“I hope we stop assuming that pain is a woman’s birthright and start trying to find a way to ease the burden, just a little.”
Lauded as ‘The Push meets The Silent Patient’, Delicate Condition is a gripping thriller by Danielle Valentine. The story centres around Anna Alcott, a woman desperate to become pregnant. Yet, as she struggles to balance her IVF journey with the demands of her daily life, she becomes convinced that someone is determined that her pregnancy never comes to fruition. When increasingly cryptic threats drive her out of her home and into the cold arms of the Hamptons in the grips of winter, Anna is almost at her wit’s end. As her symptoms worsen and those around her continue to refuse a word she says, Anna is forced to reckon with what it is inside her she’s carrying, and why no one will listen when she says something is gravely wrong. If you loved Valentine’s chilling mystery thriller, join us at What We Reading for the best books like Delicate Condition!
The Push – Ashley Audrain
First up on our list of books like Delicate Condition is Ashley Audrain’s psychological drama, The Push. Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, doting mother to her new baby, Violet, whom she never had. But, in the haze of the exhausting early days of motherhood, Blythe becomes convinced that there is something wrong with her daughter.
Her husband, Fox, says that she is imagining things. And the more he dismisses her fears, the more convinced she becomes that she is losing a grip on her sanity. Then the couple’s son, Sam, is born. And, with him, Blythe experiences the blissful connection she’d always imagined she would have with her child. But, when life as they know is shattered in a single moment, the devastating aftermath forces Blythe to finally face the truth.
The Silent Patient – Alex Michaelides
From the outside, Alicia Bereson appears to have it all. She lives in a beautiful house in London’s most affluent neighbourhood, has a successful career as an artist and an equally successful husband who dotes on her every whim. Yet, one evening, her husband returns home from work and is shot five times in the face by Alicia. From that moment on, Alicia refuses to speak another word.
Alicia is taken to a secure forensic unit known as The Grove where criminal psychotherapist Theo Faber has waited a long time for the opportunity of working with her. He is determined to unravel the mystery behind this shocking crime. But, his investigations soon lead him down a twisting path into his own motivations in a search for the truth that threatens to consume him. Another one of the best books like Delicate Condition, The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller about an act of violence against a husband and an exploration of what it’s like when a woman isn’t listened to.
Check Out The Best Books Like The Silent Patient
Mary – Nat Cassidy
Mary is a quiet, middle-aged woman doing her utmost to blend into the background. Unremarkable. Invisible. Unknown, even to herself. Yet, lately, things have been changing from within Mary. Along with the hot flashes and body aches, she is barely able to look at herself in the mirror without passing out. There are voices in her head that have begun urging her to do unspeakable things.
She is fired from her job in New York and moves back to her hometown, hoping to reconnect with her past and find herself again. Instead, visions of ghastly apparitions overwhelm her, and she finds herself increasingly writing strange thoughts and phrases. Like Delicate Condition, Nat Cassidy’s Mary is a deliciously dark take on women’s self, identity and the changes the body experiences.
Cutting Teeth – Chandler Baker
Darby, Mary Beth and Rhea are all on personal quests to reclaim their identities subsumed by motherhood – their careers, their sex lives, their bodies. However, their babies soon disrupt these plans when they develop a bizarre and unsettling medical condition at the Little Academy preschool: the kids are craving blood.
Then a young teacher is found dead and the only potential witnesses on the scene are ten adorable four-year-olds. It soon becomes clear that the children are not only witnesses but also suspects. As the investigation into the death gets underway, the children’s ability to bleed their mothers dry soon threatens to turn deadly. Like Delicate Condition, Chandler Baker’s Cutting Teeth is a cutthroat mystery and motherhood manifesto that delves into the impossible standards society holds parents to.
The Perfect Mother – Aimee Molloy
The May Mothers are a collective of new mothers who gave birth during the same month. Twice a week, they get together in Prospect Park, sharing in the same fears, joys and anxieties that come with child-centred lives. When the group’s members agree to meet up for drinks at a local bar, they’re only hoping for a relaxing break away from their troubles. Yet, on this hot Fourth of July, something goes terribly wrong: one of the babies is abducted from their crib.
Winnie is a single mother who is reluctant to leave six-week-old Midas alone with a babysitter. Nevertheless, she was convinced by the May Mothers that everything would be fine. Now Midas has vanished, the police are asking disturbing questions and Winnie’s private life becomes the fuel for speculation for the local media. One of the best books like Delicate Condition showcases the lengths mothers will go to for their children, Aimee Molloy’s The Perfect Mother is a story of a disappearance where damaging secrets are exposed, marriages are tested and friendships are both formed and fractured.
Nightwatching – Tracy Sierra
Home alone with her young children during a violent blizzard, a mother tucks her son into bed in the middle of the night. She then hears a noise. It’s the disturbing sound of footsteps, unusually heavy and slow, making their way up the stairs. She sees the outline of a man appear down the hallway, surrounded by shadows. Terrified, she quietly wakes her children and hustles them to the furthest corner of the old house.
Thus begins a terrifying cat-and-mouse hunt with the mother and her children hunkered down in a secret room concealed behind a wall. In the suffocating darkness of the room, the mother struggles to keep herself and her children calm. Then she catches a glimpse of the man’s face. She knows exactly who he is, and what he is after. Another one of the most gripping takes on the lengths a mother will go to for their children, Nightwatching is the perfect follow-up for anyone who loved reading Delicate Condition.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
