‘American Horror Story: Delicate’: How George Clooney, Shay Mitchell Inspired Kim Kardashian’s Scripted Hit

variety.com:

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer At some point, every pregnancy is a horror story. That’s the truth laid bare in author Danielle Valentine’s book “Delicate Condition,” the first-ever novel to be adapted into a season of the long-running anthology series “American Horror Story.” Currently airing on FX, “AHS: Delicate” stars Emma Roberts as Victoria, a former child actor who’s navigating sudden stardom and awards attention as she’s also trying to conceive a baby with her husband (Matt Czuchry).

The show has been praised as a feminist update of “Rosemary’s Baby,” and has given reality star Kim Kardashian a role dreams are made of, playing a ruthless publicist who will stop at nothing to get her client an Oscar.

But Hollywood trappings aside, “AHS: Delicate” is a body horror play. “There’s a very specific discomfort, symptoms and horror of what a typical pregnancy can be,” Valentine tells Variety. “I’d been a body horror novelist for 10 years.

I got my start writing teen exorcism books, so I have history with that. I thought, if I can do one thing, I can describe this very visceral, painful, oftentimes gruesome experience in a way that other people who’ve tackled this subject couldn’t.” Valentine is the author of “The Merciless” series, which is described as “Mean Girls” meets “The Exorcist,” as well as standalone works like “How to Survive Your Murder.” In a roving conversation with Variety, she unpacks phenomena like the “medical gaslighting” women are subjected to in society, as well as some A-list inspiration behind the characters we’re presently seeing on-screen.