A great novel and very well-written, surrealist like her other books. I would say I enjoyed it a little bit less than her previous books--I loved Milk-Fed!--but that's probably because I relate to the narrator and what she's going through less.

Wow! This novel was like a literary fever dream (or acid trip)! And I mean that in a good way! I loved this strange book, but I struggle to explain why or even categorize it. Magical realism in spades. I loved Broder's novel, The Pisces, and Death Valley did not disappoint at all. I'm a Melissa Broder fan!

Broder’s newest novel, Death Valley, broaches topics like grief, depression, chronic illness, life after death, familial sickness, leveling of conflicting and contrasting emotions, and feelings of existentialism in the face of larger powers and our inevitable looming death, and it does so in an incredibly clever, realistically magical, and often relatable way. beginning with a woman’s escape from the heavy atmosphere of grief created by the wavering condition of her dying father, who is confined to the hospital, as well as the guilt she feels at her incapability to fix the chronic illnesses present in her husband as well as those in her father, she takes temporary residence at a Best Western in southern California, near the Death Valley, aiming to finish the current book she is writing, to fully encapsulate its purpose, and is hoping to uncover some focus in solitude, a room of her own. Recommended a hiking path by one of two very idiosyncratic Best Western workers she meets, she ventures into the desert wilderness, trying to escape her own mind, and spurred by a cactus bigger than she could have ever imagined, and soon internally changed by it’s very large sinister yet beckoning hole into which she takes vulnerable solace, she slowly slides deeper into her own grief, guilt, and delusion, confronted starkly with herself, in her attempted escapist isolation, as a result of the unceasing sunshine that enlightens and bares her deepest worries and fears. She attempts to desert her identity as wife and daughter in this never ending desert, ending up lost in terms of her location as much as she is in terms of her certainty in her own conscience, she stumbles through this uncertainty with the company of inanimate characterized objects created by her own imagination, visions of the men in her life in times of their lives before they became unwell, and comes face to face with existentialism and death in more than one way; our main character, in the most genuine sense of the cliche, has to get lost in order to find herself, physically and emotionally. We live briefly, in this short but encompassing book, in the sarcastic but sorrowful mind of this woman using physical escapism to come to terms with her anticipatory grief, we experience her flashes of loved ones, and watch as she forms hilarious desperate relationships with various rocks and cacti due to her desert heat delusion, and in turn follow this woman’s journey towards a newfound desperation to live while those she loves are slowly dying, and entrenched in this overheated, lonely, directionless stupor, she comes to terms with the things she cannot control, no matter how hard she tries and tries to control them. She truly characterizes the endless love she holds deeply for these people she adores whose circumstances she cannot change, and realizes they do not expect her to change them. We cannot outrun ourselves, no matter how lost we become we are still chained to ourselves, to our deep caves of despair, our endless skies of uncertainty, the prickly cactus-like corners of our mind that become increasingly unavoidable. Our souls are heavy and we are forced to drag them through our lives, and when those we love lose the ability to keep going, we attempt to carry them too. But at what point do we get to set it all down? How do we know what to set down? it reminded me of the Anne Carson quote, “You remember too much, my mother said to me recently. Why hold onto all that? And I said, Where can I put it down?” where can we lay down our grief and guilt, and how can we come to terms with the fact that we are allowed to try to abandon misery and emotional projection and accept love, compassion, acceptance? Despite our mortality, our fallibility, our corruptible brains, don’t we still deserve to have family and love? we pray to Gods we do or don’t believe in to let that be enough, that whether we live or we die, we are loved, and that that’s enough.

In Death Valley, Broder combines a desert survival story with a deep dive into anticipatory grief and loss using her own brand of fever dream writing. The unnamed narrator, dealing with her father's imminent passing and her husband's worsening chronic illness, ventures out to the desert and enters a giant cactus that may or may not be there. The combination of weird desert occurrences and a deep dive into the narrator's psyche full of grief and existential dread definitely made for an interesting and profound read. I found this to be thought provoking and there were definitely parts I connected more with. I found the survival part a bit meandering but thought it was still fast read.

As I was reading Death Valley I was reminded of THE HIKE by Drew Magary. They are both similar in weirdness and overall survival themes with a dose of emotional deep dives. I think had I not read The Hike (and felt more connected to the experiences of the protagonist there), Death Valley would have been a very unique experience, but it's still a new twist on a rare type of story and definitely worth a read.

Thank you so much to Scribner for the ARC.

My favorite Broder yet. Filled with her signature wit and humor, a sprinkle of magical realism, a dose of depression, and a woman dealing with grief, and Death Valley was a winner for me. There were moments throughout where I felt as if the book was written FOR me, because I connected with it so closely, there were other moments that had me laughing aloud, and by the end I was sobbing. A brilliant novel.

This was one of my most anticipated books of the year. I have read Melissa Broder’s other novels and they both hit that 5 star mark for me. Unfortunately this one fell flat.

In this novel we follow a woman who is going to the California Desert to escape the never ending pressure of both her father and husband being ill. A majority of the novel takes place at the local Best Western and a trial nearby where she comes across a huge cactus and her fascination goes from there.I enjoyed the surrealism factor but I was left wondering why any of it was happening. Even though it was a shorter novel it felt long. Since we didn’t interact with the father or husband character much I found it hard to empathize with the main character since we didn’t get to know them.

Regardless of not actually enjoying the story Broder’s writing still stood out, and I am excited to see what comes next from her.

It's safe to say that if Melissa Broder writes it I will read it. Death Valley is a bit of a departure from her other novels (The Pisces and Milk Fed), but is still full of the dark humor and honesty that I love in her work.

Death Valley follows a narrator whose father has spent months in the hospital and is close to death. Seeking respite, she books a few nights at a Best Western and takes up hiking. On the trail she finds a large, abnormal cactus that seems to speak to her like a friend. A series of strange visions, including one of her dying father as a young boy, lures her back to the trail the next day. Our narrator is not the smartest hiker though and soon her walk on the simple trail turns into a situation that could end in death.

I love Melissa's writing style so much - its snappy, funny and often a little gross. In Death Valley, we see the narrator's struggle with her father's impending death, her relationship with her chronically ill husband, and her own struggles with her mental health. She pivots so well between moments that have me near laughing out loud to moments that would scare the crap out of me if I was in her situation. Death Valley is a real rollercoaster of emotions and a fever dream of a novel that had me questioning what was reality and what was in our narrator's head. This book is not a long one, but Melissa makes every single page count.

Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for a review copy.

I love Broders wit and humor in the face of a such a dismal and depressing topic: grief. I honestly was not that blown about by this story however. I love a book with very little plot but this just felt boring and forgettable to me.

Imagine you are faced with several crises. It is not too difficult of a reach, life is hard. Your father is in the I.C.U., near death for many months and your husband has been suffering from a "long flu" for nine years that leaves him in pain, unable to work, often even unable to walk, and frequently spending months in bed. What do you do? If you are the main character in the latest novel by Melissa Broder, "Death Valley", you flee Los Angeles and end up in a Best Western in the desert.

With lots of humor and introspection, our heroine then goes on ill advised, unprepared hikes in the desert, and encounters a giant cactus and her own mortality. In a low place mentally, and then in a lonely place physically, she tries to escape herself, but as conventional wisdom warns us-we bring ourselves wherever we run to. Will our protagonist survive? Will she find a way to thrive? Even her attempts to find connection with an automated customer service phone line are hilarious. You will laugh, you will wonder at that tear forming in the corner of your eye, and you will not be able to put this book down.

This story is for those who love family drama and searches for paths to fill our emptiness and finding the levity in the most unlikely of situations.. Melissa Broder knows her craft. She knows the difficulty of having to choose your hotel breakfast selections the night before, the inability to process our feelings in a way that is kind and beneficial to our psyche, and how impossible it is to successfully deal with all the people in our lives without getting paralyzed by fear and indecision. This narrative will resonate with the reader for quite some time. It is a welcome addition to your TBR list.

In Death Valley, the nameless author who narrates the book travels alone to a Best Western hotel in the desert to work on her book. Her father is hospitalized with a severe illness and her husband suffers from a debilitating chronic illness. While all of this could be unbelievably sad and depressing, Melissa Broder actually makes her main protagonist’s observations bitingly funny and sarcastic (“𝘔𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘴. 𝘚𝘩𝘦’𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘑𝘦𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴; 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘴. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘯 𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢: 𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵. 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵: 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘯.“)

Yes, there is a giant cactus here with a doorway in its side. And the narrator talks to some rocks while lost on a hike in the desert. I loved the narrator’s dark sense of humor and her dry wit. If you’re a fan of the author’s previous books The Pisces and Milk Fed, you will not be disappointed by this very keen observation on grief and survival.

Thanks to the publisher for the review copy!

This is such a great novel it’s about a woman caring for her dying father after his accident and takes a brief holiday excursion to death Valley in on a hike find a cactus this is more like a letter to a friend because her writing is honest and I do mean totally honest and humble and I loved it so much! This is one of those books you don’t run into every day they’re not a dime a dozen it’s so original and so good and I just love it! If you love well-thought-out stories that are original with a day of sci-fi thrown in then you will definitely love Death Valley by Melissa Broder from her mixed up relationship with her dad to the book she is writing it is all awesome awesome awesome! I want to thank Scribner Annette galley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Hmm, this was an interesting one. I liked it a lot better than Milk Fed, but I’m still not convinced that Melissa Broder is for me. And that’s ok!

This is a trippy story about a woman struggling with her father’s hospitalization, her husband’s chronic illness, and her own mental health issues. There were some really great quotes, but overall the narrative was just too out there for me. Props for Broders creativity for sure, though.

Here’s one of my favorite quotes:

“It’s a different sort of fear than my recent doom and dread—in my gut rather than my chest—and the new fear is a reprieve from the old fear. I get why people like this outdoorsy, self-inflicted adventure stuff. There’s something to be said for manufacturing a crisis (a crisis can be simpler than just living).”

Thank you so much to the publisher for my advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I already love Melissa Broder but this solidified it. I guarantee this book is not for everyone - our main character gets lost in the woods while grieving her father and sometimes finds herself inside of a cactus and other times having horrific injuries - both situations are extremely realistic and real so expect to feel uncomfortable. It was laugh out loud funny and then immediately I was holding back tears. I don’t know how she does it… she is so brilliant at writing such visceral stories - I felt her pain so bad I had to stand up and put the book down, and when I finished it I said “oh my god” out loud. Everyone GO READ THIS!!! It’s 2 hours of your life! Just do it!!

Melissa Broder is an absolute mastermind of psychoactive magical realism and making me feel just as unhinged as her narrator every time I read something she’s written. Death Valley is an avant garde exploration of grief and reads like being in the deep subconscious of her main character. Feverish, dreamy, funny, heart wrenching, she is one of the greatest authors out currently.

“𝔻𝕠𝕨𝕟, 𝕕𝕠𝕨𝕟, 𝕕𝕠𝕨𝕟. 𝕀𝕟𝕥𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕙 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕘𝕠. 𝕎𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕖 𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕓𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕠𝕞? 𝕀 𝕒𝕞 𝕦𝕟𝕔𝕖𝕣𝕥𝕒𝕚𝕟. 𝔹𝕦𝕥 𝕀 𝕜𝕖𝕖𝕡 𝕕𝕚𝕘𝕘𝕚𝕟𝕘. 𝔻𝕚𝕘𝕘𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕔𝕣𝕪𝕚𝕟𝕘. 𝔻𝕚𝕘 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕔𝕣𝕪. 𝔻𝕚𝕘 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕔𝕣𝕪.”

hit me in my feels. that’s for sure.

I am so in love with character driven/grief driven narratives, and this book delivered on both of those fronts EXCELLENTLY! I found myself identifying with our main character in so many ways and also purely in terms of how she reflects on what life means FOR her and TO her. I also did tear up on more than one occasion.

Yes, this book also has a dash of weird but at it's core it is so much about the relationships we build throughout our lives and how we choose to react and reflect on the world surrounding us.

Highly recommend!

Death Valley is a chaotic, almost stream of consciousness novel that I absolutely loved. I can see how others may not find this one as enjoyable as I did, maybe I read it in just the right moment, but I had so much fun with this one. A little magical realism, a little humor, grief, absurdism, it's got it all!

Interesting concept but didn’t find this very intriguing unfortunately. Quick and easy read though. Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book!

I really enjoyed this book! It was the perfect length, and I could relate to this. My dad and I take trips to Nevada at least once a year. I wish that a specific place was mentioned (unless I missed it?) so I could better envision the place the main character describes; instead, I envisioned my favorite place, allowing me to connect more. This book was a great take on dying, and the stress one goes through when a loved one is ill. This would be a good book to read when experiencing the loss or medical hardship of a loved one.

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy!

I hate to say I didn’t love this. I’m a huge Melissa Broder fan and loved The Pisces and Milk Fed but this just didn’t work for me. It felt like a long stream of consciousness with no real plot. I understand it’s symbolizes the exploration of grief but it just didn’t hit for me.

3 stars.

I ate this book up! Such a wonderful read. It gave me contemporary Waiting for Godot vibes. It’s an existential journey of a woman navigating Death Valley as she processes her father’s impending death and her husband’s failing health. She stays at a Best Western and then discovers a trail with a mystical cactus that feels good to the touch, so she crawls inside! Then she begins to contemplate the failing health of the men in her life. After she checks out of the Best Western, she returns to the trail to revisit the cactus, but it’s not there. Was it ever? As she looks for the cactus, she ends up in survival mode as she conquers herself and the desert terrain. This book has a sprinkle of magical realism, western energy, and contemporary fiction. The narrator is hilarious, and going on this journey with her was so enjoyable and heartfelt. I recommend this book to everyone that wants to try something new, fresh, and who craves the unexpected.