Death Valley - SFBA Book Club

English language

Published June 5, 2023 by Scribner.

ISBN:: 978-1-6680-2484-3

(1 review)

In Melissa Broder’s astounding new novel, a woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California high desert to escape a cloud of sorrow—for both her father in the ICU and a husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides, however, is not peace but a path, thanks to a receptionist who recommends a nearby hike.

Out on the sun-scorched trail, the woman encounters a towering cactus whose size and shape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash through its side that beckons like a familiar door. So she enters it. What awaits her inside this mystical succulent sets her on a journey at once desolate and rich, hilarious and poignant.

This is Melissa Broder at her most imaginative, most universal, and finest. This is Death Valley.

2 editions

Amanda Quraishi reviewed Death Valley by Melissa Broder

Didn't meet my expectations, but it was alright

3 stars

This is my first encounter with Melissa Broder. I really want to read The Pisces, but it wasn't available yet, so I put it on hold and opted for this one instead. I love surrealism, magical realism, unlikable characters, and the desert, so I figured I'd love this. It was a decent read, but it fell short of my expectations.

There are a few things to like about Death Valley: the MC/protagonist is snarky and self-aware and kind of an asshole - a winning combination in my opinion. Her first-person narration didn't try to make excuses for her dysfunction. Or her weird habit of talking to herself and inanimate objects. All good stuff. The setting is my favorite part of this book. Broder captures the arid, lackadaisical-until-it-tries-to-kill-you vibe of the desert, and the quirkiness of the people who usually inhabit it.

The plot revolves around a woman writer who goes …

This is my first encounter with Melissa Broder. I really want to read The Pisces, but it wasn't available yet, so I put it on hold and opted for this one instead. I love surrealism, magical realism, unlikable characters, and the desert, so I figured I'd love this. It was a decent read, but it fell short of my expectations.

There are a few things to like about Death Valley: the MC/protagonist is snarky and self-aware and kind of an asshole - a winning combination in my opinion. Her first-person narration didn't try to make excuses for her dysfunction. Or her weird habit of talking to herself and inanimate objects. All good stuff. The setting is my favorite part of this book. Broder captures the arid, lackadaisical-until-it-tries-to-kill-you vibe of the desert, and the quirkiness of the people who usually inhabit it.

The plot revolves around a woman writer who goes to the desert to decompress and 'get out of L.A.' as her father recovers in the ICU. She's also dealing with a chronically ill husband and a neurotic mother, which she reflects upon at length with candor. While she's in Death Valley, she stays at a Best Western - a hotel chain that I can only assume paid to have itself promoted in this novel because it serves no real purpose (aside from being a mid hotel where she's staying), considering how often it's named in throughout the book. Before she leaves Death Valley, the woman takes one more hike to try to find a giant cactus she'd seen previously, and ends up getting lost in the desert. She survives, finds the cactus, and then has a strange, surreal encounter with it or, rather, in it.

There is so much potential in this plot, but I'm sorry to say it didn't quite get there. The characters felt two-dimensional, and the psychedelic aspect of her encounter with the cactus felt more like a weird dream than the life-altering experience it's meant to be.

There are some touching reflections on the process of death and dying, as well as poignant narration around familial and romantic relationships. I just didn't care that much about any of the characters and found the main character emotionally flat and self-absorbed - and not in the good, existential crisis kind of way. I wanted to like her, but she was kind of a drag.

Anyway, it was a decent read and I'm not sorry I read it. The good news is that The Pisces came up right after I finished this, so I'm giving Broder's writing another chance. I've heard good things about her novels, and I really want to love them.