"Death Valley" by Melissa Broder offers a mesmerizing exploration of grief, longing, and the search for meaning in the midst of emptiness. As the protagonist seeks solace in a remote Best Western motel, she finds herself drawn to a mystical journey prompted by a towering cactus along a desert trail.

Broder's prose is both poetic and evocative, painting a vivid portrait of the California high desert and the emotional landscape of the narrator's inner turmoil. The surreal elements of the story, including the enigmatic cactus and the fantastical realm it leads to, add layers of mystery and depth to the narrative.

At its heart, "Death Valley" is a poignant meditation on loss and transformation. Through the protagonist's odyssey, Broder delves into themes of identity, connection, and the search for transcendence in the face of mortality. Broder's storytelling defies expectations, blending elements of magical realism with raw emotional honesty.

"Death Valley" is imaginative and profound, offering readers a captivating and unforgettable reading experience.

Thanks to Scribner for the advanced reader copy via NetGalley.

Weird and goofy, but I love weird and goofy. Really enjoyed the commentary about our aging parents. So relatable.

I love everything Melissa Broder does. This was not an exception. Death Valley is dreamlike and completely unique, but still relatable, especially as someone who is going through my own battle with grief. This is a book I will come back to again and again.

Having recently lost my father in a similar way as is depicted in this book, I found the journey of this MC and Broder's words processing illness, end of life, and death very cathartic and relatable. I would recommend this to anyone processing the loss of a parent as well as the existential crises that encompass being in your middle age and understanding your place in the cosmos. It was short, semi-self-indulgent and I enjoyed the ride.

3.5ish. fantastic premise and has some powerful moments, but is too often meandering and unfocused. it made me feel like melissa broder hadn’t quite decided what type of book it was going to be until maybe halfway through writing it. it is a quick read, and the humor is occasionally enjoyable, but is ultimately somewhat forgettable

MELISSA BRODER CAN DO NO WRONG IN MY EYES SHE IS JUST SUCH A COOL WEIRDO THANK YOU SO MUCH TO NETGALLEY FOR THE ADVANCED READER COPY VERY COOL!

Blog:
I didn’t expect this to be a book that kept me up late at night because I needed to know how the plot resolved. I have not personally tended to experience much forward momentum in magical realism. But this was such a perfect mix of adventure plot and emotional magical realism that I simply couldn’t stop reading.

"I love a cactus. This is a fact I don’t usually admit to because they’re so popular in design nowadays, and I’d rather support an underdog." location 206

The main character was easy to bond with initially, which is critical to a plot that relies on the reader believing her experiences in the desert – even when they become fantastical. She’s a bisexual woman in long-term recovery from drugs and alcohol. She’s trying to finish her novel. Her husband has had a mysterious chronic illness for several years, and her father has been in the hospital for a long time after a car accident. The hospital keeps telling them that he’s dying, and then he wakes up and improves (only to have something else go wrong.) It’s a lot for anyone to handle. She has a dry wit that we hear inside her head but that rarely makes it outside. We can see how she’s barely keeping it together, and yet she continues to try because of how much she loves her loved ones.

"Since my husband got sick, my words don’t mean what they are supposed to mean."location 289

It’s interesting what a beautiful depiction of a marriage this book is when so little in it features the spouses together. Yet through the main character we see how her marriage and loving her husband, as she would say, isn’t just a feeling. It’s a choice. Perhaps some people would find it gauche to have a whole book focusing in on the impact of a chronic illness on the spouse who doesn’t have it. But that’s the rub of a marriage. What happens to one person is happening to both.

The setting of the book is also gorgeous. I’m not sure I’d have appreciate it as much as I did if I had never been to the desert. The beauty and danger and overwhelmingness of the desert is all encapsulated so beautifully from the coolness of her room in the Best Western to the magical cactus and everything in between. (Plus there’s both desert bunnies and multiple types of cactus from saguaro to teddy-bear cholla.)

If I was reading a review of this book, my main question would be – ok, ok, but how about the magical realism? Does it work? Yes, it works really well. By the time I finished the book, I couldn’t imagine the main character’s arc happening any other way. It makes sense in the context of that trip and that world, and that’s all that really matters. I wasn’t questioning it. I was on board from the first magical moment partway into the book.

Overall, this is an engaging story of one woman’s trip into the desert intertwined with her inner journey of continuing to choose to love her husband every day. It’s beautiful representation of the complexities of in sickness and in health. Recommended to readers interested in that journey with an open mind to magical realism.

Instagram:
In Death Valley by Melissa Broder, a woman dealing (or not dealing) with her husband’s and father’s medical conditions arrives in the desert to research her newest novel and has a fantastical experience. This was my first 5 star read of the year! I'm seriously considering getting a physical copy also.
Thank you to the publisher for providing a free copy via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
#bookalicious #booksinthewild #avidreader #bookaesthetic #whatimreading #bookrec

GoodReads:
I loved this book so much! I couldn't stop highlighting passages. It's such raw and real representation of dealing with chronic and acute illnesses in loved ones while simultaneously being fantastical. (I'm still thinking about the magical oriole.) I was teary-eyed.

Check out my full review.

*I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.*

Geez, a father in ICU, a husband with a debilitating mystery illness, profound depression, existential crises all the way down, and writer's block -- could we pile more on this unfortunate narrator/heroine? Well, here's the good part - with her dark humor, perceptiveness, acerbic observations, and willingness to verbalize the thoughts we normally keep to ourselves, our heroine somehow comes across as a sympathetic, engaging, and amiably distraught hero for our times. We start with crystal sharp realism and then pass through a cactus portal into magical realism; she doesn't bat an eye and we are with her every step of the way. The novel is absurd, but so is life, so it's all good.

I love Melissa Broder's humor and Milk Fed was one of my favorite books in the past five years. In Death Valley, she turns this humor onto existential dread and uses the desert setting to explore anticipatory grief. It was an easy, funny, wacky, and relatable read.
Thank you to NetGalley for the review copy!

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved the whole concept behind this book! The way the author describes the desert with all the metaphors related to family relationships really struck a chord with me. It was oddly relatable in probably the worst way, but I couldn’t help mirroring some of the main characters feelings revolving around her ailing family. If you’re looking for a well written fiction book with a touch of dark humor, try this out!

The Pisces and Milk Fed have been on my list to read for years, due to the hype. After reading this book I understand why. Melissa Broder has such a unique voice. Her ability to portray a variety of characters that are all individual yet feel very real is astounding. Especially considering one of them was talking to inanimate objects, abnormally large cacti and animals the entire story. Even so it doesn’t feel forced.

We follow the lead as she runs away to the desert to “write her novel” aka not deal with the fact that her husband is chronically ill and her father is actively dying. She’s only a little bit obsessed with Best Western and a lot obsessed with talking to rocks. But at least she has Frosted Flakes, a giant cactus and some lizards to keep her company.

This really lacked for me. I love weird and messy shit, but this really didn’t connect at all. It had no substance, and the quality was poor. I wish character relationships and the journey with grief was much stronger than it ended up being, and mainly because the characters themselves also lacked substance. Unfortunately, this is a boot.

Sign me up for any book Melissa Broder writes from now on. Wonderfully gross prose.

There's so much to process: the grief, the depression, the uncertainty of life. This is all wrapped up in a fever dream of a story about a cactus in Death Valley.

Honestly I’m not sure what to say about this book. The protagonist is a woman who is married to a man with a chronic illness that significantly impacts his everyday life. She also has a father who is in the hospital, possibly on his deathbed. She is a writer, and goes to the desert to get away from her life, finish her novel and clear her head. While she is there, she takes a hike and ends up getting lost, becoming disoriented and experiencing hallucinations and/or visions related to her dehydration/heatstroke. The story is interesting enough at the start, but devolves quickly into random observations/fever dreams during her time on the desert trail and is almost nonsensical at times. There is an undercurrent of humor which keeps the book light although it focuses on heavy topics, mainly grief/coming to terms with mortality. In the end, it kind of seems like the protagonist IS the main character in her own novel and has experienced the transformation that she hoped to write about, although this is not one hundred percent clear. I think there’s a lot to unpack and discuss with this book, but unfortunately it was a little too strange for me.

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this one. It's poignant and emotional and sometimes funny, but verged on a level of surreal that I found hard to follow at times. Broder seems like the kind of author though where her style can be divisive, so I wasn't totally shocked, but I'm just not sure this one was for me. That said, I found the story compelling enough to keep reading, interested in tracing the deeply internal storyline that this follows. In it is an immensely thought-provoking and emotional character arc, tinged with grief and humor all at once. It's the kind of novel I think I have to sit with a little longer to know exactly how I feel about it, which I almost prefer to leaving a novel knowing my thoughts. With that, I recommend to those who are looking for a character-driven story that touches upon themes of loss and internal reckonings that tugs at the strange and funny in the process.

The main character is grieving her father who is in the hospital, dying. She decides to drive to Death Valley to write her next book. There, she finds it: a giant, green cactus just right off the hiking path, and interest with the cactus grows, and she must look inside herself to find what she truly needs. I think the ending could have been stronger, but it was psychologically very interesting.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for this ARC.

This is definitely her best. If you enjoyed The Pisces, here is a more mature, fully developed novel with flavors of magical realism that feel fleshed out, important, and memorable.

"I reach the bottom of the slope path and arrive at a weedy valley, full of globe-shaped puffballs and purple blossoms. I look up, wiping the sweat from my eyes: magnificent, primeval, overpowering rock. Wild West Shit."

Death Valley by Melissa Broder introduces us to an apathetic female novelist determined to get lost in the desert while grieving her ailing father in the hospital, navigating a listless relationship with her invalid husband, and trying to compose her new book. She becomes obsessed with the employees of a Best Western and finds herself wandering through the adjacent desert with the memories of her father.

Profoundly relatable thoughts from the protagonist persist like this one: "Sometimes I wonder if I'm genuinely the introvert I think I am, or if it's just that my Internet addition has become a substitute for meeting people. Without the Internet, I might be a very social person."

She becomes deeply enthralled with a particular cactus which she physically enters (erotically and literally) and lets her mind manifest and interact with versions of her father and husband.
There's some excellent comedic elements here as she personifies everything that crosses her path in her desert quest, whether it's talking about pee or penetrating her beloved cactus. "There is never enough pee in novels" and The stones speak and have personalities. One says "Take me, I may not be the shiniest or prettiest, but I'm sturdy and stable. Loyal."

As she struggles with guilt over the situation her father is in, she is stuck between letting him go, and keeping hope that he will survive. Jethra, the "best" Best Western employee gives perhaps the greatest soliloquy in the book "That's the problem with this country she says motioning in the air "All this space! No room for feeling. Have you ever been to Bulgarian funeral? Oh! Well! Very different from American funeral. People are screaming, throwing dirt. People are trying to climb into the coffin!" as our protagonist muses "This is definitely better than having sex with her."

Loved this book-definitely vibes of Ottessa Moshfegh, if you like her books and sort of vile, unlikeable characters.

Thanks to NetGalley and Publisher for the ARC!

A writer trying to escape the stressors of a chronically ill husband and a father in the ICU travels to the California desert finds herself in a fever dream of a journey involving giant cactuses that you can live inside, rabbits writing hate mail, and rocks that give life advice.

Based on the description I was a little off-put by this one. Am I really going to enjoy and understand a novel this metaphorical and quirky? The short answer is yes. And I’m not a very literary reader in the sense of being able to interpret and evaluate every hidden meaning. The writing is graceful in the sense that it’s told and then we move on, each scene really only gets a few moments to shine. This book is a great look into grief, trying to outrun our feelings, and even some what-not-to-dos when exploring the desert on your own 🤣. It leaves for a very exceptional and bizarre experience that will definitely sit in my brain for a while to come.

Tldr; if you like weird pick this one up. Ignore the GR rating because this book is gold.

I think Broder is just not for me. DNF. I'm down with the grief and the weird, but this was just not my style of surreal. I don't think it deserves a bad rating for anything specific!