Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine

I would like to thank Viper Books for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Viper

Published – Out Now

Price - £16.99 hardback £6.49 Kindle eBook

I wanted this baby so badly.
But she may be the death of me...

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.

Then her doctors tell her she's lost the baby. Despite her grief, Anna ignores the grave-faced men lecturing her - because she can still feel the baby moving, can see the toll it's taking on her weakened body. Isolated in a remote snowbound town, Anna is sure that whoever has been following her is closing in on her and her unborn child. And as her symptoms become more terrifying, she can't help but wonder what exactly is growing inside her... and why no-one will listen when she says that something is horribly wrong.

Body horror is an image we tend to associate with the more grotesque transformations of film but humans do ourselves see dangerous changes too and being pregnant is one of the most common. In the 21st century west its often forgotten how dangerous for parents and child this nine-month experience could be. Mortality rates until only recent times were incredibly high. In Danielle Valentine’s Delicate Condition, a mix of horror and thriller explores this through a woman experiencing.

Anna Alcott is happily married; her acting career is entering a vibrant second act with talk of Oscars and yet one key strand of her life is missing – turning forty and so far unable to conceive. Her and husband Dex have agreed to IVF and then unfolds a tale of stalking, mysterious hospital encounters and a feeling that someone is keen for Anna not to conceive. Her best friend suggests an alternate route to go down but further dangers await.

I am afraid for me this was a case of an interesting ideas but ultimately, I really found the approach to storytelling on the whole taking me out of this story too much for me to enjoy it. Valentine’s approach is for everyone t be glossily described and then random facts just dropped in on the reader. Why yes, our main character has at least three potential stalkers wishes given no thought to. The overall reaction to this and attempts to merge this with the wider and to be fair enlightening history of gynaecology and its darker side are all interesting ideas, but the story is ultimately one horror fans may be able to guess fairly quickly. I found Anna and her film star lifestyle being carefully explained the kind of glamourous tale that tends to switch me off rather than entertain me and felt a little too movie script rather than novel.

What I did enjoy was the moments of spookiness and the idea of a stalker who can even get to you in a hospital as well as the impersonal nature of medics talking to women about pregnancy did strike a chord with things I have heard from friends. But ultimately none of this really hooked me into the tale to make a lasting impression and instead I found my attention drifting regularly. Overall, I found Delicate Condition a disappointment and is not a story I can recommend.