Amy (amy_alwaysreading)'s Reviews > Death Valley

Many thanks to my friends at @bookclubfavorites @scribnerbooks and @simon.audio

Wildly imaginative. Bizarre. Poignant.

How Broder managed to pack such a punch in a short 240 pages, I don’t know. It’s true talent for sure.

In trying to escape the emotional weight of a sickly husband and dying father, our unnamed protagonist flees to the California desert where she finds a nonnative cactus and a fight for survival.

Utterly bizarre but completely captivating. Broder penned a hallucinatory journey through emotion that felt both unmoored and relevant. This seemed personal, as though a journey of catharsis for the author. It’s rare to find a storyline that exposes the rawness of grief as this one does.

But this isn’t a bleak story. Dark humor abounds. Talking rocks, the love of the Best Western, apologies to bunnies…. these are just a few of the absurdities that kept me entertained.

🎧 I’m not generally a fan of author’s narrating their own works (outside of memoirs). But Broder proved me wrong with this one. Her narration added a quirkiness and depth to the story that kept me engaged throughout the whole experience.