Reader, I Murdered Him Podcast Book Club discussion

Welcome to our discussion of Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine! Below are some questions to get the discussion started, but feel free to bring up any topics you’d like to discuss.

1. With comparisons to Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby, but with a feminist twist, what were your expectations for the story? Did the book live up to those expectations?

2. How does Dex’s inability (or unwillingness) to believe Anna affect their relationship, and how does his distrust drive the story?

3. After fearing for her life, and the life of her unborn baby, Anna moves from her Brooklynn home to house in Southhampton. How did the change of setting drive the plot?

4. The plot relies significantly on everyone (including the reader) doubting what Anna is seeing and experiencing. Do you think this plot device would be possible if Anna weren’t pregnant or under the influence of fertility hormones?

5. How does Anna’s struggle with infertility and pregnancy affect her relationship with Dex, her career, her friends?

6. Do you feel the book’s portrayal of medical care for pregnant people was an accurate one?

7. How does this book build on other tropes about women and pregnancy like “The Push,” or “The Yellow Wallpaper,” or “Rosemary’s Baby”?

8. What was your impression of Sibohan as a friend? What did you think of her bargain with Anna about her baby?

9. The book hints heavily at men and the medical system being a large factor in the danger women experience while pregnant. How do the witches alleviate some of that danger? Are they truly working from a place of altruism, or are they just as selfish?

10. How did the book compare to its adaption in the American Horror Story season Delicate?