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Title details for Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine - Available

Delicate Condition

by Danielle Valentine
Hillary Huber
Audiobook
4 of 5 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
4 of 5 copies available
Anna Alcott is desperate to have a family. But as she tries to balance her increasingly public life as an indie actress with a grueling IVF journey, she starts to suspect that someone is going to great lengths to make sure that never happens. Crucial medicines are lost. Appointments get swapped without her knowledge. Cryptic warnings have her jumping at shadows. And despite everything she's gone through to make this pregnancy a reality, not even her husband is willing to believe that someone is playing twisted games with her. 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. She can feel the baby moving inside her, can see the strain it's taking on her weakening body. Vague warnings become direct threats as someone stalks her through the bleak ghost town of the snowy Hamptons. As her symptoms and sense of danger grow ever more horrifying, 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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 1, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781666641929
      • File size: 332627 KB
      • Duration: 11:32:58

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 29, 2023
      Dreams of motherhood turn to nightmares in this unflinching adult debut from the pseudonymous Valentine (YA author Danielle Vega, the Merciless series). Anna Alcott, 39, is preparing to wind down her moderately successful acting career as she and her husband begin a third, last-ditch round of IVF. Then her latest movie unexpectedly hits big, and Anna finds herself campaigning for an Oscar while juggling a torturous medical regimen. When Anna nearly misses her egg retrieval surgery due to a calendar app typo, she blames her hectic schedule. Then the details of her embryo transfer appointment change even as she’s looking at her calendar, and she begins to fear that someone is stalking her. Anna succeeds in getting pregnant, but after her Brooklyn apartment is broken into while she’s napping, she and her husband decamp to snowy, deserted Southampton, Long Island. Her stalker continues tormenting her, however, leaving messages and voodoo dolls in Anna’s path. As she develops harrowing symptoms including hair loss and hallucinations that her husband and obstetrician dismiss, she fears for both her baby’s safety and her own sanity. The book’s length and madcap denouement diminish the visceral urgency of the first-person narrative, but Valentine successfully mines pregnancy’s horrors for dramatic effect while condemning condescension toward, and ignorance of, women’s struggles with fertility and childbearing. It adds up to a fiercely feminist millennial heir to Rosemary’s Baby. Agent: Hillary Jacobson, ICM Partners.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Hillary Huber delivers a delightfully creepy rendition of this graphic, fast-paced horror story about pregnancy and infertility. Anna Alcott is a famous actress who's been going through IVF treatments and finally becomes pregnant. Unexplained odd things start happening: Anna's appointments get switched, her medicines go missing, and she receives strange messages. Things get even weirder after she suffers a miscarriage but still feels and believes she is pregnant. Reality is further blurred as she experiences terrifying hallucinations that seem incredibly real. Huber masterfully captures Anna's desperation while evoking the story's disturbing mood. Forming the basis for the latest season of the "American Horror Story" television show, this dark story takes listeners on a compulsively entertaining, twisty ride. V.T.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      June 10, 2024

      Actress Anna Victoria Alcott is on her third round of IVF, and time is running out. When she finally does become pregnant, her elation is short-lived, however, as she begins to suspect she's being followed by someone with a sinister plan for her baby. Following a break-in at their home, Anna and her husband retreat to a secluded location, but disturbing side effects and depraved cravings soon lead her to wonder if the biggest threat is the one growing inside her. YA novelist Valentine (How To Survive Your Murder), who also writes under the pen name Danielle Vega, has crafted an intricate, unsettling horror. Narrator Hillary Huber gives an emotive performance of Anna's fast-paced, first-person narrative, as well as asides from women in similarly wicked situations through the centuries. She captures each compelling detail to create a suspenseful listening experience. VERDICT Will appeal to listeners seeking haunting domestic horror with eerie, occult vibes. Recommended for fans of Zoje Stage, Shari Lapena, and Ashley Audrain. Expect many requests, as this novel inspired the newest season of American Horror Story.--Lauren Hackert

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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