Reviews with content warning for Chronic illness - Death Valley

Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

Death Valley by Melissa Broder

37 reviews

emily_stimmel's review

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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aletajean's review

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dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

The first half seemed like there would be something more exciting than what was given. I didn’t enjoy listening to someone complain for hours about how hard it is for her for her loved ones to be in pain.

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olpapi's review

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adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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growplantsreadbooks's review against another edition

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

4.0

Definitely the most conventional Broder novel I've read, but by no means is it an easy book to enjoy. The main character, the landscape, the situations, and lessons learned are all larger than life. It's basically a gender swapped version of the classic "man who goes into nature and discovers empathy" trope. Broder balances humor, grief, magic, and faith well, but even her own character acknowledges that a novel about her dying father isn't super original.

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sarah_kula's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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laviederhi's review

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funny mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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caroisreading's review

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adventurous funny hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is my first Melissa Broder book, and now I'm a huge fan. I cracked up so many times during this read, and felt so much affection for this protagonist.

This is a story about staring death in the face, and the in-between space of anticipatory grief and grief grief. A scorching, unforgiving desert is the symbolic backdrop, as made obvious by the title. Our narrator is an author, who feels intimately modeled after Melissa, herself, and she is navigating her father's near-death, post-accident condition, as well as her husband's debilitating and amorphous illness. We join her as she's arriving at a Best Western in the middle of nowhere, carving out a space for her own self-pity, care and emotions, and ideally, some writing inspo. When she takes a desert hike on the recommendation of the hotel staff, it unleashes a wild fever dream, where we are trying to grasp the edges of reality and hope alongside her.

Let me just say, the line, "Listen, Best Western cares, but not this much" made me have to put the book down and howl-laugh.

Definitely read this book if you're exploring your own mortality, the meaning of your life, or experiencing grief, but need to laugh about it.

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