when ur so avoidant attached u end up alone in the desert 🌵

thanks to netgalley and scribner for the arc!

melissa broder zoom'ed into my book club for milk fed and talked a bit about her life and i'm just in awe with how much she put of her personal life into book - it's nearly autofiction. she mentioned her grief over her father's passing was a huge catalyst for writing this book and it made me appreciate the vulnerability of this book even more.

in traditional broder fashion, you can't help but to watch and relate to her painfully human protagonists and then the book descends into grotesque fantasy chaos. it's a wonderful blend of vulnerability and borderline speculative fiction.

in addition to being a beautiful story about grief, it's actually such a beautiful love story. the way she begins to see her dying father as he is, she is also able to meet her partner whose illness is chronic and worsening on another level. i thought that was such a beautiful addition to the story.

I think this one ranks slightly below the pisces and milk fed, but i still really loved it and just adore anything melissa broder releases.

When we meet our unnamed narrator she is checking into a Best Western in Death Valley. She's taking a small step away from her chronically ill husband in LA and her father who is in the ICU. She's in a place that provides a bit of freedom from her life and the many things that she cannot control and is oddly attuned to many living and nonliving things in her new environment. When she goes for a hike in the desert and comes across a huge cactus with an unexpected wound she can't help but touch it and even slide her hand inside. Do the mystical experiences begin here or is this whole experience a fever dream? It's hard to know what is real as the narrator reflects on her relationships with two hugely important figures in her life who she wants to support but cannot cure. Self-care time quickly falls over a cliff as we follow the narrator into Death Valley.

I cannot get the mood of this novel out of my head. Despite the dire situations, this book is full of humor and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the advance copy of this book.

This was just ok. Kind of meh. This kind of main character drives me nuts. Selfish and so full of themselves that they are effectively blinded by their own ego and self. It’s infuriating. Compassion or empathy? I had neither for her. The more the cactus popped up (even if nonexistent) the more I felt bad for the cactus though. Getting wounded more and more to shelter someone like this.

A swift departure from her previous novels, but still maintains elements of sharp humor and magical realism. Poignant and at times quirky, the narrator does not shy away from revealing her innermost thoughts about marriage, grief, and chronic illness. The plot did seem a bit jumbled at times, but the ending was quite nice,

Death Valley is a fever dream that delves deep into magical realism. Melissa Broder skillfully crafts one of the most wildly imaginative novels centered on death and grief. While I have a fondness for magical realism, I sometimes find myself losing track of the story amidst all the absurdity. However, Death Valley manages to maintain its emotional core.

The protagonist grapples with anxiety and anticipatory grief, lost in various ways and unable to fully savor the good moments in life due to the fear of losing them. Broder's storytelling is refreshingly unique, injecting humor into moments that could be bogged down in sentiment.' It's quirky, yet at its core, it's a heartfelt tale of a young woman trying to comprehend and ease her father's suffering.

Wow what an interesting book. I did not expect this to be close to a Mona Awad type book. I was much less invested in this than other books I've read like this. I felt like her time in the desert went on and on and on and didn't feel like she learned much until the very end. It didn't really feel like a story, but more her internal monologue. Also it was hard to sympathize with her when most of her decisions were terrible.

death valley is a stunning bizarre western fever dream. melissa broder really leans into the magical realism creating one of the most wild and imaginative novels on death and grief. i love magical realism but i can often lose the point of the book in all the absurdity, but death valley did not lose it’s emotion.

this wasn’t my favorite reading experience, grief, especially anticipatory, fills me with so much heaviness and dread any time i think about it, but that doesn’t mean that this novel wasn’t brilliant. because it was.

thank you netgalley for an eArc in exchanges for an honest review!

This was equal parts weird and profound, and I loved it. The voice of this novel had me from page 1. We open with our main character checking into a Motel 6 and learning that her father is in hospice. But when I say weird, I mean you need to be okay with this main character then literally walking inside an enormous cactus, speaking to rocks, and then buy into all that... leading you to ultimately being very moved as the reader.

Our main character is anxiety ridden and filled with anticipatory grief. She is lost in multiple senses of that word and struggles to enjoy the good. Rather, she focuses on the fear of losing that good. I think this is something most people can relate to in some ways and the way Broder tells this relatable story is so unique. It's funny, like when she calls her people in heaven her "luminous entourage", it's very quirky, and at the heart it is a story of a girl trying to understand and end her father's suffering. This book is short and sweet, and I definitely recommend trying it!

My first time reading one of Melissa Broder’s novels, and I went in not knowing what to expect. What I found was a novel that examined our humanity and provoked emotion, while balancing its seriousness with moments of hope and humor.

What a strange book - but exactly what I expect from Melissa Broder. She had such a compelling way of writing the inner thoughts and narration of her characters minds. Almost too well. I think while I do see she was trying to share a story of growth of a fairly unlikable main character, I did sense a strong undertone of ableism that seems to be subtext here. I know her intent may not to sound ableist or shed light on folks that have that mentality but in reflection of this read it’s pretty rough to give a super high score as I think some content may be off putting to more sensitive readers or anyone who may have a disability, visible or invisible.

I really enjoy Melissa Broder's writing style and the way she adds humor and irony. However, I did not enjoy the premise of an unstable woman with a hospitalized father and chronically ill spouse making everyone's health issues about her and then wandering in to the desert. I would definitely read another Broder book, but this one just didn't work for me.

Set in the lonely terrain of the desert (and Best Western), our narrator attempts to escape her reality and find ways of explaining and grappling with the respective sicknesses her husband and her father face. Often found conversing with inanimate objects, the narrator verbalizes some of our greatest fears regarding death, grief, and interpersonal relationships.

Broder employs smart and quick prose to encapsulate the experience of existentialism. The entirety of the novel feels like a fever dream as the narrator places a great amount of trust into a massive cactus she found in the desert — a cactus that nobody else is able to see. She becomes friends with rocks, bunnies, and snakes (kind of) and becomes familiar and more comfortable navigating the rocky terrain of her own psyche.

Reading the novel is overall a disorienting, vulnerable, dark, and at times reassuring experience.

Death Valley by Melissa Broder definitely felt like her other works, which is to say, it felt like a fever dream. I love how Broder's writing makes you question whether you actually understood what you read or if you didn't read it right but at the end, you still enjoyed the time you spent reading it. Death Valley was no different. I enjoyed my time and I think you will, too.

This reads like a fever dream, probably because the main character is relaying her wild fever dream in the desert.
The writing was real good and Broder really knows how to make you laugh and cry in the same sentence. There is this sense of foreboding throughout the entire novel and it keeps racking up the tension as the novel progresses. I’m sure I was holding my breath until the very last page.
It did feel a bit wandering at times, but I think this only added to the fever dreamness.

This book was such a fever dream, which are my favorite! A very bizarre and trippy book about death, sickness, and grief. At some points I wasn't sure what was going on but I felt compelled to keep reading to see. I was expecting a little more at the end, but it was still a good! Reminded me of Mona Awad's style.

a genuinely wild and bizarre book but also so poignant and heartfelt. this is melissa broder's best yet—a literal fever dream. while incredibly imaginative, it does not skim through the narrator's grief and reckoning with love. one of the biggest problems i have with magical realism is that i sometimes can't grasp the emotions or introspection of the main character/narrator, but broder handled this with ease. throughout the entire book, i felt grounded and was able to empathize with the main character. just such a good book!

grief, existential dread, and a desert survival story I’m obsessed. Thank you netgalley for the arc!

A woman escapes to death valley to take a break from her father's illness. This book is weird and wonderful, and perfect for a superstitious jew like myself. The book takes life through a weird, meta, writer who is vulgar and has a fascination with Best Western. I found myself relating to her and being angry about it sometimes because the main character is so odd, and not someone you want to relate to. I wish I could crawl in a cactus and have revelations.

example of me being like the MC:
"Sometimes when a person who loves me expresses care, I feel oppressed"

May have liked this more than Milk Fed, they are pretty different.

Can't say too much because it is confusing and surreal but also don't want to spoil. Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for the eArc.

As someone who lost their dad to cancer and is spreading their ashes next month this isn't the best time for me to read this unfortunately. I'm really loving the writing and I will pick up other books from this author ASAP! But I'm putting this on hold for the time being

A giant cactus heals an unlikeable woman’s grief…. kind of. As with all of Melissa Broder’s book, this one will take you on a ride that you’re not sure where it’s going and you honestly may never figure it out.

The characters in Death Valley intrigued me and, even though at times not a lot happened, I wanted to keep reading to see what was going on. I really enjoyed the harsh desert landscape and all it offered (talking rocks, little bunnies, etc.).

My main criticism of this book is the way in which the main character spoke about her husband felt almost anti-disability/anti-illness at times and made me uneasy.

Thank you Scribner and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.