Accessibility Tools

Web Accessibility plugin by DJ-Extensions.com
Skip to main content

Delicate Condition

Written by alamancelibraries on . Posted in Book Reviews.

Cover of Delicate Condition. Flower dominates the cover, red and white petals. The title Delicate Condition is in lime green and the stem and leaves of the flower are woven in the words. There is a quote - Her body is no longer her own...

Delicate condition. Valentine, Danielle. Naperville, Illinois : Sourcebooks Landmark, [2023]

Trigger warnings: miscarriage, infertility, harm to animals

Every person who has been pregnant or wants/wanted to be pregnant will see themselves in this book.

Anna Alcott is an actress who has just found real commercial success in a movie called The Auteur. She also is a married woman who wants to have a baby more than anything. She is doing IVF, and hoping this time there is a viable embryo. But weird things are happening. Her calendar has the wrong time for appointments, she is leaving medicines out of the fridge, and is almost late for her shot more than once. She attributes all of this to IVF-brain and all of the hormones in her body, but it gets frustrating when her husband looks at her like she’s losing her mind.

The procedure is finally successful. Anna is pregnant, but she is also in contention for an Oscar. She feels pulled in two directions. She puts off campaigning trips to take care of herself. Her husband would prefer she not go at all, but is she really supposed to give up her career for motherhood? She wakes up one evening to find someone in her bed with her, calling her baby. It scares her so much that she and her husband move to a friend’s house, where no one can find her.

When she has a miscarriage, she is devastated and tells her friend Siobhan she was desperate and would do anything for a baby. Then she feels the baby move. How could that be? The doctor decides it was vanishing twin syndrome and that there must have been two embryos to begin with. Anna feels that isn’t right, but she doesn’t have an answer to what happened. All she knows is that this pregnancy is strange. She hears strange sounds, hallucinates, and keeps finding strange dolls of her around her friend’s house. These dolls feel threatening, with Xes over the belly and strange symbols carved in them.  

Short side stories are interspersed with the main story, all about women who were desperate for a baby, and all who feel their pregnancy isn’t a natural one. It seems Anna isn’t the only woman to go through an experience like this, but what is really happening to her?

This book isn’t scary, per se, but it is creepy and very suspenseful. It also really hits a chord as a person who has been pregnant. Even if you aren’t seeing things and being stalked as a celebrity, pregnancy can be stressful, painful, and give you the feeling that an alien is inside you! I wouldn’t recommend this book for anyone who is pregnant right now, trying to get pregnant, or dealing with infertility, just because of the subject matter.

If you’re looking for a book to keep you up at night, turning pages, Delicate Condition is a great choice!

Mary Beth Adams is the Community Engagement Librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. You can reach her at madams@alamancelibraries.org or 336-570-6981.