I love Melissa Broder's unique style as well as her other books. This was no exception! I breezed through the book in just over a day. The idea for the story was fascinating and magical. Highly recommended to everyone.

Death Valley follows a woman in her 40s dealing with anticipatory grief over her father dying (or not?) and her husband's chronic illness. Alone, she heads to her fave chain hotel, Best Western, in Death Valley to seek respite and deal with her feelings. On the way, she listens to an audiobook on connecting with loved ones beyond the grave (again, anticipatory) and pictures the narrator being Carmela Soprano (loved that part). Thanks to a suggestion from the hotel receptionist, she goes on a hiking trail, finds a huge cactus, steps inside it (or doesn't?) and magical surrealism follows.

With this book I've once again experienced my usual feelings about a Melissa Broder book: I enjoy the beginning, it's funny, weird, has promise, and then she loses me, but I keep going and question how I feel about it. This one of hers explores anticipatory grief, illness in family, existentialism, magical surrealism (realism?). It felt very different than her other books (The Pisces and Milk Fed), but also the same. It's her style to write characters that are so detached, dry, and not really present, but I just can't manage to really care about them in any real way. I was really feeling it with this one at the beginning, I was empathizing with her journey in father dying, dealing with her husband's illness, both at the same time, that felt real. But then truly almost the entire novel is this character hallucinating, pissing, and shitting herself in a desert. I also didn't really care for the random sexual references. I understand that's Melissa's thing, but in this book it just didn't do anything for the character or plot.

The entire portion of the book where she's lost in the desert truly lost me. While it really gave off magical surrealism, I just couldn't clearly picture any of the happenings in my head which made it really hard to enjoy the flow of the story. Also none of the passages during this portion moved me. It just was. I was just waiting for her to get the hell out before I lost all emotional investment.

Overall, I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. It was a super quick read with short chapters, but lacking in emotional depth as it goes a little too off the rails for me personally. 3.75 stars, I suppose.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this!

Death Valley by Melissa Broder
3.75/5 ⭐️ rounded up to 4 stars for this review

I had no idea what to expect from this advanced readers copy. A bookstagram I follow read and enjoyed this novel so I thought I would give it a try. Initially it started off slow, but the more I read, the more I liked where it went. The book really did feel like a fever dream, and I wish a professor could walk me through all the symbolism in the book. The writing was also fantastic - even though the narrator was suffering deeply with grief, everything was cast through a humorous lens that made the heavy topic bearable.

The plot follows a woman who arrives at a Best Western in the California desert, escaping her her husband’s illness and her father’s impending death. After the hotel receptionist recommends a nearby hike, the woman is thrown into a survivalist situation featuring a giant Saguaro cactus, vivid hallucinations, and hilarious absurdity. I did get really into the story the more it progressed. The book is about grief and death, but I walked away thinking more about the imaginative storytelling, symbolism, and the dark absurdity. I desperately want to talk to another person who read this book to chat symbolism and what it all *means.*

The reason I gave it just below 4 stars is by the end I was getting “here’s the big lesson” vibes that don’t always resonate with me. I think due to the dialogue between the woman herself and other characters, relationships are portrayed really honestly and genuinely. I think this falls within the magical realism genre (I’m also shocked bc I avoid magical realism), but I would say magical realism grounded in the reality of the human experience.

I think this is worth the read for anyone experiencing grief or has lost someone close to them. I also highly recommend to people who crave witty writing tinged with dark humor. Overall, definitely worth the time, and a quick read!

The deal: A woman goes to a Best Western in the California desert to escape her father dying in the ICU and her husband’s neverending illness. Then she discovers a magical cactus. This is obviously “limited plot, mostly vibes.” (I got an ARC from NetGalley.)

Is it worth it?: This is very different from Milk Fed or The Pisces. Most obviously, it’s considerably less horny. But if you like Melissa Broder’s general vibe, you won’t be disappointed. Her sharp darkness is there in all its glory.

Pairs well with: “Thoughts On Open Marriage and Illness” in LitHub, which is a glimpse into just how personal this novel is

B

Thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for the ebook. A novelist decides to go to a California desert so she can escape her father who is in the ICU, who seems on the mend one moment and at other moments has to be brought back to life by the hospital staff, and her husband who is mostly home bound with a slowly worsening chronic illness. Avoiding finishing her latest novel, a staff member at the Best Western tells her about a trail through the hills that surround the desert and she goes on a hike. The hike leads to a cactus that should not be in that part of the world and has a gash large enough for her to climb inside. Wonders abound inside the cactus as well as a fight for survival that comes about as she gets lost in this very unforgiving land.

Compelling, funny, delightfully surreal, cemented Broder as one of my favorite writers! Beautifully titled, great cover, and I can’t wait to buy this for my library and myself

This novel was so much fun while dealing with harsh subjects. Depression, grief, bad health. I love magical realism. It's my absolute favorite genre. This author knows how to incorporate it into a story in such a wonderful way. This is my favorite novel by her.

“death valley” follows a woman in the throes of grief. her father is in the ICU, and she is sure he will die. when she explores the desert of death valley, she comes across a giant cactus, drinks from it, and everything goes haywire.

well, it’s certainly better than the pisces. i enjoy this novel’s exploration of grief, illness in the family, and naturist existentialism. i just couldn’t bring myself to care for any of the characters. her protagonists all have the same voice. they’re not exactly fully present. it’s a decent read, but nothing particularly special or spectacular. there was a lot of opportunity for more trippy desert visuals, but this novel lacks that sensory detail necessary to fully immerse yourself.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I am not a crier when it comes to books. I can count on one hand the books that have made me cry. But now I'm adding Death Valley to that list. Broder is easily my favorite author, and I had big hopes for Death Valley, but I also wasn't sure what to expect, as the premise felt different from her previous two novels. It is different, but it is just as cuttingly insightful and delightfully weird as the others.

A desert pilgrimage to reckon with the impending death of her father becomes a surreal survival story, complete with the standard "what is real and what is in her head" Broder-esque style. This also becomes a beautiful examination of mortality, life after death, disability, chronic illness, the relationship of a parent to child, our individual weaknesses and coming to terms with them, and also a good amount of Torah references, which I loved so much.

For me, the power of reading a book by Melissa Broder is feeling unsettled but also like your heart is now too big for your chest, and Death Valley does that in spades. Five stars, and I can tell I will be revisiting this book many times throughout my life. It's the kind of book that shows you what you're often afraid to see.

When Melissa Broder says, “Jump” I answer, “How High?”. Literally every book she writes gets better than the one before. Death Valley follows our main character as she takes a dizzying trip to the high desert to escape the grief for her father in the ICU and increasingly sick husband. Broder really shows her range and talent as a writer. Her writing is so dreamy and surreal and yet sharp and electrifying. She will write a sentence that is both beautiful and disgusting, both existential and grounding. Her prose is stunning, she manages to straddle the line of lush and grit in a way I didn’t know I was possible. Her characters are also funny in a real, irreverent way.
This was also a compelling and nuanced exploration of living with grief, specifically anticipatory grief and the grief for those who are still with us.
This book is much more tripper than Milk Fed and even The Pisces, and yet it is also her most emotional and thought-provoking and I highly recommend it.

Rarely have I seen grief and the anticipation of it captured in such a dually funny and heartbreaking way. Melissa Broder's prose! That is all.

I think I expected something else from the blurb and other folks' descriptions of a "fever dream." Something like The Hike. Instead, the second half of the book is the main character forced into a mildly surreal desert survival story entirely of her own making — and parts of it still dragged, despite the relatively slimness of this tome.

I enjoyed the first half much more, which really dialed into a millennial version of the protracted losing a parent process. It let me know that a lot of experiences are more universal than I ever considered, like trawling Reddit for answers to impossible questions.

What a very tender and surreal journey on grief, mortality, and the will to live. A walk around the desert for Abbey to clear her head after months of her father's hospitalization, she discovers a near-mythical rare variety of cactus and goes inside the cactus to another world. Abbey's desert expedition turns deadly when she loses her way and must survive only on her water and Best Western to go breakfast. The magical realism elements felt really organic in the desert setting in survival mode, and is used so effectively to show Abbey's emotional state surrounding her own mental health. How can you be feeling so bad for yourself emotionally when your loved one's pain manifests physically? Under the pressure of being the constant caregiver to both her father and chronically ill husband, she feels incredibly imperfect. Saying the wrong things, buying the sweatpants from Amazon to early, experiencing her own issues. Melissa Broder is incredibly funny which helps break up tense moments and prevented Death Valley from being too preachy. Overall, such a lovely, cathartic read. Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the ARC in return for an honest review!

One woman’s break from reality turns into something much more than that when she takes a trip to the desert and stumbles into a cactus. Sounds odd, I know, but this was a really good read!

Death Valley was not what I was expecting and, to be honest, was a little bit of a tough read (for personal reasons). It was otherworldly and interesting and a story unlike one I’ve read before. Broder certainly has a way with words.

I’m going to recommend this as a book club read for my library’s adult book club. I think it offers tons of material that can be discussed, but I also think it’s a good pick because the interpretations will be varied. Death Valley gets 4/5 from me. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book!

Melissa Broder gave us mermaid sex and nothing else will ever live up to that, but this still managed to be a very enjoyable read. I love the natural feel of magical realism. Her main character is believable - odd and quirky as her characters tend to be, but I think in this one it feels more convincing. The main character is human. She makes some questionable choices, as Melissa Broder's characters tend to do, but I didn't find myself getting annoyed or upset with her, I kind of got where she was coming from for the most part. When it comes down to it, it was a pretty simple story but it conveyed so much feeling and reality that it felt much bigger.
Thank you NetGalley for the early read, I was dying to get my hands on this one and it didn't disappoint!

Death Valley was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and it pleasantly surprised me. I had no idea what to expect. Maybe I expected it to be like Milk Fed or The Pisces, but it wasn't like that at all. Maybe I was a little disappointed at first, but the more I read, the more I liked the story and where it took me. So much so that even weeks later, I'm still thinking about it and how it made me feel.

It was almost literally magical, surreal, dreamy, and emotional. Melissa Broder's most vulnerable and personal work, in my opinion. Our narrator's struggle with her father and husband's illnesses was heartbreaking to read, and the journey through the hazy, disorienting desert is an adventure to say the least. This book felt like a fever dream, and by the end, I was completely invested in it. I want to read it again right away because I believe there will be more to discover on a second, or even third, re-read. I hope other people enjoy this book, but don't expect Milk Fed or The Pisces. It's a very different and one-of-a-kind story.

Death Valley definitely had the same cadence as her other books, which I liked, with the same dark humour and wit that I enjoy in her writing. Thank you so much for the review copy, Netgalley and the publisher!

~thank you so much to netgalley & scribner publicity for the advance reader copy <3 ~

this book was so addictive. it did so much right, and honestly there’s not much I can critique on it. overall it was so funny, and a fever dream.

in typical broder fashion, ‘death valley’ was unhinged, with a slightly unreliable narrator. our main character is grieving over the not-death but close of her father, and goes to Death Valley to vacation. while she’s there she finds a giant cactus that’s not native to the area and finds comfort in it.

not to spoil anything but this book made me SO thirsty. the story felt like a fever dream, and I was clutching my hydroflask for comfort. it was told in a way that truly makes you feel like you’re stranded in the desert. I think the emotions & humor in this book was relatable. she’s depressed, and her grief over her father and ill husband was relatable. the fact that broder dedicated the book to her father makes it feel so heart felt.

okay but the amount of times this book made me giggle. never in my life did I think I’d read the phrase “a diarrhea monsoon” and boy did it bring some imagery.

overall this book was so enjoyable, and I can’t wait for its release in October. add this one to your tbr because it’s worth your time!

Melissa Broder is back with yet another book that is gleefully shocking, darkly hilarious, and supremely insightful about human nature. No one else is doing it like her! She hits it out of the park yet again with Death Valley. I’ll be recommending this until everyone I know has read it!

Melissa Broder has quickly become one of my favorite authors. I love her writing style and how easily she incorporates magical realism into her stories. Her characters are also always so flawed and yet I find myself relating to them and rooting for them. This story was no different, i like the main character even though sometimes i wanted to scream at her to get it together.

This is a solid 4.5 stars, without a doubt. I only subtracted half a star as it got a bit self-conscious and Big Lesson-y to me in ways I don't really jive with (but plenty of people will). Nevertheless, that wasn't enough for me to downgrade it much — this is my first Melissa Broder (I know, I know, but my TBR list is long!) and it won't be my last.

The first half of "Death Valley" was better for me than the last. It was more fast-paced, flippant, and quite funny. Obviously, the second half shifts since that's where the Big Lessons come in. That being said, this was clearly an intentional shift on behalf of the writer rather than an accidental loss of momentum. It was also really necessary to bring the story full circle, and despite meandering a bit (literally and figuratively), it still kept me glued to every page wanting to see what happened next.

There were so many thoughts and sentiments that work as real gut punches throughout in this book. Broder seems to have a knack for getting you right in the feels even when she's being off-handed, which somehow makes it even more effective. Needless to say, I'm a fan.

"I need to talk to someone. Who? I guess I have people I could call, but I can't think of anyone who won't hold me to a feeling. People are such a commitment. I would 'reach out' more often if everyone promised not to check in again later. That's how they get you. Your tragedy = their ticket to texting every day. Then it becomes about their drama. It's always the people you don't want to be there for you who are there for you."

Eesh.