Heart pounding thriller that left me on the edge of my seat. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. Definitely one of the best books this year.

As a mother this was hard to read. Valentine does a great job illustrating what it can be like to be pregnant and questioning everything happening to your body, while the people around you don't quite get it - all in a truly bananas horror setting. I do feel like the ending was a bit rushed, but overall I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.

This book was truly exceptional! The author perfectly captures the intense fear and discomfort that women often experience within their own bodies. Even when everyone tells you that everything is fine, you know deep down that something is not right. Valentine's writing is a powerful portrayal of feminist horror. She creates relatable characters and highlights the true horror of pregnancy. I highly recommend this book to my friends and anyone seeking a gripping read.

When I first read the synopsis, I wanted to read this, but I also wondered if it was going to be cheesy. Saying a book is like “The Push” and “The Silent Patient” is a very bold statement to make. In this case, it’s also a very true statement! Add a little bit of “Nightbitch” and “Motherthing”, and we get this crazy, yet somehow beautiful, story…

Anna and her husband, Dex, have been trying to have a baby, but so far, it hasn’t happened for them. Anna is an actress best known for a role from a couple decades ago, but her most recent film appearance has her looking at being an Oscar nominee. With her recently-regained fame, she wants to remain private about her struggles with conceiving.

We start the book with Anna undergoing IVF treatment, in the hopes of having a baby - and keeping her husband. His first marriage was ended because his wife didn’t want children, but Anna really does want this child and is worried that, coming up on 40, she’s quickly running out of time.

Finally, an implantation catches. Anna is pregnant, and ecstatic. Unfortunately, she has a miscarriage and loses the baby in the first trimester. It’s a few weeks later, in a bourbon-fueled state, that she feels something. This is her first pregnancy to make it far enough to feel movement, but she’s pretty sure that she’s feeling kicking.

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…

Whatever is growing inside of her doesn’t feel…right. Anna has a lot of pain, but also weird cravings (and I’m not talking pickles and peanut butter). She’s feeling things she’s never read about in any pregnancy book (is it supposed to feel like something wants to claw their way out of you?) but time after time, her doctors and husband dismiss her. If she’s not feeling and seeing what she thinks she is, then she must be losing her mind.

I don’t want to say what aspect of horror this is for spoiler purposes, but it’s not a horror sub-genre that I usually go for. With this book, I absolutely loved it. This book starts as a thriller, then crescendos into horror as the book goes on. It has really cool little stories from centuries ago interspersed, of women who have also been affected by Anna’s maladies, and that just added to the suspense.

This was a four star book all the way, then the beginning of the ending made that a 4.5. Then the actual ending has me rounding up to five. This is page-turningly suspenseful, thrilling, horrifying and at times, darkly comedic. This book also has very thoughtful dialogue about miscarriages, pregnancy, childbirth, and the way women have been, and still are, treated by the medical profession. The author expounds on this more in the epilogue, and it adds an extra touching note. I highly recommend this one to anyone who enjoys the genres…especially mothers who might be a little feral.

(Thank you to SOURCEBOOK Landmark, Danielle Valentine, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. This book is slated to be released on August 1, 2023.)

*spoilers imminent*

likes
-pregnancy body horror is insane. definitely had me clutching my stomach at certain points.
-the raccoon dead body bit was so gross, it had me physically gagging. written well.
-very satisfying ending. i really liked how everything came together.


mixed/neutral
-very visceral depictions of miscarriage. a big trigger warning.


dislikes
-felt a bit of a lull in the beginning/middle of the book. then the end happened so quickly. i felt like a lot of explaining was just crammed into the last part of the book.

Disclaimer: I was provided an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Delicate Condition was one of those stories, that just seemed to flip the pages with no help from me.
Anna is finally getting the recognition as an actor that she has always dreamed of attaining. But life is not fair, and while her career is skyrocketing, her personal life is a mess. She and her husband Dex are struggling to conceive. Well, actually, Anna is suffering and Dex, well, he seems to feel like he is too. But he doesn’t have to go through all the painful changes Anna goes through trying to conceive. When things go right, he is thrilled, and when they go wrong, well now, you will just have to read Delicate Condition to know whether he is actually a supportive partner.
Did I know what the heck was going on for most of this book? Nope and that just kept me reading one more chapter. I made a decision at a young age to never try and have children and after reading this book, I realize once again that I made the right choice(though my reasons were very different).
Even though there was something about Anna that didn’t make her one of my favorite characters, I was still all in trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Did I get close? In one respect, but definitely not in the other. The ending was cray cray!

I’m not even sure how to write a review on this book. It was definitely different. There were parts that were super creepy. I couldn’t stop reading it though. I had to know what was going on. At times I thought I was losing my mind along with the character. I was wondering what was true and what wasn’t. This book might be triggering to some so check the trigger warnings if you need to. It was definitely a crazy read. There were parts I didn’t see coming. I do recommend if you like thrillers.

DELICATE CONDITION was literally a one-session read as I stayed up late absolutely determined to reach the end, because I knew I could not sleep without knowing!
What a compelling and engrossing story; it practically read itself. If I had read a print copy, I surely would have paper burns from the speed of turning Pages!

In addition to being a chronicle of a woman's progress through infertility, IVF, pregnancy, marital stress, cyberstalking [as victim, not perpetrator], labor, incredible events, tremendous suffering, and character evolution, it also riffs on the historical background of establishment medicine's approach to (and disregard) of female patients [some of the historical background will turn your stomach and infuriate].

Early on I suddenly flashbacked to my various reads of ROSEMARY'S BABY and to the prevalent 80's Paperback Horror trend of stories of pregnancy, childbirth, birth trauma. Yet this story is very modern and very Feminist while remaining rooted in the failures of earlier times.

Delicate Condition | Danielle Valentine
🍼🍼🍼🍼 / 5

Anna Victoria Alcott is not alright.

An indie actress, skyrocketing to success, is trying to conceive a baby with her husband via IVF. As if that weren’t enough, she soon finds herself questioning everyone around her. In a story that I’d consider an updated take on Rosemary’s Baby with a snappy YA-ish voice, Anna struggles against a medical system that gaslights pregnant patients, as well as a malevolent force, or was it forceS?, following her around. Nothing and no one is as they seem.

I enjoyed this book, though the first 50 or so pages were not the smoothest start. I also didn’t super love the YA-esque voice the author uses throughout, especially since our protagonist is supposed to be nearing 40, but some readers may enjoy reading this book as a way to “graduate” from YA horror to more ~mature~ writing.

This book is for anyone who enjoys potentially unreliable narrators, descents into frenzied action, and creepy baseball caps.

Be sure to read the content warnings up front before diving in.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Publiahing for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

“Rosemary’s Baby” meets Ashley Audrain’s “The Push,” this story is a dark & terrifying look at the journey to motherhood. It’s weird and whimsical and will definitely make you question your sanity at times. The author’s writing style is fantastic. And I loved how this surreal story is rooted in such realistic circumstances.

The quote on the front cover touts this novel as being “the feminist update to Rosemary’s Baby we all needed” and I couldn’t agree more.

4 ⭐️

Delicate Condition—Danielle Valentine

On the surface, Anna Victoria Alcott seems to have finally achieved it all: a perfect marriage, great friends, and a successful acting career. But deep down is a gaping emptiness taking over Anna’s life that she’s desperate to fill by having a baby. Her and Dex have been trying for years but all attempts have been unsuccessful. But Anna knows this time the IVF will take, that they will finally both get what they’ve always wanted. They have to. She has to.

And just when it seems like she’s finally getting her wish, life decides to rip the star she wished on right out of the sky. A miscarriage—but how when she can still feel something inside her? How, when she still gets weird cravings and experiences all the pregnancy symptoms? Does Anna want this enough to imagine it all, or is there something more sinister at play—like perhaps a Satanic cult that wants her baby to he the spawn of the devil himself?
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Well I can safely say that I’m NEVER having kids after reading this book! Valentine turned pregnancy into an absolute nightmare. Think Rosemary’s Baby but if it was Jennifer Check who was pregnant—literal nightmare fuel! I was hooked from the first page. All the blood, the hallucinations, and the conspiracies sucked me straight in like a Reddit rabbit hole that I needed to fall all the way out of. Then there was the bloody hospital scene, the raccoon at the pool, and the teeth/blood/hair fiasco—all of which were fantastically written and played out like a horror movie. This was a definite win for me and should be for all horror lovers everywhere!

Thank you to NetGalley, Danielle Valentine & Sourcebooks Landmark for an arc of Delicate Condition in exchange for an honest review. This review is wholly my own (except quotations) & may not be reproduced.

“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.

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.

Then her doctor tells her she's had a miscarriage—except Anna's convinced she's still pregnant, despite everything the grave-faced men around her claim. Could it be that her mind is playing tricks on her? Or is something more sinister at play? As her symptoms become ever more horrifying and the sense of danger ever more present, Anna can't help but wonder what exactly she's carrying inside of her...and why no one will listen when she says something is horribly, painfully wrong.”

This one was highly recommended by a friend and was getting a lot of hype, but it just wasn’t the book for me. It wasn’t bad – it just wasn’t for me, therefore, I’m rating down the middle with a 3/5 Stars.

Expected Publication Date: August 1, 2023

This book was extremely disturbing, more than I anticipated it being. I will say that it was incredibly atmospheric, but I really didn’t want to be in this one! The story had a quick start, like from the very beginning, which in a way is good because it didn’t have that slow buildup like some stories do, but also not-so-good because the reader is just thrown into the story all at once without the background to make it make sense from the get-go. You do get it the more you read, but again, this just wasn’t for me.

The twists & turns were well done, as was the ending. Anna, however, was not a character that I really liked at all.

I do think a lot of readers will enjoy this novel. I think this is one that is just going to vary from person-to-person.

Between the eerie premise and the glowing reviews, I was so excited to read Delicate Condition. However, I struggled to connect with the story. One of the biggest challenges for me was the immediate gaslighting — the reader doesn't see a slow build to the tension, but rather is immersed in it from the start. It made it hard to understand the wider context of the story and how off things truly are.