Reviews with content warning for Excrement - Death Valley

Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

Death Valley by Melissa Broder

15 reviews

cs172's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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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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libraryoflanelle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious reflective tense fast-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

3.5

Warning: you will have “Sh-Boom” stuck in your head the whole time you’re reading this book. Don’t say I didn’t warn you…

If you’re looking for a deep but weird, engrossing, and quick read with perfectly short chapters (aka my favourite thing), look no further. Death Valley is the perfect book for you. Also, look at that cover, how could you not…

This book was a fun balance between weird and reflective. There were so many great quotes that either made me giggle, pause to try to compute before giving up, or nod along in agreement.

Whilst I did expect a little more weirdness, I absolutely loved the writing style and am so excited to read more from Melissa.

This is yet another one that I went into not knowing a lot about, and I recommend the same to you. Stay safe though! Content warnings are in my StoryGraph review.

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carly_reads's review

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emotional funny reflective

Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

“Help me not be empty,” I say to god in the Best Western parking lot.

If I’m honest, I came to escape a feeling- an attempt that’s already going poorly because unfortunately I’ve brought myself with me.

People are such a commitment. I would "reach out" more often if everyone promised not to check in again later.

I always say that I don’t believe a person has to suffer to make art. But that’s only because I imagine it’s true for others (also, I don’t want to be accused of inspiring teen suicide).

Melissa has such a distinct writing style, I think I could recognize it anywhere. She has the sharp ability to meld together big themes with the most absurd situations you could ever come up with. I feel like she’s also able to be concise with what she’s trying to say, but still make an impact. In this case, I think she’s making a statement about how you can’t avoid/escape your life and feelings forever as well as finding the silver linings in life despite circumstances. This felt like an exploration into depression, anticipatory grief, so much anxiety you can’t live your life, how the wants and needs of your inner child never go away, and searching for reasons that would make life meaningful.

This truly reads like a fever dream- very surreal and absurd but in a good way. I think it was very different than her other books. The main character is much more redeemable (imo lol). I appreciated the commentary about how hard being a caregiver for a loved one with a chronic illness can be. I think it’s unfair to assume that people don’t have less than positive feelings when put in that position despite wanting to be there for that person. I think the author does a good job saying things that a lot of people think but are too afraid to say (both in that context and generally).

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lindsayerin's review

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.5

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rosyapple's review against another edition

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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

2.0

didn't enjoy this one. if it sounds interesting i would recommend mona awad's "alls well" instead. on the other hand if you enjoyed "something new under the sun" by alexandra kleeman then you probably would like this book

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