The Push meets The Silent Patient in a gripping thriller that follows a woman convinced a sinister figure is going to great lengths to make sure her pregnancy never happens—while the men in her life refuse to believe a word she says.
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 swapped 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 increasingly cryptic threats drive her out of her Brooklyn brownstone and into hiding in the cold, gray ghost town that is the Hamptons in the depths of winter, Anna is almost at the end of her rope.
Then her doctor tells her she’s had a miscarriage—except Anna’s convinced she’s still pregnant, despite everything the grave-faced men around her claim. Could it be that her mind is playing tricks on her? Or is something more sinister at play? As her symptoms become ever more horrifying and the sense of danger ever more present, Anna can’t help but wonder what exactly she’s carrying inside of her…and why no one will listen when she says something is horribly, painfully wrong.
DELICATE CONDITION
Danielle Valentine
Season 12 of American Horror Story will be based on a book for the first time ever. DELICATE CONDITION by Danielle Valentine has been adapted and will be coming to the small screen later this fall, 2023.
DELICATE CONDITION is subtle but effective. I didn’t realize I was creeped out until it was too late. While reading the book it’s like you’re given secret notes for you to unopen when you’re alone later.
Let’s talk about it!
Anna is an actor and just wrapped up what might be her biggest role yet. But all that is on her mind is a more personal project. One of becoming a mother. It hasn’t been easy. It’s been difficult. She has been struggling with infertility to such an extent that she starts to fear someone, or something is trying to keep her from becoming pregnant, something nefarious.
Sadly, after becoming pregnant Anna suffers a devastating miscarriage. At least that’s what all her doctors are saying. Only Anna believes she is still pregnant.
We’ll leave it there.
DELICATE CONDITION is the perfect book for an upcoming adaptation. I read most of the book with season 1 of AMERICAN HORROR STORY: MURDER HOUSE on in the background. And it was the perfect accompaniment to the book. I believe out of all the seasons it is most similar in themes to the first installment. It will fit in quite well with the franchise.
The horror in DELICATE CONDITION is subtle and creeps up on you. Infests itself in your psyche. It reminds me a lot of Sara Gran’s COME CLOSER and I would be remiss to not mention its similarities to ROSEMARY’S BABY.
I heard a rumor that Kim Kardashian will be starring in the adaptation although her character has not been revealed yet. I can only speculate as to who I think she will play. It’ll be great no matter what and now that I’ve read the book, I can’t wait to see how it all comes to fruition.
If you decide to pick this up, keep in mind the themes are sensitive in nature and take care of yourself.
Thanks to Netgalley, SOURCEBOOKS Landmark, and Sourcebooks Landmark for the advanced copy and the opportunity to provide feedback!
DELICATE CONDITION…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Richly emotive and darkly captivating, with elements of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and the imaginative depth of Margaret Atwood, Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin conjures a community in which girls become wives, wives become mothers and some of them, quite simply, disappear.
Vera grows up in a small town, removed and isolated, pressed up against the mountains, cloud-covered and damp year-round. This town, fiercely protective, brutal and unforgiving in its adherence to tradition, faces a singular affliction: some mothers vanish, disappearing into the clouds. It is the exquisite pain and intrinsic beauty of their lives; it sets them apart from people elsewhere and gives them meaning.
Vera, a young girl when her own mother went, is on the cusp of adulthood herself. As her peers begin to marry and become mothers, they speculate about who might be the first to go, each wondering about her own fate. Reveling in their gossip, they witness each other in motherhood, waiting for signs: this one devotes herself to her child too much, this one not enough—that must surely draw the affliction’s gaze. When motherhood comes for Vera, she is faced with the question: will she be able to stay and mother her beloved child, or will she disappear?
Provocative and hypnotic, Alexis Schaitkin’s Elsewhere is at once a spellbinding revelation and a rumination on the mysterious task of motherhood and all the ways in which a woman can lose herself to it; the self-monitoring and judgment, the doubts and unknowns, and the legacy she leaves behind.
The Review
There is here and there is ELSEWHERE. Nowhere else matters.
This is my first Alexis Schaitkin book so at first, I had trouble teasing out her level of depth. This one is layered and has a duality to it. One word can mean two things. And this book can be read two ways.
In the first way, it is similar to folklore.
There is an affliction that plagues a village. And as we discover more about the affliction and the village and its inhabitants it creates anxiety and wariness for anything that is different or unknown and comes within its barriers.
The affliction is ever present, and assuredly coming, yet there is still hope.
For some.
This book is partly about missing mothers and what that absence might feel like if you were amongst many missing their mothers.
What are the total effects of motherless mothers?
In another way, if I dive deeper, this book can be dissected and can mean a lot more. Which makes for a great reading experience.
There are a few themes going on here. One that resonated with me was the discussion of things existing on two planes simultaneously. And of people or situations, settings even, being both good and bad in the same breath. Everything being a shade of gray.
I think this would make an excellent buddy read or book club pick. Everyone will get something different and there will be plenty to talk about.
ELSEWHERE…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio and Celadon Books for every single one of my copies!
When Alice and Leo move into a newly renovated house in The Circle, a gated community of exclusive houses, it is everything they’ve dreamed of. But appearances can be deceptive…
As Alice is getting to know her neighbours, she discovers a devastating secret about her new home, and begins to feel a strong connection with Nina, the therapist who lived there before.
Alice becomes obsessed with trying to piece together what happened two years before. But no one wants to talk about it. Her neighbors are keeping secrets and things are not as perfect as they seem…
The multimillion-copy New York Times bestselling author B.A. Paris returns to her heartland of gripping psychological suspense in The Therapist–a powerful tale of a house that holds a shocking secret
The Review
What is the story of the MAGPIE, do you know?
Apparently magpies are historically associated with magic and fortune telling and witches rode them or turned into them, something along those lines.
In literature there is a rhyme that starts one for sorrow, two for joy and so on. The number of magpies you see constitutes your luck.
I take them them to be lucky in the right quantity and I was intrigued by the premise before reading the synopsis.
In the book MAGPIE by Elizabeth Day we are following Marissa and Jake and then we meet their lodger Kate.
Their arrangement feels rocky at best and we go along as the story unfolds and we find out just how rocky it actually is.
I enjoyed the turn in the book and I think that turn will decide your level of enjoyment for the entire book. If you’re hooked, which I was, then the turn will feel expected and gratuitous only adding to your reading pleasure.
I recommend this one to readers who like a good ride and don’t mind being surprised. If you guessed the twist then you’re a far better detective than I am cause I did not see it coming.
Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster For this advanced copy!
Out May 3, 2022
MAGPIE…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
