woolfinbooks's reviews
520 reviews

Representation:
bisexual
genderqueer
lesbian
stone butch
trans man

Format: I hybrid read the uncorrected ARC and the corrected audiobook 

Other reviews on this did not pass the vibe check. Imagine still being a biphobic lesbian in 2024 -_-

For a lot of people, sexuality is fluid. It's not something you always get right the first try. It's something you examine and question for a long time. The mc questioning her sexuality is not 'touring' or 'invading' anything. Bi-curious, bisexual, and other identities are valid, as is questioning your identity. It's not like this was yet another book where someone had sex with a woman once and then went back to being straight. We see her progression from identifying as straight, questioning her sexuality, wondering if she's a lesbian, and later identifying as bi after doing extensive searching into her self via read-world books on sexuality.

Lesbian/Sapphic/Queer representation does not need to be perfect. We deserve messy relationships too! We deserve stories that reflect real world drama. We deserve to be annoyed at every decision the MC makes! We deserve stories that aren't perfect fairytale happily ever after's. Queer story telling is allowed to be as complex as cishet storytelling is. Demanding an unrealistic level of queer perfection is boring.

Messy queer women is my favorite trope. I love seeing things written for us. I love how aggravating it is to see the MC ignore all common sense and make dumb ass decisions for a love that we know is going to fail. One of my favorite parts was her name dropping some of the best lesbian/sapphic books in history. If you take anything from this let it be the expansion of your TBR.

The only thing I disliked was the stylistic choice of having no quotation marks. As mentioned earlier, I read the uncorrected ARC copy, so that might have changed in its publication. But, if it didn't, it was annoying. I don't like it when any author does it. 

The art was pleasant, and there were enough details for this to be a brief yet complete biography of Virginia's life from birth to death. 

This was the most boring X-Men story I've ever read, and the art was hideous.

 

Didn't get to it in time on NG, but will be restarting once it's available. 

I have so many thoughts on this, yet no ability to archive them cohesively. 

Melissa Broder is my favorite author of all time. I've been a fan since I read Meat Heart about a decade ago (how hipster of me) Witnessing her shift from poetry to prose has been quite the journey; one I'm gladly still embarking on. 

Death Valley is an isolating novel about anticipatory grieving a parent and surviving shit. Compared to Milk Fed, her sapphic masterpiece, the romantic messiness is calmer, but the action (not that kind) is faster... yet slower? Each chapter is short, most landing under 5 pages. It makes for a read that feels fast-paced yet like the action is lacking. Until it's not. Is that medium paced? Maybe. Who knows.

The protagonist (unnamed) has an increasingly homebound husband and a father that has died multiple times in the hospital after a near-fatal accident (does it count as near-fatal if he's died already) She takes a trip into the desert and stumbles upon a cactus. A cactus one of the hotel workers claims doesn't, and can't, exist. When she goes back to visit the cactus, it's not there. She remembers the flesh, the moisture, the coolness, the visions inside of it. She continues her hike until realizes that she's lost. As the day passes time is ticking. Her water is running low. The sun is blistering. She needs to make it back. But every step leads her somewhere new. Somewhere she's not meant to be. Are her visions real? Is her father gone? Is her husband better? Can she survive? Can she grieve? Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows. I know because I read it. You can know if you read it too. 

What I loved - Melissa's writing is always a joy (and by 'joy' I mean it sends me into a helical storm of reflection, depression, and anxiety over someone knowing too much about me and I hate it and hate her and I love her and love her. Fuck her for doing that. But also thanks) 

What I disliked - Nothing. Melissa Broder has never done anything wrong a day in her life. (something something I didn't connect to the father dying stuff because mine is dead and I hated him, but it's not her fault that she wrote a weirdly specific book about a situation relating to me soon after his death... fuck her for doing that. But also thanks) 

Did reality meet expectations - Nope. I went into it expecting an absolute shit show of a relationship. I thought she would cheat on her husband with one of the side characters. I thought their fight would be bigger. I thought the mommy issues would exist (rip Melissa's mommy issues era, hello Jethra fanfic) I thought the father/daughter dynamic would be more toxic and cruel (what does that say about me) Instead we get a shit show of a person. Which is great. I love inserting myself into shit show characters. I loved that it didn't go the way I expected. I loved how I was wrong about everything. That's what makes Melisa bae. 

5/5 stars because it's my favorite, just like everything she does is my favorite. I can't help that my fav only writes iconically.