I'm usually not interested in childbearing themed books, being happily childfree by choice. I don't know what it's like to be pregnant and I can't relate to the desperation of wanting a baby because I've never had any desire to be a mother of a human child. This book caught my attention when I saw it described as a feminist retelling of Rosemary's Baby. As a fan of classic horrors, I felt like I had to check it out. And hey, it's spooky season.
As it turned out, Anna and I have more in common than I thought. We're close to the same age. We've both been performing artists our whole lives. I can't relate to her longing to have a child more than anything in the world, but I can sort of understand. Evolution has put this into our biology, after all. As mammals, as primates, we evolved to want to reproduce. Our species wouldn't have thrived if the desire to procreate was never strong among enough members of the population. I know people who wanted to be parents more than all else in life and who are now living the dream, raising their children and loving their families. I'm not one of them but I'm happy for them. I've known at least one woman who struggled with infertility, so it's not something I'm completely uninformed in, the uphill battles that many women find themselves having to go through for something that seems to come so easily and naturally for others.
I can't relate to the pregnancy and wanting a child part, but I can certainly relate to the stories of medical misogyny. Modern medicine has unfortunately and shamefully failed women again and again, women of color even more so.
But the book did feel a bit long, and many parts repetitive. The storytelling could have been a bit more concise. There were inconsistencies, the storyline could have flowed better and the writing style has room for improvement. At times, events were messy and details didn't add up. I would've edited this book better. But overall, the book wasn't unenjoyable, and the ending was a surprising but creative development. I'm giving it 3 out of 5 stars.
I really loved this book and its modern take on Rosemary’s Baby. It was a very interesting, unique read. I liked the main character, Anna’s, struggles with later-in-life conception and IVF. I think it’s something relatable to a lot of readers. The added dynamic of her struggling between her career and motherhood really emphasizes how so many women have the struggles of sacrificing one or the other that men don’t experience during parenthood. The themes of a cult, witches, fame, stockers, and adultery really made this book such a compelling read.
‘American Horror Story: Delicate’ Goes Down Swinging
For 13 years now, American Horror Story has provided horror lovers with various thrills and chills. With 12 seasons and another already on its way, the series has continued to reinvent itself, with a new unique story every time it returns to our screens. For the first time in American Horror Story’s history, there was a change to the structure of how the season was developed. Instead of an…
This book was not for me. I wanted to like it, I bought it with the intention of liking it. I bought it with the intention of making a Rosemary's Baby joke, but this book, which I read over the course of two days, simply doesn't do it for me.
So, for those out of the know, American Horror Story's twelfth season is going to be unique, not just because it will be including Kim Kardashian, but because unlike other seasons which take inspiration from other works, but are, on the whole, original stories, this upcoming season is an adaptation. As it hasn't went live yet, I'm not certain whether to view AHS: Delicate as a straight adaptation, or a loose one (like the Bryan Fuller version of Carrie from 2002 that basically no-one saw), however the point is that I purchased this book in an attempt to get something of a feel for what to expect out of this season.
I'm not saying I regret that decision, I'm just saying that there are certain things which I loved and certain things which I disliked immensely in this book.
I will be spoiling a lot of it, and basically every other media I can thing of, including the classic Roman Polanski film, Rosemary's Baby, starring the treasure of an actress Mia Farrow (whose remake is... fine. I love Zoë Saldana, but her adaptations draaaaags).
So, Delicate Condition is about an actress who is desperate to have a child. I'm not saying desperate, the book is. Like, a lot (I might go through it again and highlight the sheer number of times the book uses that word.) In her desperation, she visits an IVF clinic to help. Boom, now she's pregnant. But now she's being stalked, so she moves away, has a miscarriage, then quite astoundingly, somehow still feels like she's pregnant. Is it a miracle or could it be...
...Sa~TaAaN???
No.
No it is not.
Which is one of these little things that kind of lead to this book fizzling out for me.
During her pregnancy, the post-miscarriage one, unusual events begin to occur around her. She develops an extreme craving for raw meat, she hallucinates frequently, and there's an intense discussion that she's being drugged. Her husband and her doctors refuse to believe her, and the word hysterical comes up frequently (etymologically interesting, as the word hysteria comes from an older Greek word for uterus, which creates an thematic connection that is undoubtedly intentional).
So, you know that scene in Rosemary's Baby where in a trance-state, Rosemary starts eating raw chicken? It's weird and uncomfortable and does a fair job of showing us, with no dialog, that there's definitely something going on her. It's an impulsive decision and it freaks her out tge moment she realizes she's doing it.
There's a comparable scene here involving a dead raccoon. Our actress is drawn to the smell of a rotting animal in her swimming pool. She's disgusted by it, but eventually finds herself craving it culminating in a scene of her waking up, convinced that she had gone back to its corpse and eaten it in her sleep.
Okay, so the Polanksi scene is snappy and works because it's impulsive. The Delicate scene does not, because it is clearly thought about, discussed, and takes place over the span of multiple days. It's also a fake out.
There is a raw-meat-eating scene later on. This is actually a recurring obsession of hers. One that results in her almost biting into one of her dogs, but due to incredible self-control, she resists the urge and raids the kitchen. This weird moment has a climax in which she lures a stray cat to its death. Except that cat is shown alive the following day. A hallucination! And another fake out.
This is a thing this book does a lot. It has these intense, interesting moments that you're waiting on the pay-off for, and the pay-off more-or-less amounts to "it's all in her head". Which would be incredibly cool. Subversive. A version of Rosemary's Baby where the pregnant woman thinks there's evil and conspiracy and the twist is, nope, you're legitimately just completely certifiably, a lunatic. Except, nope, it turns out there is a conspiracy!
That's right! As we near the climax, it's revealed that her IVF doctor was in league with Satanists to take her baby for ritual purposes!
This too, is a fake out. Because it's actually witches!
Oh, yeah, she was definitely being stalked, but it wasn't Satanists attempting to produce The Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is Called Dragon, Prince of This World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan, and Lord of Darkness. It was witchcraft. How silly of me. And so it's witches then, who are trying to produce The Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Great Beast that is Called Dragon, Prince of This World, Father of Lies, Spawn of Satan, and Lord of Darkness?
Nope.
Because the subversion here, is that witches were stalking her to guarantee that her pregnancy is successful and painless because the real horror, the real evil, is that doctors don't take women seriously.
There's a sub-plot of our actress's husband being shady. Those of you thinking of that whole thing about Guy trading his wife for fame should disregard that notion. Turns out, he's just an unfaithful prick who intended to separate from her if their recent attempts at baby-making failed. Cool. Great. This added sooo much tension. Completely necessary. Yay.
Okay.
So going into this, the first thing you should realize is that, despite the set-up reminding you very much of a certain film (and the book on which it's based, which I have not read, but will remedy shortly), and despite the name of that film appearing prominently on the cover as part of the accolades, your enjoyment of Delicate Condition will vary quite heavily based on your relationship with that film (and/or its original novel). Think of it as its own thing, separate and see how it stands on its own.
I can see how this will work for American Horror Story. That show has always been about taking familiar horror stories, familiar situations, familiar tropes and telling its own story with them. Whether that story is good is relative. Delicate Condition does very much the same things and so is very much worth at least a casual glance to your average AHS fan.
I cannot however entirely recommend this to fans of those films and books which brought the Satanic Panic to its head. It wants to be Rosemary's Baby but isn't. It wants to be an original thing but shares too much with Rosemary's Baby to divorce itself too much from the concept.
I wanted to like it. I was ready to love it. But this wasn't for me. Maybe it's because, as a guy, I cannot relate to the physical experiences here. I will concede that this might be a perfectly chilling, unsettling, and disturbing reading experience for people who are more intimately familiar with its subject matter, but that's not me, and that's no fault of the book, or its writer.
I truly want others to like this book more than I did.
just read delicate condition and i’m so confused how ryan murphy says delicate is like nothing they’ve ever done before. Have you watched your own show?
Bit of a spoiler here, but most of the animal motifs in Delicate Condition had to do with birds. I’m very curious why the AHS season adapting it is choosing to go with spiders…. Hmmmm… guess because spiders are creepier and people are actually more scared of spiders?
anna is getting probably the mildest case of cyberbullying possible. but someone posted her outside the infertility clinic in this photo dump.
that you just happened to be in? taken by the woman you've seen four times in the most random areas? you can be a little paranoid. as a treat.
then someone breaks into their home while anna is sleeping & takes the ultrasound photo, but the police give her the whole "dramatic woman" attitude.
which pisses me off cause it was a woman doing it & i've had a nurse do the same thing to me. but she didn't even give me the curtesy of talking to me. she talked about me to my husband like i wasn't even there....
admittedly i zoned out for a second so i'm not sure exactly when it switched POVs or how this new character ties in just yet. but i was also not expecting to hear Anarcha (the real girl. there's some description of the experiments) mentioned. but i can guess that anna was not given her own embryo back.
