Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Pisces | 2018 | Melissa Broder | Buy |
| 2 | Milk Fed | 2021 | Melissa Broder | Buy |
| 3 | Death Valley | 2023 | Melissa Broder | Buy |
Melissa Broder published three standalone novels between 2018 and 2023, each one distinct in plot but united by her sharp, confessional voice. The Pisces (2018), her fiction debut, follows a PhD student housesitting in Venice Beach who joins a women’s therapy group and begins an affair with a merman. It became a word-of-mouth hit for its frank treatment of desire and loneliness. Milk Fed (2021) centers on a young woman with a complicated relationship to food who becomes infatuated with a plus-sized Orthodox Jewish woman working at a frozen yogurt shop.
Death Valley (2023), Broder’s most recent novel, sends its narrator to the California desert as she processes the impending death of a parent. The book blurs the line between reality and hallucination, with strange encounters punctuating the grief. All three novels share Broder’s willingness to push past social comfort and write about bodies, appetites, and longing without flinching.