Obstetrix

• Author: Naomi Kritzer
• Genre: Horror
• Publication Date: June 9, 2026
• Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ARC of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

From the Hugo award-winning author Naomi Kritzer comes a tense portrait of a future we desperately hope to escape.

O Lord, deliver us.

Doctor Liz has just been acquitted for performing the last abortion in North Dakota when she’s kidnapped.

They’re not just any kidnappers, but a fundamentalist cult, deep in the rural west, without respect for law or decency, and in desperate need of an OB/GYN.

Guarded, isolated, without access to the outside world, Liz nevertheless is treated with respect as the only doctor on the compound, but she is very aware of what happened to the last obstetrician they kidnapped.

She must escape, and bring help to the girls trapped at the compound, if it’s the last thing she does.

Kritzer is a new to me author, but I found the premise of the story to be intriguing, and was thrilled when I was approved for an audiobook ARC. The book is narrated by Jennifer Pickens, who captured Liz and her character perfectly. It is a relatively short audiobook, lasting just under 4.5 hours, and I have some thoughts to share.

With America becoming more of a dumpster fire daily, women’s rights and autonomy have been threatened across the country. This book gave the author the perfect setup to discuss heavy themes in the story—abortion rights, bodily autonomy, consent, and a cult—but it was a missed opportunity, and these topics are only discussed shallowly. Despite starting the novel with Liz’s acquittal after performing the last abortion in North Dakota, the topic is barely even discussed, and it felt like there was a huge opening to delve into this that the author didn’t utilize.

It’s easy to like Liz. She’s intelligent, savvy, logical, and resourceful woman. No matter what she was doing, it always felt like she was looking for an opening and planning her chess moves in advance. A woman with her qualities is always a pleasure to read about, and I enjoyed seeing Liz advocate for other women, both in her profession and her personal life. Both are kind of rolled into one when she’s kidnapped to be the obstetrician for a fundamentalist cult, but she never lost her compassion for other women, continuing to fight for them even when they are willing to throw her under the bus. 

As for the cult, they’re not as easy to like. It’s hard to see how a group can go from ‘let’s get together to pray’ to a full-on fundamentalist cult in rural Idaho, but the process does happen slowly. Readers just don’t get to see that develop because the story focuses more on Liz than the cult itself. Liz is outraged that she has been kidnapped to a place she can’t escape from, cut off from the outside world, and watched at all hours, by a group of people who would rather kidnap a doctor for themselves than bringing the women to a doctor’s office or hospital. Unfortunately, not a single one of the cult members left a lasting impression on me. They’re flat and not fully developed, unlike Liz who is a fleshed out character. It basically came down to cult men=bad and cult women=victims, and it was disappointing to see this continue to play out over the course of the story.

Aside from the lack of character development, the pacing felt off, with the ending of the book feeling way too rushed and tied up a bit too neatly for me. We never learn why the cult won’t take women to the hospital when they’re injured. We never learn why they’re so resistant to her medical advice. We don’t really learn much of anything at the cult aside from them practicing their own version of Christianity and sanctioning marriage of young girls (at 13) to significantly older men. I was disappointed that this was just kind of brushed aside, so I never really found any connection to the cult members. They all blurred together, and it felt like there was one single thing that each person was associated with to describe them, instead of being a complete person with assets and flaws. For example, one woman is her assistant/guard. Another woman would like to read but women aren’t allowed to read books. One woman tells stories and labels them as bible stories, even when they are reworked versions of popular stories from outside the bible. 

Overall, this book honestly just felt like it was too short. I would have liked to see more depth in the side characters and the relevant, deep topics that arose over the course of the story. Additionally, I think this could have had much more of an impact if it was a little longer and had given the story more room to develop. The stakes honestly felt very low, and I was disappointed to see that our brilliant and clever doctor who spent her entire career (and kidnapping) in advocating for women, has to rely on a man to save her. It reminded me of The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter, but it didn’t quite hit the same notes. The horror elements weren’t played up to the point where it was actually scary or even nerve-wracking, and instead just felt like a quick rush through to the end of the mystery. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a favorite read of mine, and I thought it could have reached its potential with a few little tweaks, but it wound up being a good way to pass a few hours.

Bottom line: A fast read that doesn’t rise to its potential, with one dimensional side characters and low-stakes involvement, this felt a little rushed so beware when going into this.

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