In her superbly disturbing third title, Fetal Position, Carolyn Huynh makes a sharp departure from her earlier, lighter contemporary novels, The Fortunes of Jaded Women and The Family Recipe. With chilling clarity, she creates a dystopian future in which women are the power elite, yet are so overburdened that some choose to escape their lonely pressure-cooker lives for a halcyon version of traditional motherhood.
Overwhelmed Lena Do, private equity expert, is about to hit burnout: "To outsiders, I had held power, autonomy, and was at the top of my game. But I was tired, a fraud, and hated who I had become." Her late mother "solved the burden of domestic labor" by revolutionizing androids to intuit human needs. An early model, which Lena profanely, insultingly named "Dog," ironically became the nurturer Gemma never was--so much so that in adulthood, Lena "[misses] Dog more than [her] own mother." Lena never understood why Gemma had "gone through the trouble of having a child through lab-spawned sperm, only to end up mothering her own research and bots instead." That "neo-vitro" legacy manifested in Lena's "bioluminescent yellow" eyes, which marked her as a target for never-ending, discomfiting attention.
In this strange new world, women lack the time and inclination to reproduce, which means humans are dying out. To counter critically low birth rates, a mysterious new company, Hatch, is recruiting "high-value, intelligent women" with an irresistible invitation: "join Hatch as a traditional wife. If you choose to accept, your current salary will be tripled, you'll be given several acres, a subsidized home, and a sperm match companion." Exhausted Lena succumbs, but amid the luxury and pampering--plus the rather attractive, temptingly empathetic, potential father-to-be of her future children--she quickly realizes she's under constant surveillance. Questionable, even fatal medical procedures control bodies. Lies are everywhere. Motherhood equals entrapment. With Lena's next insemination looming, survival becomes a frantic race.
Huynh presents her provocative thriller in two timelines: flashbacks to Lena's childhood spent trying to understand enigmatic Gemma are intertwined with Lena's currently aborted career and transfer to Hatch. Huynh deftly layers her storytelling with sharply observed details--office décor combining "drenched" white walls and hard modern furniture that "screamed investors," "a quiet house was what happened when your entire lineage boiled down to two people left." With piercing insight, Huynh expertly confronts motherhood and identity, gender and power, freedom and choice. The result is an unforgettable premise both fearsome and aspirational. --Terry Hong
Shelf Talker: Carolyn Huynh brilliantly explores a dystopic near-future in which powerful women facing debilitating burnout choose a version of traditional motherhood instead.