Delicate Condition

Anna’s acting career is relevant to the novel’s plot in that it provides numerous red herrings and creates tension as Anna’s blossoming fame conflicts with the demands of IVF and pregnancy. But in what ways is her career thematically relevant? How are audience and performance significant ideas in Anna’s journey?

As Anna prepares to give birth, she says “I knew that the only way through was to dig down, to confront the pain head on, to grab it by the root and pull. To surrender” (399). This statement appears to contain a contradiction: Is it possible to both confront and surrender to pain? What does this statement demonstrate about Anna’s shifting relationship with pain over the course of the book?

Anna spends a great deal of time reading through comments about herself on social media. Some of these comments feature prominently in the detective’s investigation into her case. What commentary does the novel create about social media and misogyny?

Choose one of the novel’s interludes. Why does Valentine choose to place this interlude at this moment in the novel’s development? How would your reading of the novel shift if this interlude appeared anywhere else?

Delicate Condition touches on the lives of several Black women who are interested in women’s reproductive health, namely Talia and Rayna Perkins. What commentary does the novel create, if any, about experiences of pregnancy with regard to the intersections of race and gender?

At the end of the book, the coven condemns Io Preecher. Is Preecher worthy of condemnation, or is there a lens through which she can be seen as a sympathetic character? Defend your position using specific evidence from the text.

Do you believe Siobhan’s assertion that she’s only ever acted in Anna’s best interests? How do Siobhan’s actions complicate or develop the novel’s commentary about the role of female friendship?

Much of the horror in Delicate Condition comes from the upsetting physical transformations that Anna undergoes in the second half—transformations that are revealed to have been entirely hallucinatory. Does this revelation affect how you experience this book’s horror? Discuss your response in the context of psychological horror as a genre.