A review by eliya
Death Valley by Melissa Broder

adventurous challenging emotional reflective 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

3.75

A melancholic read. I felt like I was sitting next to a friend (love u melissa broder) while they told me about something traumatic. This covers death, avoidant personality types, anxiety, illness. Broder offers some raw, refreshing insight to a grieving mind. 

I saw myself in the character in many different ways.
The dying father, pre-grieving death. The parter with a long-term disability.
The anxiety, the mistrust of the self, quintessential Broder writing. 
I looked everywhere for “the answer.” I thought that anyone outside myself … knew more than i did.
- I cant find the quote now but she anecdotes that she’s afraid that if she says “my dad is dying” and then if he doesn’t, people will be mad with her lmao. I felt the same way.


The novel covers a theme I’ve been dealing with, 
Because everything we love we will lose. 
and I was hoping more that the grief exploration, honestly, would go even deeper. I think it went pretty deep for any other author, but because Broder typically takes things just a little too far, I was hoping she would explore even more. I appreciated the trippy elements, and the time-warp views of her dad and husband. Ultimately, I was taken out of it by her putting her “novel” into it. It felt too meta, too on the nose, lazy.
And her crawling through the desert with one swollen ankle, idk.


I was touched by the ending and a little taken a back.
I was prepared and honestly hoping that someone would die. I think then the grieving reader reading a grief book could virtually be hugging the author by way of finishing the book and saying “someone sees me” (or something, idk) and clutching the book to their chest, missing their loved one, but knowing that they aren’t alone. idk it felt like she was rubbing it in that they all lived hahaha.
Always happy she finds some way to include her breastfeeding kink (/gen)

The connection between her and her father I loved and sympathized with. I found myself towards the end wanting to do right by my own father and feeling that I’d consistently fallen short. 
How strange that there is nothing I can say to make him love me more. Nothing I can say to make him love me less.