Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - The Valley and the Flood

Wow, this was my first time reading a book that mixed magical realism with mental health, it was brilliant. The novel is about a young woman named Rose Colter who has her car broken down, in the silence of the night she hears a message from the radio tower from her dead best friend, Gaby. The same message was left before her best friend died. Rose follows the lights only to find herself in Lotus Valley, a town with prophets. The third most accurate prophet, Cassie, tells her that due to her arrival, in three days a flood will destroy the town.

The mental health representation, the prose, the characters, all of it was brilliant and beautiful. Now, you may be wondering, if you love it so why did you give it a rating of three stars rather than four or five? Well, at the start of the novel, I found myself confused about lots of it. It wasn't quite clear about the flashbacks of the character and sure it might be a personal style of the author, but it just pulled me out of the novel largely. That's really my only complaint about the novel was how confusing it was right off the bat.

Later, everything was cleared up and tied perfectly into the character and plot. I thoroughly enjoyed the entirety of the novel, especially how the magical elements were presented. It was beautiful and, well magical. It was also, as I said, mixed into the mental health rep in such a beautiful and unexpected way. The ending as well also was poetic. This had to be the best story I've read with PTSD representation, as well as mental health in general. I found myself relating to the character. There were also queer couples and I loved that!

Anyone looking for mental illness, mental health or PTSD rep should read this book!

Content Warnings

beckycarter97's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

5.0

Content Warnings

hello_lovely13's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.75

Content Warnings

fungivibes's review

Go to review page

emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

Content Warnings

poppymopey's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I loved the premise of the book. I thought it was unique how PTSD and it's affects on you are explored.

The execution disappointed a bit. It's not a badly written book by any stretch. In fact, I found the prose beautiful, the characters compelling, and the magical realism great. The plot is interesting too. I love the allegory of the flood.

The problem was that it was confusing. So much information is withheld until the end that it kind of feels like pulling teeth getting the narrative to tell you what the **** is happening. I think that also affected the pace of the book, slowed it down too much. Or at least it created that illusion as no matter through how many major events we went through, there was still too much mystery to uncover. Disclaimer: I will say that I have ADHD so my attention span is short, and i get impatient easily. I did try my best to give the story time, to really take it in, but at times it got incredibly frustrating.

That is my only dislike though. Everything else was really well-done!

Content Warnings

mossthatcanread's review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

this book is brilliant and helped me process some things I had gone/ am going through. I loved every page and every character. every character was well rounded and believable as People

Content Warnings

More...