Reviews with content warning for Infertility - Delicate Condition

Really fun read. Oftentimes these thriller-esque books can have a “cool girl” voice that causes me to cringe to the point of a DNF. There were pieces of that here and there but it was minimal. This truly was a modern take on Rosemarys baby with many events pulled straight from that book. There were some definite differences though that I loved. I appreciated the feminist messaging throughout. The modern problems and scenarios were fun and oftentimes relatable. I liked the ending and how the story was wrapped up for the most part. It was a longer book but I enjoyed it the whole way. However the one major thing that I didn’t appreciate was the clear disgust with allopathic medicine. As someone who works within and practices allopathic/evidenced-based medicine, I’m obvs biased; however, the story had a strong position of nihilism in terms of medicine. Many medical issues have a veil of uncertainty (aka lack of evidence) and those in the field have come to say “we don’t know” more frequently in recent years because that’s the ethical thing to do. When there’s little evidence it’s more ethical to communicate uncertainty rather than provide false hope in a cure that has little-to-no evidence. Snake oil cures have been a common scam for centuries and I think criticizing the field of medicine that has the most structured and evidence-driven guidelines isn’t really helpful. Dont get me wrong, it’s not without its flaws and should be scrutinized. But I can’t think of any alternative fields of medicine I’d trust any more than it. But I digress -

The story was still so fun and I couldn’t wait to get back each time I had to put it down.

Content Warnings

catinseas's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Content Warnings

coffee_on_the_pages's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A feminist horror story about female hysteria, medical gaslighting, and a hint of the paranormal.

The real horror in this story is how it so accurately depicts the way women are treated by the medical industry.
The story follows our main character, Anna, a newly famous actress nearing 40 and trying to concieve. The first part of the book deals with Anna's difficult and painful IVF journey. Trying to juggle her newfound fame while also dealing with the barrage of contradictory do's and dont's of what women should or should not be doing while trying for a baby. Anna finds herself getting increasingly paranoid that someone is out to sabotage her when appointment times keep changing, medicines get left out of the fridge, and ominous messages are left om social media.
Things take an even more dramatic turn for the worst once Anna finally conceives, with a sinister stalker, a mountain of doctors who just wont listen, and a terrifying amount of gaslighting. Absolutely no one will listen to Anna and she slowly believes she is going crazy.

Interwoven with Anna's story is the stories of many other women both past and present, throughout these the author details the struggles black women in particular have went through in regards to childbirth. She tells of how black women have a higher mortality rate during childbirth, and how in the past they were used for experiments with no anesthesia in the name of medical advancements. While not the main focus of the book it is great that authors like Danielle are shining a light on these issues that are still prevalent today and are so often ignored.

This book is full of twists and turns and so many times I thought I had finally figured it out and predicted what would happen next I was proved wrong. While the majority of the book feels like more like a thriller with a deranged stalker things take a paranoral turn until finally at the end everything clicks into place! Truly wonderfully written and had me on the edge of my seat. I would highly recommend to anyone after some feminist horror.

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