My Five Word TL:DR Review: Took Me Completely By Surprise

Delicate Condition is a psychological thriller with a surprise twist.

I will say two things before I start this review.  Some of the material in the story could definitely prove ‘triggering’ for readers so take note of the author’s warning at the start.  Also, I wouldn’t particularly recommend this book to readers who are pregnant, simply because the material here is dark and a bit scary and, lets face it, pregnancy can be a frightening time as it is without throwing further fuel on the fire.

So, the story itself revolves around a couple who are trying to have a baby.  Anna and Dex are going through the IVF process having struggled to conceive and Anna fearing that her opportunities are slowly dwindling.  Anna is an actor who is receiving acclaim following an indie film she starred in which was very successful.  The downside to her sudden rise is she seems to have picked up a couple of nasty trolls along the way who seem to take pleasure in insulting and ridiculing her.  On top of this, along with the stress of trying to get pregnant, coping with her own overnight success story and worrying about potential stalkers she’s becoming oddly forgetful, missing appointments, putting the wrong times in her schedule, forgetting to put expensive medication into the fridge, etc.  Dex seems to be running low on patience and Anna has started to believe that maybe someone is actively messing with her private life and doing the best they can to stop her becoming pregnant.  Of course, no one really wants to believe this idea but eventually the couple are forced to move to an unknown location following a strange incident when it finally becomes clear that maybe Anna isn’t imagining everything.

What I really liked about this.  Well, I would mention firstly that this has a slightly slow start, but, once things get moving it really does become a very absorbing read.  There seems to be a constant string of ‘things’ occuring that for the most part everyone around Anna seems to think are imaginary.  And, the author gives us plenty of red herrings along the way to make the reader suspect just about everyone and everything.  I will say that moving to a remote, beachfront setting and staying in a huge house is not my idea of fun and that is an element that really plays nicely into the story.

I liked Anna and totally sympathised with her sense of frustration.  She was talked over, ignored and generally patronised by virtually everyone around her and it was incredibly aggravating.  I didn’t particularly like Dex, he’s one of those characters who is so condescending, I could picture him rolling his eyes and undermining Anna.  On top of that their relationship became decidedly bumpy when they were forced into spending so much time together in their enforced retreat.

About midway, there is a terrible event.  I’m not going to give it away here but it was shocking and what then follows is when and where the story begins to take a different slant and supernatural elements start to creep in.  Creaky floorboards, sleepwalking, unusual cravings and vivid hallucinations all leading to a dramatic finale that was absolutely gripping and took a turn I never saw coming.

Overall, this made for a compelling read.  The conclusion took me in a surprising direction and the author threw in a bunch of suspects and clues that misled me completely.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4.5 of 5 stars.