American Horror Story: Delicate is a horrific take on fertility and fame, starring Emma Roberts, Kim Kardashian, Matt Czuchry, and Cara Delevingne. The twelfth and latest installment of Ryan Murphy’s hit anthology series welcomes a few major changes, following the last season’s detour from supernatural elements. This season is the first in the show’s history to not have Ryan Murphy as the showrunner and to be based on source material.
The new season premiered on September 20, 2023 on FX, and will be split into two parts with the first part consisting of five episodes.
Delicate follows rising star Anna Victoria Alcott (Roberts) as she navigates awards show buzz for her new hit movie while struggling to conceive a baby. After Anna notices odd people following her and her home is broken into, she begins to distrust everyone, even her publicist Siobhan Corbyn (Kardashian).
In Decider’s ranking of the show’s seasons, we placed Delicate in the #4 slot, out of all 12 seasons. “Delicate is a seamless return to the show’s love of mainstream horror with gory visuals, jump scares, and predictable antagonists, all of which are balanced with high-level camp and endless pop culture references,” we wrote.
The showrunner for the series is Halley Feiffer and the first episode was directed by Jessica Yu.
With Delicate being all the hype right now, many are wondering about the novel it’s based on. Here’s everything you need to know.
Yes, Delicate is based on a novel! The latest installment in the popular FX horror series is based on the horror novel Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine, which was published August 1, 2023 by Sourcebooks Landmark.
The synopsis for the novel reads, “Anna Alcott is desperate to have a family. But as she tries to balance her increasingly public life as an indie actress with a grueling IVF journey, she starts to suspect that someone is going to great lengths to make sure that never happens.”
The description continues to paint Anna as a “jumpy” and paranoid person, but emphasizes that she believes that “someone is playing twisted games with her.”
Carrying us to the final moments in the second episode – “Rockabye” – of the season, the synopsis continues, “Then her doctor tells her she’s had a miscarriage, except Anna’s convinced she’s still pregnant despite everything the grave-faced men around her claim. She can feel the baby moving inside her, can see the strain it’s taking on her weakening body.”
As the novel continues, the oddities occurring around Anna grow in severity and she becomes concerned about “what exactly she’s carrying inside of her.”
At the time of reporting, the novel has a 4.2 out of 5.0 rating with over 600 reviews. American Horror Story fans have also been discussing the source material on Reddit, with a mixed reception. “It’s an alright book. It’s an easy read. I read it in a couple of nights. It wasn’t anything insanely spectacular, but it kept me interested enough to want to know the ending,” wrote one fan. Others have complained about its “basic” writing style. And, though the series has followed the novel quite closely, there have been a few notable differences. “So far the changes the show has made has been for the better in my opinion,” read one comment.
In a 2023 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Valentine expressed excitement that her novel was being adapted for the popular television series. “I am such a fan of Ryan Murphy and that whole team that I just have utter faith that it’s going to be glorious. So it’s been really easy for me to feel entirely excited for that,” Valentine said.
There you have it! If Part 2 of Delicate doesn’t come out fast enough, just pick up Valentine’s novel and check out her ending.
American Horror Story: Delicate Part 1 airs Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. on FX, and streams next-day on Hulu.