"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!

Death Valley was a mind-bending but wonderful exploration of grief. Even though the premise is odd, the themes were relatable. I love Broder's writing!

Broder weaved such a bizarre, beautiful tapestry with that one. I was utterly captivated by the desert's surreal embrace, the prickly humor, and the raw vulnerability of her characters. Every sentence shimmered with her signature wit, keeping me glued to the page, even as I stumbled through the more surreal moments. It's a love story, a grief odyssey, a cactus-fueled fever dream – and somehow, it all works. If you're looking for something utterly unique and deeply affecting, check this one out! You won't regret the sunstroke.

I love Broder's writing. So immersive and relatable. The whole lost in the desert gave me major anxiety which is the only reason it gets knocked down a point lol.

I’ve got mixed feelings about this one. I like Melissa Broder’s writing a lot, but this book fell flat for me. It felt a little too claustrophobic, and while there was definitely a lot going on, the hyper-fixation on the grief theme made it feel a little monotonous. I’m still excited to read whatever she publishes next.

What to do when the world bunches up on you? When your favorite people are failing in all the ways you can't help them? When you are filled with doubt that you did enough? Well, Death Valley's narrator jumped in her car and found comfort at a Best Western Hotel in the heart of California's most deserty desert to sort out her feelings.

Told in a tumbling free-association of every thought as she goes through this grand sorting, our narrator gets herself into a predicament. Readers are taken along the ride witnessing feelings and emotions from every part of the human spectrum, often served with a big dose of humor and smirk. Not my usual read. This won't appeal to some, but I enjoyed it to the very end (as I later discussed with the bird in the feeder outside my window).

*A sincere thank you to Melissa Broder, Scribner, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and independently review.* #DeathValley #NetGalley

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Author Kit Carson—I believe this is her name, but it was only mentioned once in the entire book—is grieving her not-dead father who is in the hospital, dying. She decides to get away from the hospital room in Los Angeles and drive to Death Valley to write her next book. There, she finds it: a giant, green cactus just right off the hiking path. Her interest with the cactus grows, and she must look inside herself to find what she truly needs.

I enjoyed this book from start to finish. It was very psychological/philosophical in the way she thought so much about stuff, and near the end was coming to conclusions about life, death, and love. The big, green cactus gave me Picnic at Hanging Rock vibes. Imagine if Miranda and co. were after a big, green cactus the entire time (priceless).

Here’s some things I had slight problems with: I absolutely did not believe this narrator was in her 40s, I also didn’t need her name as sometimes an unnamed narrator strengthens a book like this, and I wanted more scenes with the cactus. Also, I wanted a sad ending, like not traumatizing, but sort of like Ira Levin’s books; almost every book I’ve read of his has an unhappy ending, and it actually makes the books better.

It was a cute book. I give it 3.5 stars.

Death Valley is absolutely hilarious and the writing is captivating. It follows a woman grappling with grief as her father is fighting for his life and her husband battles a chronic illness. She gets lost in the California desert but ~finds herself~

Our protagonist is painfully self-aware, to the point I found her annoying at times. The humor sucked me in and kept me going, but there were times I felt the story was too outlandish. The talking rocks bit went on too long, although I found it humorous at first. By the end I was ready to chuck the conversationalist rocks. Same with the giant, cozy cactus.

The characters didn’t feel fully developed because so much of the plot was focused on this bizarre magical journey through the dessert and almost dying. I appreciate the new look at grief and the metaphors, but some parts (the horniness?) came across as juvenile. At one point, I was convinced the main character had done acid and this was all a drug-induced hallucination.

I’d chalk this up as a love/hate relationship with the book.

A very weird ride into grief and the path that it takes you. I really felt for the protagonist and how heavy her life was becoming with a sick husband and a dying father

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. I am pretty obsessed with the Mojave desert, so this book was appealing to me for that reason alone. It was very funny and easy to read. I wasn't expecting the surrealism, but if any setting is prime for surrealism, it's the desert. As someone who has experienced a parent with an illness and chronic illness in my life, I thought those plotlines were handled well. Definitely recommend to fans of surrealist fiction.

Melissa Broder is back with another weird and wonderful book. This book was a fantastically weird look into the mind of someone handling grief. While at times this book is a slow burn, it is definitely worth the read especially if you love an unreliable narrator which Broder writes so well.

I absolutely hate to admit that I had to DNF... I do think I could pick this back up again. It sounds like everything I would love in a book... but I had a hard time vibing with the main character. I love an unhinged or unreliable narrator but this was just not quite either of those. She was almost just a tad unlikable.

I think I will try to listen to this one if its available on audio!

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this ebook in exchange for my review.

Death Valley was my first Melissa Broder and wow! What a way to start. Her writing immediately pulled me in and could not stop reading. Partly because I had no idea what was happening. There was no guessing where this was going. I had to sit with this a few days after finishing to process it all.

This story explores the many stages of grief and burnout as well as a splash of an existential crisis. I love how we got to hear so much of the inner monologue of the main character. Her vulnerability made her very relatable at times. The best way to describe this book was weird, but in the best way possible. I will definitely be seeking out more of Broder's books.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for this eARC. I really wanted to like this book; I was hoping that it would be a more modern take on magical realism, a sort of spiritual journey through grief, but I couldn't take the narrator. I found her cloying... and a tad racist. The story centers on an unnamed narrator who travels to the desert, specifically an unnamed area near Death Valley. Her father has been hospitalized and her husband has a chronic illness, but the narrator wanders the desert to find ... a magical cactus? Sort of. The way in is gross and there are some real intrusive thoughts that I didn't think were needed on the page. It had some elements that I really liked, particularly the mentions of trauma and grief, but I could just not get past the voice of the narrator. Also, there's not much in the way of resolution. It gets a solid "meh."

What a weird and wonderful reading journey! I never know what to expect when I read something by Melissa Broder. All of her novels are unique and clever. I thought she tackled the theme of grieving (and how grief can be for things besides just death). And she handles magical realism beautifully which is tough to do.

This book won’t be for everyone as it’s not your average read but I loved it.

Death Valley was not what I thought it was going to be but I still gave it 5 stars because what the book try’s to portray comes out in beautiful raw emotion throughout the entirety of the book. I loved the protagonists commentary throughout and found myself relating to her more and more and truly got immersed in the story. This was a great emotional read thank you #netgalley for the arc I truly enjoyed the book. #deathvalley

Reminds me of Ottessa Moshfegh, Sally Rooney, and Sloane Crowley with the body horror of Samantha Irby.

This is my first Melissa Broder and it was so enjoyable to read. I’ve had Milk Fed and The Pisces on my to-read list and will have to save those for when I need a break from the heavy depressing stuff I read regularly. This story was sweet and gross. Do recommend.

This is the first book by Melissa Broder that I've read and clearly I've been missing out, because I just ate this up. Others may think this main character is unlikable but I found her so interesting that I liked her. This was so wonderfully weird. Everything about this just worked for me. If you like weird, surreal, dreamy, kinda funny, kinda introspective books; I highly recommend Death Valley.