How do you deal with grief when the person you’re grieving is still alive? Overwhelmed by both her father’s critical injuries after a car accident and her husband’s long-term chronic illness, Melissa Broder’s latest protagonist flees to the desert to answer that question. Broder’s signature whimsical, quippy writing voice is always enjoyable. But for me, it was overshadowed by the feeling that, in ‘Death Valley’, she was throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping it would stick. From talking rocks to giant birds that save the day, the novel is filled with surreal elements which, while intriguing, often feel half-baked. ‘Death Valley’ is partly autobiographical, and reading it I could sense that it must have been really therapeutic for Broder to write. It was probably also healing for some people to read, but while I liked the woman-versus-nature theme, the rest of the imagery just didn’t click for me. MG

Published by Bloomsbury