rise of AI, and the declining birth rate. Sometimes this book felt a little too real but how the women talked and said the buzz words I just listed made this book fall flat for me. Some of the women side characters just felt a little too vapid even within the context of everything that was going on at Hatch and I think the dialogue in this book could have used a little more fine tuning.

Thank you Netgalley for providing me this eArc in exchange for an honest review.

[Florence · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 4. I was drawn to this book because I’m in the same position as the women in this story: corporate role, feeling like I’ve sold my soul for money, lots of expertise and sufficient wealth but with few remaining hours in the week to enjoy the fruits of my labour.

The premise is that women in respected corporate roles with a ton of expertise in their fields are recruited to become trad wives in an idyllic community where everything is provided for you. House, car, children, you name it.

Secretly, I wondered what it would be like to be pampered as in this story for all these trad wives are. Thank goodness for this story I think I’ll stick with my job for a while longer 😂

Regarding the pacing of the book, I was really taken by the plot all the way to about 50% of the book, then it became pretty easy to guess who the villain was and what was going to happen.

Even though I wouldn’t give the mystery element of the book more than 3 stars, I still liked the premise of the book, discussing the role reversal in society, what could happen if the male loneliness epidemic were to run its course (we’re supposedly in the middle of it right now), the infusion of bots and AI into what could be a near-future scenario, and the role bots could play in human relationships. Would humans ever consider bots part of their nuclear family? All interesting ideas to reflect on as you’re reading this book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Simon and Schuster for the arc. All opinions are my own.

[Brooklyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars rounded up.

I was immediately drawn to this story because of the description. It is a very relevant topic in today's political climate with discussions pertaining to reproductive rights, climate change, AI, and government involvement in various aspects of our lives. The story started off really well, and it was interesting to see how women had become top pillars of society while the men had fallen behind and essentially become second class citizens. I thought the idea of a "lab spawn" baby that doesn't require human sperm was very interesting.

The first moment that gave me pause was Lena's decision to suddenly quit her corporate job and accept Hatch's decision. While we were provided with a pretty clear picture of her burnout and extreme loneliness, there wasn't a lot of introspection that lead to her decision except the last day at work when the supposed financial crisis hit. Then once Lena got to Hatch, it felt like the entire plot went off the rails. There were times where Lena's preoccupation with her mother grew to be very repetitive and distracting. I also felt that events happened and then we jumped to a flashback that seemed kind of irrelevant and out of place. And then the ending and the final reveal felt too convenient and altogether dissatisfying.

I really wanted this to be better or executed in a way that wasn't so obvious what the author was trying to say, but it fell flat and did not meet my expectations. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the eARC!

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

[NetGalley eARC] A brutal read: Fetal Position is a fascinating, slightly unhinged sociopolitical science fiction, and I loved every second of it. So brilliantly written; Carolyn Huynh has her finger on the pulse of all perspectives and edges of gender dynamics, both current and historical. Fetal Position is set decades into the future, women are finally at the top of the pyramid. With the aid of domestic and work robots, and the invention of artificial insemination, there is absolutely no use for men. Life is about women climbing the hierarchy, working until they burn out and calling it success.
But Lena Do is certainly burnt out at her corporate job, and is intrigued by The Hatch: a program advocating for traditional living— women enjoying a luxurious domestic life, with their only job being to conceive and give birth during this period of low birth rate. What’s there to be scared of, when life is already so empty and exhausting?
In this dystopian novel, Lena uncovers the suspicious and dangerous undertones of The Hatch’s objectives, while reflecting on her own mother and bot in her adolescence. The cadence was well balanced, leaving the reader curious and delving for more information. In all, this was so well done as a thriller and scientific political think piece. While there are still some unanswered questions by the end of the book, I felt like it hit really significant POVs of our current age. How do we separate power and capitalism? And what is feminism without choice and judgment?

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been on a trad wife horror fiction kick and was thrilled when NetGalley and Atria Books approved my request for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Fetal Position was marketed as a "biting social critique" set in a not-so-distant speculative future. I was sold on the concept, the title, and the protagonist, doubly othered by her ethnicity and her status as "lab-grown," i.e. created with artificial sperm. I was primed for an Atwood-level depiction of the fall of man, full of tension, dread, and socio-political commentary.

Dear reader, I was woefully disappointed.

There is a monumental issue with the writing in this novel. The author almost exclusively tells, rather than shows, and seems unencumbered by world-building, a death knell in speculative fiction, or character development. The main character is deeply uncurious and constantly contradicting herself. Her relationships with other characters are flat, sparse, and then, a hundred pages later, suddenly of immense value. In the absence of world-building or character development, Fetal Position trudges along, propped up by our protagonist's childlike internal musings. This honestly feels like a book written for very young readers who are looking to make the jump to adult fiction without being too upset by content or difficult concepts.

MakeLikes: If you are looking for speculative fiction for adults that explores gender, I would recommend Naomi Alderman's The Power, Gretchen Felker-Martin's Manhunt, Annie Bot by Sierra Greer, Leslie J. Anderson's The Unmothers, or Atwood's MaddAddam Trilogy.

[Nikki Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing this advance copy for review. All opinions are my own.

This book was so creepy in the best way. I flew through it.

Fetal Position follows Lena, a burned out corporate woman who joins a company promising women an easier life through motherhood, financial security, and freedom from the daily grind. What starts as an appealing escape slowly turns into something much darker.

What really made this book stand out was its commentary on burnout, gender roles, and the pressure placed on women. As a full time working mom, so many of the themes hit close to home. The idea of wanting to escape the rat race, even just for a little peace, felt incredibly relatable.
The most unsettling part is how realistic it all feels. Even though it's set in the near future, it never felt like a huge stretch, which made the story even more terrifying. It also serves as a reminder of what can happen when society tries to overcorrect complex problems with simple solutions.

The pacing slowed a bit in the middle, keeping it from being a five star read for me, but I was hooked enough to keep turning the pages. If you like dystopian thrillers that give you plenty to think about, this one is worth picking up.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me unnnnncomfy. (Which was totally the point!)

The premise is absolutely wild, but what really stressed me out was how plausible parts of it felt. The social commentary here is not subtle at all, but I actually liked that. (Ft. men should be lonelier.)

I was definitely invested in figuring out what was really going on and found myself flying through parts of this. At the same time, I did get a little frustrated by the pacing. Some of the reveals felt a little too drawn out, and there were moments where it seemed like Lena knew more than I did, which made me feel a little disconnected from her.

I also think I wanted a bit more from the characters/relationships themselves. The ideas were really fascinating, but I never felt quite as emotionally invested in the people as I was in the questions the book was asking. (But, shout out to Dog!!)

This was probably more of a 3.5 read for me, but I'm rounding up because I realllyyy wanted to know what was gonna happen. Also, I kept picturing it as a show. I think it would make a great one.

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Carolyn Huynh for the eARC!

[Ellie Moon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

I was very intrigued by the description of this book as I love speculative fiction with a feminist lens. While I did enjoy this book, it fell short of being a great read for me.

The book is heavily plot driven, whereas I was hoping for a more of an introspective narrative given the important themes explored. Instead, the message and themes are heavily advertised from the very first pages of the book without much room for nuance or exploration. The story presents a future that’s somehow apolitical and completely non-intersectional — completely focussed on the gender binary. I found this frustratingly simplistic and it inhibited any nuanced or truly relevant narrative complexity.

As for the plot itself, some of the twists were made very obvious to the reader, but it took a long time for the main character to catch on. It ultimately felt as if the author didn’t trust the reader enough to create a more complex world and leave fewer breadcrumbs to the ending. I think this is a common trap for dystopian books and unfortunately one that this book falls into.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lena Do has no biological father, she was grown with her mother’s genes in a lab. And now that her mother has passed away, she has no family. This is how it is in the near future. Women are working high stress jobs, robots do the manual labor, and birth rates are way down. So when the opportunity comes along to go to a place called Hatch, Lena takes it. In exchange for loaning their bodies to increase the birth rate, women are told they would get paid, a house, and a robot to wait on them hand and foot. But when Lena arrives, something seems off. Women are disappearing and dying.

I gave this book four stars, but there are some things in the book that contradict themselves. I really liked the premise. And I like how it went back to her past during some chapters. I will say there were some parts that were predictable from the get go, but I still wanted to finish it and get the whole picture. There are parts of this book that hit close to home, and make you think that in a way this could happen.

Overall, I think this was a good read and look forward to reading her other books.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me early access.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fetal Position drops you into a near-future society where exhausted, high-achieving women are offered an escape through Hatch: financial security, beautiful homes, freedom from corporate life, and a promise of purpose through motherhood.

This book felt disturbingly believable. Fetal Position takes burnout culture, gender expectations, loneliness, and society’s obsession with “traditional values” and twists them.

Hatch initially seems...appealing. The promise of security, rest, purpose, and escape from corporate exhaustion never feels ridiculous, which makes everything feel uneasy as the truth slowly unravels.

The growing tension and the way the story explores autonomy, control, and complicity without ever feeling heavy-handed. Every revelation pulled me in deeper, and the unease just kept building until I couldn’t put it down.

Sharp, unsettling, and incredibly addictive.

Thank you so much Atria Books, Carolyn Huynh, and NetGalley for the #gifted earc.
All opinions are my own 🖤

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had such a fascinating premise: what if we actually overcame the patriarchy and women were superior to men. Well, for one, the fertility rates would drop immensely as women were the big wigs in all jobs imaginable. Our main character, Lena, is one of these big wigs but decides to leave it all and take herself and her past traumas to Hatch. We follow her through her inner dialogue and outer experiences as she joins in the movement to have women slow down and feel less lonely. But there are robots and bigger schemes going on.

All in all, the book was good. I did feel like I was getting dragged back and forth from her past and present timelines without actually gleaning new information; most of Lena’s past experiences with her mom all hinted at the one big “secret” about her, though it felt easy to catch early early on.

Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books, for the ARC read in exchange for my honest review.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I am STUNNED. This is the most creative, most on point, most realistically terrifying dystopian novel I have ever read. I immediately purchased the author’s prior two novels after finishing this ARC. I cannot put into words what an amazing author Carolyn Huynh is. She is an absolute genius and the way she crafted this entire story from start to finish should be studied by anyone thinking of entering the dystopian genre.

I don’t want to give anything away by saying too much in this review, because I believe going into it somewhat blind is what makes the story that much more impactful, but know that you will not be disappointed OR feel like there isn’t a resolution at the end. You will be nodding your head in satisfaction while picking your jaw up off the floor.

Genius.

Pure genius.

**This ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.**

[Melissa DeLong-Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

HELLOOOOOO? Five full, enthusiastic stars. I finished this across a day, bringing my book to the family holiday gathering because I wasn't putting it down once I started, I simply HAD to know what was going on. I'd recommend going in as blind as possible.

Further comments hidden behind spoiler tag! If you like sci-fi, future-world dystopian stories, or the show Black Mirror, this is the one. Diving right in with men being basically obsolete and women thinking they'll do anything to get out of the monotony of a corporate life was an incredibly interesting premise. Having sci-fi elements wound around the narrative of motherhood worked really well and the plot moves at a pace that keeps you actively engaging throughout.

*Thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC!*

[Bree Doby · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75⭐️- this book was sooo eerie, and the idea that it didn’t feel that far-fetched enhanced the atmosphere.

Lena Do exists in a world where women run everything, AI bots help, and men are being rendered unneeded in society. due to a bunch of reasons including corporate burnout and loneliness Lena decides to leave her life and join Hatch—a company that promises women boatloads of money, relaxation, pampering, a house, and more in exchange for their bodies🫪.

the main drawbacks for me were 1) this honestly could’ve been 15-20 pages longer, especially at the end so it didn’t feel rushed, and 2) some of the “twists” were easily guessable to me (which is saying a lot) and it made me wonder why it wasn’t as obvious to the women in the book, or even just Lena?

thank you atria books & netgalley for the arc!!!

[midori · Rating 5 out of 5]

Received this as an ARC around lunchtime, worked a full day, and then gobbled this up in a single sitting. This was riveting from start to finish. Rarely does a novel so wholly absorb in and satiate you from beginning to end.

This is one of those books that could easily find itself on a reading list or syllabus for an English course or introductory women’s studies class. It’s timely and frighteningly on the nose for the direction society could head in on matters like the so-called “male loneliness epidemic”, incel ideology in youth, the rise of tradfem/homesteading, and selective feminism in the face of late stage capitalism. I was engrossed, and I’ll be buying a physical copy come December. Highly recommend.

[Mehek · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 - I really liked this! it’s hard to nail a mix of creepiness and heart but somehow, those are the exact words I’d use to describe this book. I really got Lena and her choice to join Hatch - especially in a world where while men no longer hold women down, seeing the bonds of womanhood and sisterhood thin under the strain of capitalism was probably just as sinister as the main plot point of the book.

like other reviewers - I did have some guesses as to where I thought it was going and was more or less right on a fair share of them, but I didn’t enjoy it any less for it because of the heart- watching Lena look for her family and her connections in it all was heartwarming.

off to go buy some lemon pesto I guess :)!

[Sarah Harney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Atria Books for an ARC of Fetal Position via NetGalley.

I love a good speculative fiction book and the reproductive angle sounded very intriguing, but unfortunately this did not work for me. There was so much plot focus on describing societal and technological changes (decline of the patriarchy, AI robots, lab sperm vs. "organic" sperm and more) that the any emotional aspect of the story was lost. The whole reading experience felt very mechanical and it took me much longer to read than such a short book typically would. Overall, a lot of interesting ideas but without enough heart and soul to make it memorable.

2.5 stars

[Audrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 10%

This book felt weird. I should have loved it but I felt like the characters fell flat and the writing style didn't portray the proper amount of dystopia that was supposed to be felt in this book. I felt that the main character was a bit unlikeable and I really did not appreciate how quickly she fell for the Hatch propaganda. Furthermore, I felt that her relationship with her mother was black and white. I really enjoyed the concept of this book, though, and I thought that the plot was super interesting, almost 'Handmaid's Tale'-y.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC.

[Dahlia (ofpagesandprint) · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Fetal Position is a thoughtful, propulsive speculative novel.

I devoured this one. From the first page, Carolyn Huynh captivated me with her vivid, well-developed characters. Lena was a compelling main character, and the character development was excellent. The story beautifully explored (and critiqued) societal norms, motherhood, womanhood, the corporate workplace, burnout, family, and the future of technology in robotics and fertility. The settings were immersive and cinematic, and Huynh’s development of Earth’s near future was excellent. The plot was gripping, and the pacing fit the story nicely. Huynh’s prose was raw, urgent, beautiful, and relatable. I highly recommend this one!

Thank you to the author for the free ARC!

[Stephanie Verheyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

[ARC obtained from NetGalley]

I thought this was a really interesting concept, but I would have liked some more depth in certain parts of the plot. Lena’s decision to join Hatch, the science behind what Hatch was doing, and the wrap-up at the end all felt a bit surface level and rushed. The character building also wasn’t as deep as I would have liked. It was a quick read and kept me engaged, but I feel like this had the potential to be a gripping, visceral thriller and just didn’t push far enough.

[katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to AtriaBooks and NetGalley for the eARC!

Oh this was so interesting and intriguing from start to finish. From its examination of the patriarchal structure we have come to live under, to the domination of AI, Fetal Positions gives insight into what it means to survive in an ever evolving world that never seems to want to evolve to better suit you. While I saw many of the twists coming, I found myself eagerly going back to this book whenever I had a chance!

4.5/5 rounded up

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dystopian fiction that looks at motherhood and bodily autonomy? Count me in! I thoroughly enjoyed this well-written and engaging novel. I felt this novel offered new insights and ways to talk about bodily autonomy and the role of the government and corporations. I really enjoyed the author's world-building. It was masterful.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Amanda Newby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arc received from netgalley

This was a great read!! I loved the concept and the execution. The only thing I’d have liked is a bit more to the ending, without giving it away I would’ve liked to know how that came to happen and what is actually between them.

[Ruzaika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Genuinely unsettling in the best possible way. The premise alone had me: a near-future where women have overcome the patriarchy, men are economically and reproductively obsolete, and yet, here comes a slick startup trying to coax ambitious, burned-out women back into domesticity and motherhood with the promise of beautiful homes, robot butlers, and financial security. The tradwife pipeline, but make it corporate and privatised.

The author nails the specific creepiness of something that looks appealing on the surface while something deeply, quietly wrong hums beneath it. Strange children, memory glitches, unsettling AI, and a growing sense that the women here are giving up far more than they signed up for.

The social commentary is sharp and disturbingly very plausible. The way women get gently nudged into shrinking themselves to fix society's problems dressed up as liberation and luxury is genuinely chilling.

My one gripe is that I wanted more from the characters and relationships. The ideas Huynh is exploring are so fascinating that I found myself more invested in the questions the book was asking than in the people living them out. I also clocked some of the reveals before Lena did, which was occasionally frustrating given she's supposed to be one of the sharpest women in the room, and the pacing wobbles a bit as a result.

But honestly? I flew through the second half and the discomfort felt entirely intentional. This is speculative fiction as a warning, and it lands.

[Carolyn Huynh]

Dear readers!

Allow me to introduce my third book. It's a complete genre shift (grounded sci-fi /smidge of dystopia) from my previous works, but hopefully you can still see me in the subtext. I hope you enjoy and thank you for coming along for the ride.

All my gratitude -Carolyn