Afterbirth

By Emma Cleary

An unsettling, hypnotic descent into the visceral heart of "mommy horror," Afterbirth is a story of fractured sisterhood, aching hunger, and irrevocable transformation--reverberating with the echoes of classic horror cinema.

In the wake of a fraught and ill-omened romance, Brooke arrives in Vancouver to care for her sister Izzy, who is preparing to undergo reproductive surgery. But Izzy's rapidly decaying apartment building, its hallways stalked by an ominous figure known only as Medusa, offers little of the refuge the sisters need.

Seeking solace in the horror movies her ex-girlfriend loved, Brooke soon finds traces of horror bleeding from the screen into their lives. Old wounds reopen and new tensions surface. When Brooke begins to exhibit strange symptoms of her own, the line between self and sister blurs, and their concern for each other twists into a tangled obsession.

Eerie, threaded with yearning, and startlingly original, Emma Cleary's haunting literary debut explores loneliness, motherhood, and the body's threatened autonomy. The novel blooms with the dark desires we suppress or surrender to--until only one question remains: who, or what, will survive when all unravels?

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0063420945
• ISBN13: 9780063420946
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

I received this ARC book as a goodreads giveaway. I want to thank Emma Cleary and Harper Collins Pub

I received this ARC book as a goodreads giveaway. I want to Brooke and Izzy are the two main characters of this book. Izzy is having surgery and it didn't go as expected and she had to have a full hysterectomy. Brooke is the younger sister who came to help take care of Izzy during her hospital stay and after her hospital stay. I will not spoil the book for any reader. Just know this book is twisted and creepy. Emma Cleary has captured mommy horror really well. I am not one for horror books and movies but I half way enjoyed Afterbirth. So I am giving this book a four star rating due to how well she captured mommy horror, the twists and turns, the unexpected help from Medusa that Brooke received, and Sunshine (Izzy's dog). I did not like the fact that in some parts of the book it was hard to figure out if Brooke was dreaming or having a flashback, and the ending not knowing if Brooke was able to go back home.