Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Death Valley

Where to begin with this book? It was...different, to say the least. The premise is simple enough - a woman struggling with her father's health after a car accident and her husband's chronic illness runs off to a Best Western in the California desert to clear her head. She goes on a hike through the desert that results in her getting lost and fighting for survival, while having psychedelic experiences or hallucinations. I feel like the blurb of this book is misleading. We're told she finds a giant cactus on the trail ( she does) and has visions (she does) but I was expecting much more from this. In my head, she was going to find a fantasy world within the cactus and be transported to some magical place. This sort of happens, in the form of hallucinations that are never fully explained. Was she imagining them? Were they projections? Were they spirits guiding her? You never find out.

Another gripe I have with this book is the main character. She's at once witty, funny, selfish, and irritating. The book turns into a survival story half way through, and though we're supposed to be concerned and rooting for the MC, I found myself annoyed by her. She's literally dying in the desert and somehow I found it hard to feel sympathy for her at times. Maybe it was just my personal tastes, but the book was honestly painful to read sometimes, and I had to force myself to finish it.

It's also pretty bizarre and surreal at times. She has full blown conversations with rocks, not once but throughout the entire novel. There's also a part where she

rides on the back of a giant bird and is brought back to the beginning of the trail. This is never explained, and you're left wondering if this was real or imagined. Not to mention the cactus that is the "star" of the book only making an appearance a handful of times. It appears, disappears and reappears randomly, and this is also never explained.

I will say, a positive of this book is the format. The chapters are incredibly short, ranging from 1 to 6 pages at most. This makes for a quick read, or at least it should. Again, I was struggling about halfway through to finish. I stopped about 2/3's of the way through to read another book (Open Throat by Henry Hoke) before finishing, and I almost DNF.

It's not all bad, as it has some powerful wisdom and views on grief, love, and loss. Anyone with family or friends who are chronically sick or in hospital care will likely get something out of this, though it may also be triggering for some. The ending is hopeful, though again, we're never given a proper explanation as to the events of the novel. It's basically one giant fever dream, or a metaphor, or these impossible things really happened and we'll just never know which is the true answer. Maybe that's the point, maybe it's meant to be enjoyed and not analyzed too deeply. But for a novel as reflective as this, I was longing for an explanation.

Overall, I'd recommend this if you like odd, bizarre, and surreal reads. It's humorous, raw, emotional and uncomfortable. So if that's your cup of tea, I say go for it. I don't think it's worth full price though ($30!) so I say get it used. I use Pango Books, it's a life saver.

Content Warnings

bootsmom3's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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