With all the willpower I had left, I forced that voice to just shut up. I was tired of pretending I wasn’t in pain. I was tired of being strong just because it made things easier for everyone else. I was tired of calming down.
"Delicate Condition" by Danielle Valentine revolves around a couple Anna and Dex who are desperately trying to have a baby but fail to do so. At last, they decide to consider IVF treatment. However, weird things start happening that infare with her pregnancy which leads Anna to believe that someone doesn't want her to have a baby. Even after all these obstacles, she does get pregnant only to result in a tragic miscarriage. Now, the thing is, she still thinks she is pregnant. Anna is terrified, confused and angry as she tries to navigate her personal and professional life all while dealing with medical neglect from doctors.
When I was reading this book, I got curious about the history of female hysteria and thought I should look it up on Google. The results were more disturbing than I initially thought. Apparently, the term "hysteria" is derived from a Greek word for uterus - meaning that the problems with the uterus were the main reason behind women's emotional and mental instability. In Plato's dialogue Timaeus, he compared a woman's uterus to a living entity that wanders throughout a woman's body which blocks the passages, causing breathing problems and diseases thereby giving this phenomenon a name - "Wandering womb" (trust me, I know how stupid that sounds!). As time went on, it became increasingly common for male medical professionals to diagnose women with hysteria when they complained of any kind of ailment, thus isolating and neglecting them untill they "calmed down".
But why am I giving a history lecture in the middle of a book review ? Well, one of the main themes of this story is medical neglect and misdiagnosis - particularly to female patients. Throughout this novel, Anna is not taken seriously by her doctors and her husband whenever she talks about her pregnancy related issues. When she miscarries, the doctors cannot figure out the reason behind it. It is honestly brilliant how Valentine has captured Anna's frustrations in contrast to how everyone treats her. She is constantly being told how she is a bad mother for wanting both career and a child or for showing her pain. Even after being frightened, the doctors ask her husband about her own troubles as if a man knows better than a woman about what's happening inside her own body. Anna is expected to perform resilience, even as she unravels which brilliantly parallels the way women are expected to smile through their suffering. Meanwhile, Dex, her husband, constantly advises her on the do's and don'ts - not because he cares about her, but because he wants the baby inside her to be safe. Anna Alcott, a woman with her own dreams and fears, ceases to become a person and instead is treated like a vessel - an object, whose sole purpose is to put out a baby.
This book has its own share of supernatural elements. However, the horror feels much more real and relatable which in turn makes it terrifying and sympathetic at the same time. There are enough Agatha Christie - esque red herrings in this book which allows us to suspect everyone and constantly keep us in our toes. Delicate Condition may have a slow start but in my opinion it adds to the overall eerie and whimsical vibe. As a result, the buildup and conclusion gets a lot more satisfying. The author really excels at making mundane events like doctor visits, fertility treatment, public scrutiny or an act of carrying a child, feel much more sinister. The slow erosion of Anna's sanity and the body horror are the icing on the cake. This allows the horror to serve as both entertainment and critique.
The use of mirrors and surveillance in this book is a chef's kiss in my opinion. We see recurring images of Anna being watched, photographed and scrutinized. This tells us all we need to know about society's obsession with controlling women's appearances and actions. Thus, Delicate Condition reads like a chilling allegory of reproductive surveillance and coercion. Anna's pregnancy is treated as a state to be managed by others which strips her and other women of their own bodily autonomy. The book also expertly critiques how female celebrities are held to impossible standards — expected to look perfect, become mothers at the right time, and maintain composure no matter the cost. Thus, fame becomes another mechanism of control over the female body.
The only gripe that I might have in Delicate Condition is the lack of depth. The second half of this book was fast paced but without any nuance especially when it started to lean into supernatural elements. The side characters were also not very well fleshed out and followed some cookie cutter tropes which in turn makes the people in this book a carbon cutout of archetypes. Throughout this book, I felt that all the feminist undertones were spoonfed to me. The author went to great lengths to tell the readers about all the themes without allowing the readers to naturally arrive at the conclusion, which appeared as if Danielle Valentine was doing the thinking work for me and deliberately making me feel dumb.
In conclusion, Delicate Condition is a timely, unsettling novel that uses the tropes of horror to expose very real societal horrors. It perfectly blends psychological dread and feminist critique. While the book may not be perfect — it succeeds where it matters most : in giving voice to the silenced and in weaponizing horror as a form of truth-telling.
