Danielle Valentine sets every pregnant woman’s worst fears against a very real villain in DELICATE CONDITION. This feminist ROSEMARY’S BABY proves that the most horrifying things in life aren’t monsters, cults or Satanists, but motherhood and pregnancy.

Anna Alcott thought she was smart, putting her career first and taking every acting role that came her way. But then all of a sudden she was 36, and her biological clock was ticking fast. Married to “the one,” Dex, after a whirlwind, easy romance, Anna starts a pregnancy journey that never seems to take off. Like many women of means, Anna turns to in vitro fertilization, a process nearly as overwhelming and suffocating as pregnancy itself. For months Anna rigidly controls her diet, punctures herself with injections that leave fist-sized bruises, and schedules her every waking minute around a baby who doesn’t even exist yet. And then a miracle: an egg retrieval results in a strong, viable egg that implants beautifully. Just like that, Anna is pregnant.

"Danielle Valentine taps into history, magic, thrills and horror to pen one of the most chilling, riveting and utterly insightful thrillers I’ve read in quite some time."

But I’m leaving out a lot of missteps. On the day of Anna’s egg retrieval, perhaps the most important day of her IVF journey, Anna arrives at her appointment an hour late, nearly missing the cut-off. She knows she put the correct time on her calendar, and her husband took a red-eye to be there with her, yet the time turns out to be wrong. Once an egg is implanted, crucial medicine that must be kept refrigerated is left out, even though Anna is positive she put it in the fridge, just behind the oat milk.

As an actress whose minor fame recently has undergone an abrupt and rewarding transformation to stardom, Anna is accustomed to strange events --- bizarrely cruel tweets, random stalkers, vicious haters --- but the one thing she has always trusted is herself. Anna is a go-getter, ambitious to a fault and, above all, desperate to become pregnant. So how and why is she making so many mistakes on her own journey to the thing she wants most? Then the break-in happens.

One night, while Anna is in bed, cradling her yet-to-be-formed baby bump, someone slides in behind her. She assumes it's Dex but realizes too late that the body is slimmer and more bony. When she leaps out of bed, she sees not her husband but a woman. “Baby,” the stranger whispers, just before she charges at Anna and disappears, taking only her ultrasound. The police are quick to dismiss Anna. For one thing, her online “stalkers” are about as real to them as unicorns. For another, they keep misgendering the intruder as a man. Even Dex seems unwilling to believe that someone could have gotten into their apartment. But this is not the first violation.

After some not-so-routine cramping lands Anna in the hospital, she learns that she has miscarried and that it’s possible her miscarriage was not natural, but forced. (Reader, it is killing me not to reveal how it may have been forced, but trust me when I say that you need to read this book to find out.) Anna ramps up her security, and she and Dex head to a friend’s house away from New York. But the strange occurrences continue, from changed meetings in her calendar to threatening objects and creaking steps above her head. And then a miracle: Anna feels (and sees) kicks in her belly. Her baby somehow has survived. With her mother’s instinct to protect at all costs kicking in, she realizes something horrifying: someone has tried to prevent this pregnancy, and it may be someone very close to her.

Divided into parts based on pregnancy weeks and punctuated by looks into the desperate pregnancies (and abortions) of other women in history, DELICATE CONDITION proves that all mothers have one thing in common: pain. Danielle Valentine taps into history, magic, thrills and horror to pen one of the most chilling, riveting and utterly insightful thrillers I’ve read in quite some time. Multilayered and deeply atmospheric, the book is indeed a feminist reimagining of ROSEMARY’S BABY, but it is so much more than that. Valentine reveals and upends the horrors placed on and done to women, but this isn’t shock-value gore or a story intent on brutalizing its female character. Instead, it’s a vivid and striking metaphor for the very real pains of conception, pregnancy, childbirth and, of course, motherhood.

Valentine perfectly employs every psychological tingle, jump scare and devilish intent to unpack not just the gruesomeness of pregnancy, but the very real medical, societal and personal gaslighting that nearly every woman (pregnant or not) has faced at least once in her lifetime.

Fans of “American Horror Story” will be delighted to learn that DELICATE CONDITION serves as the inspiration for the new season, “Delicate.” If you value good storytelling, eye-opening revelations and deliciously creepy scares, you'll do yourself a favor and read this book first. Then maybe you’ll read it again to fully absorb the skill and talent that Valentine has demonstrated here.