But Won’t I Miss Me

Tsao (The Majesties) writes an alternative-reality, sci-fi, body-horror thriller contemplating how society fails mothers, the horror of following the status quo, and, most provocatively, what happens when a person is their own victim. Vivi lives in a world where human mothers who give birth to a child must also experience their own visceral rebirth. The premise might shock and trouble readers, but in the novel’s world the rebirth gives mothers the superhuman strength they need to raise children. Vivi’s rebirth has complications that leave her alone, exhausted, and with a baby to care for. Readers will hang on every detail, falling easily into Tsao’s novel and its complex, flawed but sympathetic characters and unable to shake the unsettling tone set by the title; they won’t be even close to ready for the twist when it drops. A master class in storytelling that will leave readers, if not reborn, forever changed by the experience.