Delicate Condition

Product Information

Anna Alcott is desperate to be pregnant. But as she tries to balance her increasingly public life with a grueling IVF journey, she starts to suspect that someone is going to great lengths to make sure her pregnancy never happens. Crucial medicines are lost. Appointments get swapped without her knowledge. And even when she finally manages to get pregnant, not even her husband is willing to believe that someone's playing a twisted game with her. Enter: Delicate Condition, Valentine’s heart-pounding and unputdownable 12th novel (which is soon to inspire the newest season of American Horror Story). Following Anna Alcott, an actress who’s filled with joy over her long-awaited pregnancy until she begins suspecting that someone (or some thing) may be doing everything in their power to stop her from having the baby, it’s one of the summer’s most propulsive thrillers. And while the possible supernatural force messing with Anna certainly adds some tension, the book’s biggest scares come from the (only slightly exaggerated) realities of being pregnant: both the often-uncomfortable physical changes as well as the burdensome mental toll.

Anna and Dex desperately want to have a baby. After multiple IVF treatments, they learn that it was successful and Anna is pregnant. Simultaneously, strange things start to happen! For instance, her appointment times are changed, medications misplaced, stolen items and someone is following her. Is she going crazy and getting forgetful or is it someone else doing all this and why?? Following their move to a temporary location of safety, Anna is told she has had a miscarriage. Or is she still pregnant? One of Delicate Condition’s most powerful elements is Anna’s increasing belief that when it comes to advocating for herself, she’s entirely on her own. As supportive as her husband, doctor, and friends may be, none of them is as convinced as she is that her baby is in imminent danger. While the situation is obviously exaggerated (most pregnant women aren’t worried their fetus might actually be a demon), the gaslighting Anna faces is all too real. I want to thank the author " Danielle Valentine", the publisher "Sourcebooks Landmark" and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this When Anna finally gets pregnant, these interferences escalate but no one, including her husband, believes her. Still, they retreat to the Hamptons, only for things to take a more sinister turn.During this time we also find out that Anna has an online stalker (I mean she is quite famous). Then someone breaks into their NY apartment. This is all too much for Anna and Dex, so they go and stay at a friend’s private beach house. Anna needs to take care of herself and the growing baby inside of her. While at this beach house, Anna starts to crave bizarre foods/meats, she develops a horrible rash on her body, her hair starts to fall out in clumps, she hears noises in the attic and outside her window, the baby moves and gives her sharp pains throughout her body. Nobody believes Anna, and isn’t there anyone out there who can help her? After it happens again, and again, she KNOWS she is still pregnant - but nobody believes her. Her doctors say it’s impossible; they’ve done ultrasounds to confirm the loss. Even Anna knows that she FELT her body release the child, but it’s still inside of her. Well, at least *something* is…

While watching AHS " Delicate" I am enthralled so far how the show is following the book although I'm sure it will probably take it's own horrific spin in a few more episodes! I highly recommend not missing out on this crazy, good book! When the increasingly cryptic threats drive her out of her Brooklyn brownstone and into hiding in the cold, gray ghost town that is the Hamptons in the depths of winter, Anna is almost at the end of her rope. They are just as predatory as the depecited men even going as far as to hijake surrogate mothers and thus the hiring parents in tote. No matter which way she chose to end the book, though (and no spoilers here!), it wasn’t going to be pretty. “At the end of the day, I am a horror novelist,” Valentine says. “I always knew I was going to take it to a really dark place.” Danielle Valentine's 2022 YA mystery/thriller, How to Survive Your Murder, was a very popular release and many thriller aficionados loved it, so I was really excited for her adult novel release, DELICATE CONDITION. When I first saw the cover, I thought "omg I need to read this", but when I heard it's the basis for Season 12 of American Horror Story, I definitely knew this needed to be prioritized. I usually steer away from stories involving the importance of pregnancy, but I trusted that if this book was good enough to be subject matter for one of my favorite shows, that it would be a fun time.

Before I start my review, I would like to begin by saying that there was nothing ‘delicate’ about this book. 😬 This was definitely different, and a little strange. But I couldn’t stop reading, because I had to know what happened next and of course how things would end. Longtime readers of the author’s other works, like her 2022 hit How to Survive Your Murder and the nail-biting anthology series The Merciless, are all too familiar with just how dark she can truly get. Although all of Valentine’s books prior to Delicate Condition fall under the YA genre, they offer enough thrills to frighten even the hardiest adult readers. Yet while her books’ fear levels may be similar regardless of audience, Valentine said she had “a lot of nerves” switching to adult literature after more than a decade writing for teens.

You may think you know where this is heading, but you'd be wrong. Whip smart and enjoyably gruesome For the most part, it was an addictive read. The dark themes were well-done, though the ending was mildly underwhelming.WOW! ALL RIGHT!! Delicate Condition was not at all what I was expecting! The synopsis compared this book to Silent Patient and The Push and that is extremely misleading. The Silent Patient is one of my all time favorite psychological thrillers and this book was more on the pregnancy HORROR genre. The only thing I found similar with The Push is the pregnancy aspect. If you are a fan of the horror genre then you might enjoy this one. Unfortunately, I do not consider horror in my wheelhouse of genres.😳😬 Anna Alcott is desperate to have a family. But as she tries to balance her increasingly public life as an indie actress with a gruelling IVF regime, she starts to suspect that someone is going to great lengths to make sure that never happens. Crucial medicines are lost. Appointments are moved without her knowledge. She's sure she's being followed. And when she finally does get pregnant, someone breaks into her house and steals the ultrasound photograph of her baby. But despite everything she's gone through, not even her husband is willing to believe that someone is playing twisted games with her. The Push meets The Silent Patient in a gripping thriller that follows a woman convinced a sinister figure is going to great lengths to make sure her pregnancy never happens—while the men in her life refuse to believe a word she says. After months and months of trying, Anna finally conceives. However, during this IVF process, strange things started to occur. Appointments were missed/rescheduled, medications were not being properly stored, and was someone following Anna? Was Anna really becoming forgetful and careless about the most important things in her life? Oh, well I planned to reincarnate into your baby, but then you miscarried, so I did a spell to make it live again, but now if I for sure don't reincarnate into the fetus then it will definitely come out "off"'