The fast-paced novel Delicate Condition (Sourcebook, 2023) is Danielle Valentine's first adult book. Valentine, a pseudonym for Danielle Vega, is the author of The Merciless series, How to Survive Your Murder, and other young adult horror novels.

The book is not only a thriller but a look at the medical system through a woman's eyes. Anna Victoria Alcott is a budding movie star trying to conceive her first child with her mysterious husband, Dexter (Dex) Harding. With Anna's rising fame has come stalkers, online hate comments, and uncertainty as she approaches forty. Her troubles with IVF treatments and conception make her more aware of her aging. The story is gruesome and intricate.

There are interweaving elements of sexism, misogyny, witchcraft, and betrayal. Elements of witchcraft in the book can be alternatively interpreted as nontraditional and herbal medicine. A juxtaposition is created throughout the story. No black-or-white statement is being made about whether one medical practice is better than the other in the story, and both play positive and negative roles in Anna’s attempts to conceive. In the author’s note at the end of the novel, Valentine remarks that although natural remedies can help some, there are many instances where women fall victim to MLM (multi-level marketing) schemes that don’t have their best interests at the forefront. The story leaves judgment over the two practices up to the readers with an ending that comes full circle.

Learn more about Danielle at https://daniellevalentinebooks.com/

The book does not shy away from women's pain and sexism in healthcare. Although the writing is over the top and cheesy at times, the approach does not diminish how effectively it tackles the issues of having children and the role medical professionals often play in making women feel unseen. The narrative never bogs down, thanks to its pacing, moving parts, and structure. While there are some red herrings, the story quickly gets to its "big reveal" and puts a bow on it. A reader should suspend their disbelief to believe how all the moving parts are connected.

Delicate Condition begs comparisons with Rosemary’s Baby but brushes off the gender dynamics, focusing on women’s experiences in the medical field. FX has adapted the book as the twelfth season of American Horror Story. Although there are some changes, the adaptation stays faithful to the source material for the most part.

While the story is fictional, the various symptoms Anna experiences throughout are inspired by the experiences of the author during her first pregnancy, which resulted in a miscarriage, and her second, which resulted in the birth of her first child. In the author's note of Delicate Condition, Danielle Valentine expresses her hope that women who have been pregnant will see themselves in Anna and know they are not alone when they begin having strange cravings, fetal movements that doctors might not be able to explain, and varying reactions to their pregnancies. The following passage shares Anna’s upheaval as she works through the fog of fertility treatments:

You don’t know that you're not remembering. The picture in your head feels like the truth, even if it's a lie. It bothered me that I couldn't trust my own memory. How much more was I going to be expected to sacrifice to make this happen? I'd already given my body, my hormones, my time. And now, it seemed, my mind. And I wasn't even pregnant yet.

Delicate Condition’s moving parts keep readers on their toes. While rooted in the prejudices women face in the medical field and loosely based on the author's experiences with pregnancy, the book also injects the fantastical into the story. - by Isabela Cordero