Don't Miss But Won't I Miss Me by Tiffany Tsao

Yes the pun was intended in the title.

It is not very often that a book I know nothing about ends up completely blowing me away. The last time I can remember this happening in such a visceral way was in 2017 when I read In the Valley of the Sun by Andy Davidson (click here for a discussion of that).

It is infrequent but it is glorious. It is a reader's high we all chase. 

A few months ago I had this experience again when I read But Won't I Miss Me by Tiffany Tsao for my April 2026 Horror Review Column in Library Journal. 

You all saw I gave it a star here, but that star was alongside books by Paul Tremblay and Nat Cassidy, so I worry that how great this book really is will get lost. So for a few weeks now, I have been planning to pair a post about this book here on the general blog with a giveaway of my ARC on the Horror blog to make sure more people see my full thoughts on this novel.

You all, I LOVED THIS BOOK. That title....read it carefully. It may seem awkward, but no, that word placement is intentional. And, as you read, you realize that and it is awesome. The plot is both on the realistic side of SF and totally horrifyingly out of this world. 

Here is the link to all of my notes with access to my draft LJ review via Goodreads. However, to make sure you actually read my thoughts and get this May 2026 release on order right now, I am posting it below as well:

This book is WOW! Great title too. Disorientation of the title, the confusion, is perfect for the story

Three Words That Describe This Book: maternal/body horror, slightly askew to our world, discomfiting

Other words: compelling from the first page, huge twist, visceral, original, thought provoking, intense, honest, "rebirth."

Draft Review: The very best speculative fiction takes readers out of their world, telling a story meant to help them grapple with the important questions staring them in their real world faces. Tsao demonstrates this in her alternative reality science fiction-body horror-thriller, asking readers to contemplate how society fails mothers, the horror of following the status quo, and most provocatively, what happens when you are your own victim? Vivi, a Chinese-Indonesian living in Australia lives in a world where human mothers not only birth a child, but they also experience their own visceral rebirth, an event that will shock and trouble readers, but here it is seen as necessary to give mothers the super human strength they need to raise children. Vivi’s rebirth had complications leaving her alone, exhausted, and with a baby to care for. Readers hang on every detail, falling easily into the world, and its complex, flawed, but sympathetic characters, never able to shake the unsettling tone set by the title, not even close to ready for the twist when it drops. A master class in storytelling that will leave readers, if not reborn, forever changed for the experience. 

Verdict: Tsao gives readers a terrifying, raw, and honest look at motherhood in the vein of horror titles like Tantrum by Rachel Eve Moutlon, Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase, The Push by Ashley Audrain.

Before I get to the set up and how the story is told I need to applaud the author and editors here. The author, for writing a story about postpartum life -- even if you don't sink to depression-- and how being a new mother is disorienting, how it changes your body, and how it can change who you are-- to yourself and others. 

The editor for NOT giving in to the urge to make this book easier on the reader. So many books I read have a "prologue" or let out key details too quickly because editors (and authors) do not trust readers to let the author tell the story and have the story come to you. This book withholds key details from the start, but they are doled out slowly. But there is always enough to keep the reader going here, even when they are not sure where the story is leading them.

This book has a huge and satisfying twist that is the level of mind-blow as Gone Girl was back in 2015 -- a different twist but on that level. And it allows everything to fall into place after.

There is a coda that the book needs. I saw it as a chance for Vivi's son to heal and understand, yes, but more importantly, for readers to also process everything they just read and all of their feelings about the book, the slightly askew world it presents, and how that makes you think about motherhood right now, in our world whether you are a child or a mother. You need a moment to reflect about everything in this book-- from the literal plot to everything it is saying about how the world treats mothers. Without that buffer/coda/space, this book would not land as well. I should be clear, it is not a sappy coda, and it DOES NOT tie up all the loose ends-- in fact it leave a huge one dangling-- but it is there to bring the reader back down and allow them to emotionally reset. Phew. Really brilliant.

Now as a horror novel-- wow! This takes the body horror of pregnancy and child birth to a whole new level of horror. 

The less you know about this book going in the better but know that this book is visceral and honest. It uses a speculative alternative reality to our world to 

It is all told from the perspective of Chinese- Indonesians who have emigrated to Australia. The cultures of all 3 are discussed. That frame was very specific and yet the story is universal. 

A great question here besides what do we owe mothers, how can we help them, how society fails them. Tsao also asks readers to contemplate-- What happens when you are your own victim? What is the price of blindly doing things the way every one does them? How hard it is to question the status quo.

Another brilliant thing about this book-- the main characters here-- none of them are all good or all bad. They are VERY morally gray and yet readers will sympathize with them all. That is hard to do.

The set up-- the less you know the better. This is an alternate reality to ours -- not near future-- parallel. In this world human mothers, after they give birth to a child, experience a rebirth. (But that rebirth is a horror story all onto its own.) The rebirth gives new mothers the super strength they need to raise new humans. They can do it all-- no sleep, no strollers. They can carry and juggle it all at once. Our protagonist and narrator Vivi well she had a "hitch" with her rebirth and it did not take. She is a disabled new mother and society has not time for that. She is our window into this world. We hear her story beginning when she leaves her husband and starts over with the help of an old family friend.

As we follow Vivi, details about this world and what she specifically went through are slowly doled out-- but not so slowly that you want to stop reading. Rather, it is just the right amount sot hat you get to know Vivi and her 2 year old son Cloud. Also it is the right speed of all of the details so that you have time to get settled into this world that is slightly family but not completely. We get flashbacks to gain more understanding. But even as things are explained, it doesn't feel 100% right. We are missing something. What is it? Ahh, once that info is dropped-- the rest of the book falls into place and you will race to the end to finish it.

I cannot stress enough how visceral and troubling the "rebirth" is both on a gross out level but also on a psychological and societal level. 

For readers of raw, visceral, physically and emotionally upsetting, thought provoking, and honest dark speculative fiction about motherhood such as Tantrum by Rachel Eve Moutlon, Womb City by Tlotlo Tsamaase, The Push by Ashley Audrain.

This are my thoughts on But I Won't Miss Me. Now head on over to the Horror blog and get yourself entered to win a copy of this book.