4-4.25⭐️ I’ve been picking up some positive vibes on social media for this book, so was excited to check it out for myself. It’s listed as women’s fiction / mystery thriller. Anna Alcott is in the public eye as an actress, the story follows her journey through IVF. Anna is desperate to become pregnant but increasingly suspicious that someone is trying to ensure that never happens. Bullet points for Delicate Condition

3.5 stars rounded up. **TRIGGER WARNING** Miscarriage. Domestic Drama. Horror. Cult. 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 lost 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 increasing threats drive her out of her Brooklyn brownstone and into hiding in the cold, gray ghost town that is the Hamptons in the depth of winter, Anna is almost at the end of her rope. This is quite a creepy read. I wasn't sure what I was going to get when I first started reading this book, but I never expected what I got. This is a book where the less you know about it before you start reading it, the better the read will be. The pace is steady in this well written book. The story might not be for everyone due to some of the subject matter. There's quite a lot goes on in this book. I would like to thank #NetGalley #SerpentsTailViperProfileBooks and the author #DanielleValentine for my ARC of #DelicateCondition in exchange for an honest review.

A feminist horror story about female hysteria, medical gaslighting, and a hint of the paranormal. The real horror in this story is how it so accurately depicts the way women are treated by the medical industry. The story follows our main character, Anna, a newly famous actress nearing 40 and trying to concieve. The first part of the book deals with Anna's difficult and painful IVF journey. Trying to juggle her newfound fame while also dealing with the barrage of contradictory do's and dont's of what women should or should not be doing while trying for a baby. Anna finds herself getting increasingly paranoid that someone is out to sabotage her when appointment times keep changing, medicines get left out of the fridge, and ominous messages are left om social media. Things take an even more dramatic turn for the worst once Anna finally conceives, with a sinister stalker, a mountain of doctors who just wont listen, and a terrifying amount of gaslighting. Absolutely no one will listen to Anna and she slowly believes she is going crazy. Interwoven with Anna's story is the stories of many other women both past and present, throughout these the author details the struggles black women in particular have went through in regards to childbirth. She tells of how black women have a higher mortality rate during childbirth, and how in the past they were used for experiments with no anesthesia in the name of medical advancements. While not the main focus of the book it is great that authors like Danielle are shining a light on these issues that are still prevalent today and are so often ignored. This book is full of twists and turns and so many times I thought I had finally figured it out and predicted what would happen next I was proved wrong. While the majority of the book feels like more like a thriller with a deranged stalker things take a paranoral turn until finally at the end everything clicks into place! Truly wonderfully written and had me on the edge of my seat. I would highly recommend to anyone after some feminist horror.

Anna Alcott is an esteemed actress. She is tipped to be up for an Oscar but what she really wants is a baby. Going through IVF is hard going & even before a pregnancy begins she seems to be suffering from 'Baby Brain' - medicines being left out, appointments missed because she got the wrong time. When she does finally conceive she is overjoyed but from the start she struggles. She is convinced she is being stalked & so along with her husband Dex they go to stay in a deserted home of a friend in the Hamptons. But the struggles go on. This pregnancy is unlike anything she ever expected. I think this book proved to me that I am no longer a fan of the horror genre. I found this quite a slog to finish (but still needed to know what happened!) Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

This is a well-written and generally well-thought-out novel with an interesting surprise ending. It describes a nightmare pregnancy during a winter which seems to go on for so long that the setting might be Narnia rather than the Hamptons. That cost it a star, I’m afraid: I know it’s about the way that perceptions change during pregnancy, but a pregnancy supplies a certain timeline and the season doesn’t seem, to the reader, to turn with that timeline. It may be alright in the author’s original plan, but so much of the book happens in winter that it seems eternal. The other troubling thing is that, until the surprise ending and explanation is reached, it’s hard for the reader to tell whether the pregnant heroine is being stalked by strangers or at least gaslighted by her husband, or if she’s delusional and hallucinating. This isn’t a crime for which any writer can or should be “cancelled” but it carries rather more risks in the real world than most of the things writers are being cancelled for these days. The whole point of stalking and more especially gaslighting is very often to get the victim declared mentally-ill and, most especially delusional. Either to discredit them in court (especially a divorce court) or for someone connected with the stalker to seize control of the victim’s financial affairs. There’s not a stalker in the known universe who wouldn’t be pleased to confuse women’s (or men’s in some cases) experience of being stalked or gaslighted with delusion, hallucination or some allied psychosis. And even when the novel’s fairly startling conclusion is reached, the necessary delineation between abuse and hallucination is not quite there. This book has some interesting things to say, but the two deficiencies significantly dilute what is good about it. There are two other novels in the gestation thriller genre that I would recommend more: see below.