Mother Is Watching by Karma Brown: A dystopian horror that turns pregnancy into a battleground

In Mother Is Watching by Karma Brown, releasing March 17, 2026, a routine art restoration spirals into a chilling exploration of surveillance, bodily autonomy, and the quiet horror of a society that thinks it knows what’s best for women. What begins as the story of a haunted painting becomes something far more insidious—a dystopian nightmare hiding beneath a gothic veneer.

Mathilde “Tilly” Crewson, a thirty-nine-year-old art conservator and mother, is hired to restore The Mother, a fire-scarred painting rumored to be the lost fourth work of a female surgeon-turned-artist. Not long after the canvas arrives in her home, Tilly discovers she is unexpectedly pregnant. Then the insects come. The whispers. The visions of her long-dead mother. The line between psychological unraveling and supernatural intrusion blurs as the painting’s influence tightens around her.

Here’s the thing the book summary doesn’t tell you: this is also a dystopian novel. That omission left me off balance for the first chunk of the book. I don’t mind dystopia—in fact, I love it—but when a publisher misrepresents a novel’s genre, it creates a discordant reading experience. Instead of settling into the story, I found myself trying to figure out what I was actually reading. It’s frustrating, and I’d argue it does more harm than good. Readers deserve to know what kind of world they’re stepping into.

And this world is unmistakably near-future. Technology has burrowed even deeper into daily life, most notably through the MotherWise program, a nationwide initiative that monitors and “supports” pregnant women. On the surface, it offers free resources, health tracking, and peace of mind. In practice, it’s invasive, paternalistic, and quietly authoritarian.

Tilly is enrolled in MotherWise against her will by her husband, Wyatt—because “it’s his baby, too.” He begins receiving health alerts about her body. He has influence over her medical care. After she complains of a headache, she’s switched from her chosen female OB/GYN to a male MotherWise doctor. The program—and by extension, her husband—gains increasing control over decisions that should be hers alone.

Yes, it’s his baby too. But it’s still her body.

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Brown does an excellent job dramatizing the tension between shared parenthood and bodily autonomy. The more authority society grants Wyatt, the more he takes. He initially appears kind, supportive, reasonable. But once given institutional permission to weigh in on Tilly’s pregnancy, he becomes manipulative and domineering. It’s a disturbing but believable evolution, and one that underscores how quickly control can masquerade as concern.

At the same time, the novel refuses to make things easy. Tilly does appear unstable. She experiences hallucinations. She acts in ways that could endanger herself and her unborn child. As readers, we understand that the source of her unraveling lies outside her—in the painting, in whatever malevolent force clings to it. But the society around her doesn’t know that. From the outside, she looks like a risk.

So where is the line? When does protecting a child become controlling a woman? When does help become surveillance?

Brown doesn’t offer tidy answers, but she does make one thing painfully clear: the danger lies in allowing society—or husbands—to infiltrate a woman’s womb under the guise of protection. Resources for mothers are essential. Support is essential. But autonomy is nonnegotiable. Once a culture decides a pregnant body is public property, the slide into authoritarianism is swift.

Atmospherically, the novel is a fascinating blend. The near-future tech and state-sponsored oversight create a cold, clinical backdrop, while the painting itself evokes classic gothic horror—hauntings, inherited trauma, the sins of the past bleeding into the present. The juxtaposition works surprisingly well. The sterile glow of digital monitoring only heightens the dread of ancient, unnameable forces pressing in from the shadows.

Fans of The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan will find much to admire here: the scrutiny of motherhood, the bureaucratic overreach, the chilling suggestion that “support” systems may be more punitive than protective. But Mother Is Watching leans harder into horror, layering supernatural menace over its social critique.

By the time Tilly realizes the only way to sever her bond with The Mother may be to destroy it, the novel has fully committed to its dark vision. The painting may have plans of its own—but so does the society watching her.

Mother Is Watching is an unsettling, genre-blending story that asks who really owns a pregnant body—and what happens when that answer is anything other than the woman herself. If you read it, I’d love to know where you landed on Tilly’s choices. Did the horror work for you? And how did you feel about MotherWise? Share your thoughts in the comments.

An advance reader copy of this book (ARC) was provided to me by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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