FSG and its subdivision MCD continues to publish some of the most original and interesting books out there. I have learned to trust that whatever they put out - though sometimes weird or divisive - is going to be worth paying attention to. Dead in Long Beach California is exactly that. It's unique in form and narration - I've never read anything like it. The main plot line follows Coral who finds her brother dead in his apartment and subsequently unravels. Struggling to deal with the loss she stumbles through the days while pretending to the whole world that her brother is alive and well - she uses his phone to text his friends and family, pretending to be him. As she grieves in her own disassociated way, she dips in and out of memories of herself and her brother, as kids, as teens, as adults. These jumps in time interspersed with the mail plot line make for such a rich reading experience. What makes the story more inventive is that it's narrated in first person plural, by a group of characters that Coral invented in her science fiction writing. They're telling us the story, not only observing Coral but also making larger observations about humanity, about our whole species , our failings and ways of coping.
This is a very original and moving novel about life, love, loss and grieving. There was only one thing I didn't enjoy about it, and unfortunately, it is a big part of it. The book includes excerpts from Corals science fiction book. Those fragments really took me out of the story and I struggled to connect them with the rest of it. I felt my interest wane so much I had to force myself to read through them. There is, of course, a connection. It just really didn't work for me. I'll still recommend the book. But maybe mention that it is a bit experimental.

"Dead in Long Beach, California", evoked a nostalgic 90’s vibe. Coral grapples with the realization that grief can be a torment surpassing death, threatening to consume and discard you. After discovering her brother's lifeless body, her world unravels, with each scene unfolding as either a haunting memory or a present-day struggle.

I really didn't enjoy my journey while reading this as the conclusion left me somewhat puzzled. I decided that this just wasn't for me, but maybe for fans of experimental literature.

venita blackburn’s DEAD IN LONG BEACH CALIFORNIA introduces us to coral moments after finding her brother, jay, dead in his apartment. in the throes of grief, coral takes jay’s (miraculously unlocked) phone and begins responding to his texts as jay. what follows is coral’s mental unraveling as she descends into grief.

what makes the prose striking is how blackburn approaches grief — it is not only chronicled through jay’s death, but through buried memories, coral’s increasingly unhinged dystopian novel writing, and through the voice of a collective omniscient narrator. blackburn’s experimental, genre-bending style explores humanity and our capacity for immense pain and pleasure. what she leaves us with is a new outlook on what it means to survive amidst crisis — of loss on a personal level, atrocities on a societal scale, and the glimmer of hope found at rock bottom.

DEAD IN LONG BEACH CALIFORNIA is undoubtedly singular in its storytelling. i found some aspects of the experimental narration more effective than others, and the novel within the novel a bit excessive at times — but the overall insights of the book still felt worthwhile. i recommend if you’re interested in unconventional examinations of grief and enjoy it interspersed with dark humor and societal critique.

3.5/5 ⭐️

4 stars

Wow. Just...wow.

I'm an incoming fan of Blackburn's short stories and flash fiction and love some pieces so much that I teach them on rotation (i.e., I love them enough to read some truly wild interpretations of them and still find enjoyment in them. That's special and rare). My expectation for Blackburn's debut novel was it was going to be unlike anything I'd read previously. This came to fruition.

This isn't going to be for everyone. It's dark, experimental, and sometimes confounding, and I say that after having read the e-book and listened to the audio (which is remarkably well narrated; I recommend this option when and where accessible). Folks who are familiar with strange, gritty parts of Southern California, including but not limited to the overall scope of Long Beach, obviously, and bonus points for those who went to Medieval Times in Buena Park 15 years ago - you won't believe the related reference, will find a sinister kinship with this entire narrative based on Blackburn's sense of and depiction of place.

I'm planning on a third read (likely listen) again in the near future. This is something else.

Blackburn's work is in a class of its own, and I'm already looking forward to whatever chaotic, thought-provoking creation hits us next.

I'm clearly gonna be the odd one out on this highly touted novel. I admired rather than enjoyed this portrait of grief. Coral's brother is dead and she's chosen to impersonate him for a week, a week in which she revisits her own past. There's a stream of consciousness thing that lost me and the swirl of stuff just baffled me in spots. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Wasn't for me but fans of experimental or literary fiction should give it a try.

Wow, wow, wow! Venita Blackburn takes readers on a wild ride, holds nothing back, and we're all here for it! Incredible storyteller, unforgettable characters, and a truly unique look at grief. Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for the advance read of this remarkable book.

Thrilling, fresh storytelling. I love the moments that jostled and unsettled me, the startling bits of language. Can't wait to read more from Venita Blackburn!

Thank you for sharing this title!!

Wow what a ride this book was. I went in with really no pre-conceived notions and without any familiarity of this author and I freaking loved this. The writing style was so unique and the narration took on the form of this sort of omnipresent, collective entity that blurred the line between past/present, I/we, here/elsewhere.

Absolutely read this book if you want to just descend into madness with a character. Can't wait to see more from this author!

A strange stream of consciousness that works well. Each character gets an arc, including Coral's brother, Jay. The story is just as reflective and sets the world-building to compliment the story.

This book was an up close and personal look at the grief of losing a sibling. Coral finds her brother Jay after he commits suicide. As way to say goodbye, Coral uses Jay's phone to text through the history of their lives together. This book was a journey through the unexpected loss of a loved one. Check the trigger warnings before reading. Overall, a sad but thought-provoking read.

Reading this novel was like having a conversation with a brilliant hyperactive person who is a bad listener and I couldn’t follow the half of what was being said but somehow, on a level more fugue than semantic sense, the story cohered into a reading experience something like attending a poetry slam in a foreign language with which I have only a passing familiarity.

Well written and compelling. Venita blackburn can't do no wrong!

I couldn't put this down. I would read anything Blackburn writes.

I think I maybe have just wanted an armchair trip to California. But no, not really. I was totally down for a literary tale of spiraling grief and all that, especially one set in the mind of an author.
Either way, though, this novel didn’t work for me.
The thing is it’s one of those instances where I can’t solely attribute the fault to the book itself. This was categorically a reader/story disconnect.
The book indeed takes you to Long Beach, CA. The book indeed provides you with an intense look into a grieving psyche, specifically that of a woman who finds her brother dead. Suicide.
The woman, our protagonist, is indeed an author. There are snippets of her work through the book adding to the dizzying and trippy mess of the narrative. She is also BIPOC and queer which alone would sell this novel in today’s market. Because, of course, it does provide interesting, original perspectives and amplifies representation.
But is it a good book? That’s a difficult question to answer. I know it didn’t work for me. I am a completist, so I finish books, all books, but this one I actively wanted to be over.
I didn’t care about the main character very much. I categorically did not care about the dense, almost stream of conciseness writing style.
Mind you, again, this is subjective. The author is clearly talented. There were individual rather engaging sections of the novel to demonstrate this, but as a sum total it left a lot to be desired.
User mileage may vary. Thanks Netgalley.

Daring, haunting, mesmerizing...Venita Blackburn fearlessly explores a four day stretch in which its protagonist does everything she possibly can to avoid facing the fact that her brother is dead and she has to tell those close to her about it. One of those novels that feels deeply personal but also features many relatable passages about grief, avoidance, fame, sex & dating, barely healed emotional scars, the difficulty to connect with others when you're so lost in your own mind, general existential dread. It moves all over the place in its own quietly hypnotic way. Loved it.

From the start, I wasn't a fan of the alternating first person plural POV and didn't see how it related to the book in the way that the book blurb promised. I also didn't see how the the epistolary excerpts were meant to add anything here either and ended up just skimming past them. I really only continued reading this book to see how Coral would break the news to those she'd shamelessly lied to for a week, including family, but, SPOILER ALERT, there was very little resolution and absolutely no personal growth on Coral's part through it all. There were a few sharp insights throughout that I appreciated, but this book didn't deliver on any promises and avoided the conflict of Coral having to confront the people she'd lied to in a way that felt like a huge cop out. 2.5 stars

Venita Blackburn has done it again! I almost struggle with talking about this book because I almost don't know how to start... a woman discovers the corpse of her brother, then loosely pretends to be him for a few days? The novel tackles grief and celebrity, but I think the form it adopts is actually the most interesting aspect to it. And with Blackburn, who so clearly has control of the material, I felt taken care of in her hands. This is a bonkers good novel.

Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley!

I enjoyed reading Dead in Long Beach, California: A Novel by Venita Blackburn. The book is about Coral, a woman who faces death and postponing grief in different ways. She made me laugh and feel sadness with her funny and touching stories. Part current and past life experiences while intertwining her sci-fi book. Really made this book feel original and captivating, and I couldn't put it down.

Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. Coral finds her brother Jay’s body after his suicide. Instead of letting their family and friends know, Coral takes Jay’s phone and spends a week pretending to be him through his texts. Coral also spends the week remembering their childhood, her sexuality and the partners and bad dates that she’s gone on. The book is also filled with the sci-fi book she wrote. It’s a fascinating look at what lengths we go to to try and postpone our grief.

Venita Blackburn’s startling debut novel, “Dead in Long Beach, California '' took me a while to get into the rhythm. I decided that I should try to activate “lyrical poetry reading mode”. That worked like a charm.

Cora is an unforgettable lead character. She is a hot mess: brilliant, broken, introspective, flagrant, empathetic, deceitful, wonderful, and reckless. Blackburn stuffs this compact novel with bits of philosophy, patriarchy, anti-capitalism, violence, anthropology, racism, sexism, homo- and transphobia, love, and hate, oftentimes in the span of a sentence, paragraph or a page. While the language is never abstruse or dense, the reader is best advised to go slowly, savor, reread, contemplate - get your bearings before moving on.

Hot tip for fans of “stories within stories”: you will never, ever read one like “Wildfire” again.

“Dead in Long Beach, California” is an instructional manual about how to (or not to) survive in this crazy, mixed-up world we seem intent on devolving. Towards the end, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. So I did both. Blackburn is an amazing talent whose light will continue to shine.