Book Club Discussion Questions
Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!
-
Anna had been considering taking a break from work to focus on
her health and IVF treatments when her career suddenly took off
in a new way. Have you ever been in a position where one part of
your life demanded more of you just as you had begun to shift
your attention away? How did you handle juggling the competing
priorities? What would you have done in Anna's situation?
- Many child-bearing people struggle with the question of fertility
and undergo difficult and expensive IVF treatments in order to
conceive. Do you or anyone you know have a similar story? If so,
do you feel you were treated any differently than friends or family
who did not experience the same kind of struggle?
- Delicate Condition is threaded through with interstitials from different
points in history. What do you think the author's intentions
were when including these interstitials? What did they tell
you about pregnancy and childbirth through the ages?
- When Anna's supposed stalker breaks into her Brooklyn brownstone,
Anna no longer feels safe in her home. Instead, she flees to
the ghost town that is the Hamptons in winter where she and Dex
are all but alone. Do you agree with her decision to leave? In her
position, would you feel safer in a relatively small space in the city
or in a sprawling house with few neighbors around?
- After her miscarriage, Anna is convinced she can still feel the fetus
moving—but at first, nobody (including her doctors) believes her.
Have you or anyone you've known been in a situation where your
doctor either downplays or disbelieves your symptoms? What
happened and how did you resolve the issue? What would you do
now if you could go back and change how the interaction went?
- As her pregnancy progresses, Anna experiences increasingly horrific
physical and psychological symptoms—some of which she
can't be sure ever truly happened. Which of her symptoms do
you believe were real (the cravings, the raw meat, the roadkill, the
tooth, the claw, the scarred legs) and which were a result of the
spell making her believe something that wasn't truly there? What
would you have done if you began experiencing similar symptoms?
Would you tell someone, knowing what they might think?
- Siobhan used the last of her power to help revive Anna's baby—
but because Siobhan was immediately taken out of commission
and Anna became so difficult to reach, nobody in the coven was
able to warn Anna of the potential consequences. Did Siobhan
make the right decision to help Anna even though Anna hadn't
been fully informed about what was being done to her? Would
you have been able to forgive the coven for putting you through
such an intense experience if it meant saving the life of your loved
one?
- Did Dex deserve what happened to him? How did you react when
he met his ultimate fate? How do you think Anna felt about him
after the initial rage and panic subsided?
- Ultimately, Anna chooses to forgive the coven for what they unintentionally
put her through and allow Siobhan to be reborn as
her daughter. In the epilogue, it suggests that Anna is now a full
member of the coven and has every intention of being reborn herself—
giving her the "time" that always seems to be missing from
our lives. What do you think of this decision? In Anna's position,
would you make the same call?
Download the Discussion Guide
Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Sourcebooks. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.
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