“Incandescent…ecstatically awake to the world’s astonishments…Death Valley is a triumph, a ribald prayer for sensuality and grace in the face of profound loss, a hilarious revolt against the aggressive godlessness, dehumanization, and fear plaguing our time. All ten of Melissa Broder’s finger lamps are blazing. Why not be totally changed into fire.”

The New York Times Book Review

“One of the best books I’ve read in years: funny, brilliant, gutting, and easily devoured over the course of one blissful afternoon.”

–ELLE

“Extremely funny and deeply felt.”

People

“Sardonic, self-implicating prose that cuts to the bone is Broder’s specialty, and Death Valley is probably the funniest book you’ll ever read about getting lost and almost dying.”

THE CUT

“A witty, psychedelic exploration of grief…riotously funny.”

The Guardian

“A hilarious and hallucinatory journey into the badlands of California…Like grief itself, this book is at once surreal, absurd, lucid, and wise; it will change you.”

O, The Oprah Magazine, Best Books of 2023

“Broder takes her absurdist humor to new heights as she spins a surrealist tale of emptiness, exploration, and existential crisis in the California desert.”

W Magazine

“Broder’s gift is for scenes and dialogue that are so natural–in that they reflect the ridiculousness and surrealism of real life–that they tip over into the uncanny. She is also very funny.”

Los Angeles Times

“Broder is a comedic writer, a poet averse to stale language and an online personality tirelessly manning a churn of new quips on the familiar subject of sadness.”

The Washington Post

“Infectious and dreamy…Broder’s narrator is consistently companionable…Readers ought not to miss this magical tale of survival.”

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“As wise in its way as any spiritualism about vision quests or finding enlightenment…A 100 percent Broder take on grief and empathy: embodied but cerebral, hilarious but heart-wrenching.”

Kirkus Reviews

“An exhilarating meditation on death, life, survival, and how we rely on stories to get us through it all. It’s a triumph for Broder.”

BookPage (starred review)

“A surrealist story about anticipatory grief that is as wryly funny as it is moving…unforgettable.”

Nylon


HOT HOT HOT INDIE BOOKSTORE PRE-ORDER SITUATION!!!

Pre-order DEATH VALLEY from one of these participating independent bookstores and receive a signed bookplate and a DEATH VALLEY water bottle (while supplies last)!

Arizona – Flagstaff – Bright Side Books

California – Berkeley – Jerico Books / Mrs. Dalloway’s

California – Los Angeles – DIESEL

California – Los Angeles – Skylight

California – San Diego – DIESEL

Connecticut – Glastonbury – River Bend Bookshop

Connecticut – Mystic – Bank Square Books

Delaware – Rehoboth Beach – Browseabout Books

Florida – Jacksonville – San Marco Books

Florida – St. Petersburg – Tombolo Books

Georgia – Atlanta – A Cappella Books

Georgia – Decatur – Charis Books & More

Georgia – St Simons Island – Righton Books

Illinois – Chicago – The Book Cellar

Illinois – Chicago – City Lit Books

Illinois – Naperville – Anderson’s Bookshop

Indiana – Bloomington – Morganstern Books

Maryland – Baltimore – Charm City Books

Maryland – Frederick – Curious Iguana

Massachusetts – Belmont – Belmont Books

Massachusetts – Boston – Trident Booksellers & Cafe

Massachusetts – Lowell – lala books

Massachusetts – Plainville – An Unlikely Story

Massachusetts – Somerville – All She Wrote Books

Massachusetts – South Hadley – Odyssey Bookshop

Michigan – Ann Arbor – Booksweet

Michigan – Ann Arbor / Grand Rapids / Okemos / W Bloomfield – Schuler Books

Michigan – Petoskey – McLean and Eakin Booksellers

Minnesota – Minneapolis – Moon Palace Books

Mississippi – Greenwood – Turnrow Book Co

Montana – Bozeman – Country Bookshelf

Nevada – Las Vegas – The Writer’s Block

New Jersey – Jersey City – WORD Bookstore

New York – Brooklyn – Books Are Magic

New York – Brooklyn – Greenlight Bookstore

New York – Brooklyn – WORD Bookstore

New York – Ithaca – Buffalo Street Books

New York – Larchmont – J Anderson’s Books

New York – New York – Book Club Bar

North Carolina – Asheville – Malaprop’s

North Carolina – Raleigh – Quail Ridge Books

North Carolina – Wake Forest – Page 158 Books

Ohio – Perrysburg – Gathering Volumes

Oregon – Bend – Roundabout Books and Cafe

Oregon – Hood River – Waucoma Bookstore

Pennsylvania – Lancaster – Pocket Books Shop

Rhode Island – Newport – Charter Books

Rhode Island – Westerly – Savoy Bookshop & Cafe

Tennessee – Memphis – Novel

Utah – Salt Lake City – The King’s English Bookshop

Virginia – Alexandria – Old Town Books

Virginia – Leesburg – Birch Tree Bookstore

Virginia – Roanoake – Book No Further

Washington – Bainbridge Island – Eagle Harbor Book Co

Washington – Lake Forest Park – Third Place Books

Washington – Olympia – Browsers Bookshop

Washington – Seattle – Elliott Bay Book Co

Washington – Spokane – Auntie’s Bookstore

Washington – Vancouver – Vintage Books

Wisconsin – Madison – Mystery to Me

Wisconsin – Milwaukee – Boswell Book Company


My new novel, DEATH VALLEY (out October 24, 2023) is a comedic odyssey through the desert of grief–and an exploration of the rich oases we may discover in that arid landscape.

In this desert, you’ll encounter: a magic cactus, talking rocks, a non-consensual encounter with a snake, teen rabbits engaged in philosophical discourse, an underground river, a psychic medium who channels Carmela Soprano, and the real hero of the novel: a Grab ‘n Go breakfast from the Best Western.

DEATH VALLEY asks questions about how to want what we already have, how to allow a loved one to die in their own way, and why at times it’s easier to have a relationship with the dead than with the living.

PREORDER IT NOW FROM:


Bookshop / AmazonIndiebound / B & N / Audible / Apple / Google Play

“A revelation…Melissa Broder has produced one of the strangest and sexiest novels of the new year: a harrowing, exhilarating, and frankly obscene exploration of all the ways we endeavor to make ourselves disappear — and the untold liberty that comes when our appetites are freed at last.” —Entertainment Weekly 

“Milk Fed is a romp…a pageant of bodily juices and exploratory fingers and moan after moan of delight.” —Los Angeles Times (profile)

“A dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt… Broder’s sex writing is, as always, first-rate, but perhaps even more striking is her ability to lay bare the frantic interior calculus of disordered eating alongside the hypnotic pull of spirituality.” —Vogue

“Milk-Fed gathers strands of faith, hunger, queerness, lust, and loneliness and braids them into a fully risen challah of human experience.” —Vogue (profile)

“Milk Fed bravely questions the particularly female lionization of thin and loathing of fat, landing on fresh explanations…deliciously droll…a celebration of bodily liberation.” —The New York Times

“A sensuous and delightfully delirious tale… Filled with an unadulterated filthiness that would make Philip Roth blush, Broder’s latest is a devour-it-in-one-sitting wonder.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“A thrilling examination of hunger, desire, faith, family and love.” —Time

“An erotic, singular experience that could only come from Broder’s fascinating mind…this book is sensual, it’s brimming with tension and food and fantasies…It’s gonna make you feel.” —Today Show

“Broder…has a rare ability to ground her fantasy in reality without undermining her imaginative vision, making it feel personal and raw and relatable…with humanity, sardonic wit, and erotic scenes so potent that the heat of my blushing face made my NYC-apartment radiator’s seem tepid, Milk-Fed vividly evokes the lives of each woman, so that we’re fully invested in them.” —The Boston Globe

“Melissa Broder’s Milk Fed is a delectable exploration of physical and emotional hunger.” —The Washington Post

“[An] outstanding second novel, a bold and luscious story of desire in all its forms—for food, for sex, for belonging…Rarely has the fraught intersection of pleasure, appetite, and diet culture been written about so deliciously as in Milk Fed.” —Esquire

“Captivating…delicious and depraved and unlike anything you’ve read before…You will eat this up.” Glamour

“Hilarious, lush and sorrowful…This work is unafraid of vulnerability, and appetite, and loss.” Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Few writers so innately understand or better capture the endless, palpable hunger that so many people carry around with them…for food, for sex, for love, for compassion, for understanding, and it is this kind of ravenous appetite that Broder explores in her exultant new novel… riotously funny and perfectly profane.”  —Refinery 29

“Milk Fed is a tale of appetites…It has nearly everything I want to read about in one novel.” —Refinery 29 (profile)

 “Anything by Melissa Broder is an immediate must-read… a precise blend of desire, discomfort, spirituality, and existential ache makes Broder’s depiction of the human experience so canny.” —Buzzfeed

“A scrumptious novel…Broder’s funny, semi-sweet writing will leave you ravenous for more.” The Week

“Compelling and intoxicating.” Bust

“This poignant exploration of desire, religion, and daughterhood is hard to resist.” —Publishers Weekly

“Bold, wry, and delightfully dirty…Broder is a formidable writer.” —Kirkus

“Spell-caster Broder guides readers through this seriously tender tale of transformation with seamless humor and staggering smarts: it contains multitudes. An empathic, enrapturing, unputdownable novel of faith, sex, love, and nurture.” —Booklist, starred review


Milk Fed Milk Fed Milk Fed

Would it kill you to pre-order? Be a mensch!

Pre-order MILK FED (my new novel of sex, food, and god) and get one of these two wildly stimulating offers…

MENSCH LEVEL – Pre-order MILK FED from any retailer (Bookshop / Indiebound / Barnes & Noble / Amazon / etc.) (or the audiobook, which is narrated by me at Audible or Google Play) and you will receive a digital copy of TWIZZLER ON THE ROOF—the exclusive MILK FED recipe book written by me (a little gross but very soulful). Simply fill out this form with your receipt number.

Eligibility: Adults 18 years and older. US & Canada residents.

*

UBERMENSCH LEVEL – Pre-order from a participating independent bookseller (independent bookstores forevs!) and you’ll receive the official MILK FED Gourmand Starter Pack (fuck!) which includes:

*A printed copy of TWIZZLER ON THE ROOF—the exclusive MILK FED recipe book written by me (not your bubbe’s cookbook, I tell you this)
*A MILK FED book plate signed by me (chic and literary!)
*A snack pack of Twizzlers (for that snack ‘n read experience)
*A mini box of cereal (a caloric mitzvah!)
*Packets of Splenda (for all your Milk Fed recipe needs)

Participating stores:

Elk Grove, CA: A Seat at the Table Books

Redondo Beach, CA: Creating Conversations

Glastonbury, CT: River Bend Bookshop

Decatur, GA: Charis Books and more

Decorah, IA: Dragonfly Books

Dubuque, IA: River Lights Bookstore

Chicago, IL: The Book Cellar

St. Petersburg, FL: Tombolo Books

Lawrence, KS: Raven Bookstore

Russell, KS: Russell Specialty Books & Gifts (785-445-8353)

Glenview, IL: The BookMarket / Barbara’s Bookstore

New Orleans, LA: Garden District Book Shop

Somerville, MA: All She Wrote Books

South Hadley, MA: The Odyssey Bookshop

Baltimore, MD: Greedy Reads

Chelsea, MI: Serendipity Books (734-475-7148)

Kalamazoo, MI: this is a bookstore / Bookbug

Marquette, MI: Snowbound Books

Duluth, MN: The Bookstore at Fitger’s (bookstore@fitgers.com)

Asheville, NC: Malaprop’s

Chapel Hill, NC: Epilogue Books

Wake Forest, NC: Page 158 Books

Las Vegas, NV: The Writer’s Block

Westhampton Beach, NY: Red Jacket Books

Greenville, SC: Fiction Addiction

Austin, TX: BookPeople

San Antonio, TX: The Twig Book Shop

Alexandria, VA: Old Town Books

Seattle, WA: Paper Boat Booksellers (206-743-8283)

Spring Green, WI: Arcadia Books

Sullivan, WI: River Dog Book Co.

PLEASE NOTE: The Milk Fed Gourmand Starter Pack (UBERMENSCH level) is only available to US residents ages 18 years and older. If you preorder via a participating indie retailer, you will receive your book and starter pack from that bookseller at the time of publication.



My next novel, MILK FED — a tale of sex, food, and god — is out from Scribner on February 2, 2021.

Please do preorder it now from one of these fine retailers:

Bookshop // Indiebound // Barnes & Noble // Amazon

Thank you. I love you.




/// MAY 1, 2018 
/// OUT NOW ///

The New York Times / profile
The New York Times / review
The New Yorker / review
Vogue / interview
The Washington Post / review 
LA Times / Summer Books Preview
The New York Times / editor’s choice
Philadelphia Weekly / interview 
Nylon / interview
PAPER / interview
Buzzfeed / feature
Booklist / starred review 
Refinery29 / interview
Kirkus Reviews / starred review
The Ringer / profile
Entertainment Weekly / May books
I-D / interview
Elle / Summer Books 
Vulture / 10 Books We Can’t Wait to Read This Spring
Esquire / Summer Books
The Millions / interview
Parade / Summer Books
Publishers Weekly / review 
Village Voice / Debut Novels for Summer
Electric Literature / interview
The Times UK / review
The Rumpus / review
HuffPo / fish sex exposé
The Creative Independent / interview
LA Review of Books / interview
Bookforum / review
Inverse / interview
Bookreporter / review
Tor.com / review
Erotic Review / review
The Independent / Summer Reading
Bust / 11 New Books By Women To Read Now
Elle / Books We’re Excited to Read in 2018
New York Post / must reads
LunaLuna / review
Hazlitt / interview
Kirkus Reviews / interview
Bustle / review
Otherppl / podcast interview
The Mental Illness Happy Hour / podcast interview
Babe? / podcast interview
Fully Booked / podcast interview
Nylon / May books
Nylon Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018
Buzzfeed / The 33 Most Exciting New Books Of 2018
The Week / 21 Books to Read in 2018
Bitch / May Books
Newsday / new books
The Rumpus / What To Read In 2018
Mashable / Books You Need To Read This Spring
The Millions / The Great 2018 Book Preview
Tor.com / genre-bending books
Bookpage / Our Most Anticipated Fiction
Bustle / May fiction
Bookriot / May must read
Alma / 10 Books By Women We Can’t Wait to Read
Hello Giggles / Books We Can’t Wait To Read In 2018
Bustle / Most Anticipated Fiction of 2018
HuffPost / Books We Can’t Wait to Read In 2018


Just turned in the final edits on my first novel, THE PISCES, which will be out from Hogarth/Crown in May 2018. I can’t wait for it to live in the world.

Rolling Stone says I am one of the top 50 funniest people right now.

So Sad Today is out in Spanish, Swedish, the UK and Australia, and soon to be South Korea.

So Sad Today was a best book of 2016 at NPR, The Atlantic, The Globe and Mail and Publishers Weekly.

Last Sext was a best book of 2016 at The New Yorker.


One on my poems from LAST SEXT called Forgotten Sound won a Pushcart Prize. I didn’t think a Pushcart was a big thing, because a lot of ppl get nominated for them and you always see the nominations in people’s bios, but apparently it is a thing. This is the poem that won. Thanks to Tin House for nominating it.

I have a new monthly column at Elle called Beauty and Death, which lives in the intersection between eternal existential terror and ephemeral beauty rituals, and examines the relationship between the two. The first one is about my pubes.

This interview with The Creative Independent is probably my fav one I’ve ever done. It gets good in the second half wherein we explore having sex with food.

My biweekly So Sad Today column at VICE is still going on.


THIS IS NOW HAPPENING.

GET IT AT:
AMAZON
B&N
INDIEBOUND
POWELLS

“Broder has a virtuosic sense of herself and is able to convey, through poetry, the form of her whole mind process. In turn, we see our deepest selves reflected back.” –Daniel Lopatin, Oneohtrix Point Never

“The poems of Melissa Broder pull off a strange and compelling trick: to exist meatily, viscerally, and even bloodily at the center of a void. Holes thump through the pages, blankness crunches bone, zeros growl with hunger. Each line is a little heartbeat hurling down the abyss.” –Patricia Lockwood

“Melissa Broder is absolutely one of the most important poets writing today. Her poems eviscerate the reader with their misty and murky charm, with their ability to say what is and not what should be, for their love of life and the sensual, for their knowledge of what it is like to be a person right now. Last Sext is a master work, a text of brilliance written in a dusky field, for all of us. ‘Can you feel it?’ is what it asks us. And we must answer: for chrissakes, of course, yes.” –Dorothea Lasky

“Broder’s poems offer a postmodern twist on the confessional, and they push for action in the face of despair.” –Publishers Weekly


i was scared that when this book came out i would no longer be taken ‘seriously’ as a poet (even tho i’m not really sure what that means) (and there are a lot of poets who are taken seriously of whom i am like eh) (but i guess i was just looking for a way to not enjoy the process, because i’m scared that if i am happy about something then it could be taken away so it is safer to be scared bc then you at least have the illusion of control and preparedness ). nonetheless, the media seems to like the book–not sure yet about the poets–so here is that dopamine:

Elle // profile 

New York Magazine // interview

Vanity Fair // profile 

The Fader // interview

GQ // interview

Dazed // interview

The Guardian // interview

Slate // review

BookPage // review

Bitch // review

The Onion AV Club // review

The Globe & Mail // review

Salon // interview

The New Yorker // thing

The Philadelphia Inquirer // interview

The Rumpus // review

The National Post // interview

Lenny Letter // review

Complex // interview

I-D // interview

Nylon // review

Nylon // interview

Huffington Post // review

Rookie // review

Yahoo // interview

xoJane // profile

Ploughshares // review

Examiner // interview

KCRW // interview

Winnipeg Free Press // review 


The SO SAD TODAY book trailer is live. For the backstory–including details of my ideal cremation urn–check out this piece on Nylon.

Also, I did a thing about music with NPR. I kind of feel like if I was someone reading the piece I’d be like ‘why do I care what she thinks about music?’ but it was fun to talk about my fav rap radio stations in LA. Shouts out to Real 92.3, 93.5 KDAY and Power 106: Where Hip Hop Lives.


when i was 19 i went thru a breakup, smoked weed all day, got into ‘crafting’, gained 20 lbs on fake cheese product and studied astrology.

now i’m doing a monthly horoscope column for Lenny Letter.

Jimmy Kimmel talked to Lena Dunham about the column [minute 1:30 // insane]. shoutout to Aunt Carol for calling and being like ‘yo u were on Jimmy Kimmel.’


I am very fucking excited to say that my fourth book of poems, which is called LAST SEXT, will be published by Tin House next Summer.


MY PARENTS NAMED ME MELISSA.

I NAMED MYSELF SO SAD TODAY.

SO SAD TODAY IS ME AND SHE IS NOT ME.

I CREATED SO SAD TODAY, BECAUSE I DID NOT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO TO BE OKAY.

SHE WAS BORN OUT OF AN EMOTIONAL, SPIRITUAL AND PSYCHIC DARKNESS.

SHE REFLECTS MY DESIRE TO CONNECT WITH OTHERS IN AN ESSENTIAL WAY, UNDERNEATH THE SOCIAL, PROFESSIONAL AND CULTURAL MASKS I FEEL I MUST WEAR  IN THE WORLD SO AS TO BE PERCEIVED AS OKAY.

AND YET, LIKE ALL INTERNET PERSONAE, SHE TOO IS A MASK.

I LOVE HER.

HERE IS SO SAD TODAY.

HERE IS THE COLUMN I WRITE AT VICE AS SO SAD TODAY.

HERE IS AN ARTICLE IN ROLLING STONE ABOUT MY COMING OUT AS SO SAD TODAY, AND THE BOOK OF PERSONAL ESSAYS THAT WILL BE PUBLISHED BY GRAND CENTRAL / HACHETTE IN MARCH 2016.

HERE AT PAPER AND HERE AT THE AWL ARE TWO GOOD INTERVIEWS WITH SO SAD TODAY.


Over a series of insomniac nights, I wrote a collection of poems inspired by the Oneohtrix Point Never album R Plus Seven. For every track on the album, there is a poem. These aren’t lyrics. Simply, they are words that translate the feels I encountered in experiencing each track. Words are all I have. As much as I am often scared of my feels in waking life, I love and embrace them in poetrylife. You might call the process audio ekphrasis.

The collection is now this week’s first look at Rhizome / The New Museum. What this means is the collection has taken over the Rhizome.org homepage for the week via a New Museum series. (i think?)

The collection will live permanently on NewHive, which is the tool I used to assemble the poems so that each text has the corresponding audio embedded.

Coverage at Fact and Dazed.

Thanks to curator Harry Burke.

OPN 4ever.


I have 3 poems in the new issue of Tin House (but you have to buy it to read them) (but I still thought it was worth saying, because it’s Tin House) (have infiltrated the system).

Weird Sister interviewed me about being a witch (they thought they were interviewing me about being a feminist).

2 new poems at Third Rail Quarterly about being at war w mother nature + avenging my spirit. 1 2

One of my poems abt a hot boy at a wedding w a tongue piercing / suicidal ideation will be in a teen anthology from Viking in 2015 and they have a Tumblr interviewing all of the poets in that anthology. Here is my interview.

I’m a Rhizome First Look poet this month. Will update when the piece is live March 30.


Milk Fed

MILK FED

"Milk Fed is a romp…a pageant of bodily juices and exploratory fingers and moan after moan of delight."
–Los Angeles Times

"A dizzily compelling story of love, lust, addiction, faith, maternal longing, and…frozen yogurt."
–Vogue

"A revelation…Melissa Broder has produced one of the strangest and sexiest novels of the new year..."
–Entertainment Weekly

"A thrilling examination of hunger, desire, faith, family and love."
–Time

"Milk Fed bravely questions the particularly female lionization of thin and loathing of fat, landing on fresh explanations…deliciously droll…a celebration of bodily liberation."
–The New York Times

"Melissa Broder’s Milk Fed is a delectable exploration of physical and emotional hunger."
–The Washington Post

"A sensuous and delightfully delirious tale… Filled with an unadulterated filthiness that would make Philip Roth blush, Broder’s latest is a devour-it-in-one-sitting wonder."
–O, the Oprah Magazine

Superdoom

SUPERDOOM

The Pisces

THE PISCES

"A modern-day mythology for women on the verge — if everything on the surface stops making sense, all you need to do is dive deeper.."
–The New York Times

"The Pisces convincingly romances the void."
–The New Yorker

"Explosive, erotic, scathingly funny…a profound take on connection and longing that digs deep."
–Entertainment Weekly

"The dirtiest, most bizarre, most original works of fiction I’ve read in recent memory…Broder has a talent for distilling graphic sexual thoughts, humor, female neuroses and the rawest kind of emotion into a sort of delightfully nihilistic, anxiety-driven amuse bouche…"
–Vogue.com

"A page turner of a novel…funny and frank."
–Washington Post

"The Pisces is an intellectual, enthralling voyage into one woman’s swirling mind as she brushes with the extraordinary."
–Refinery29

"Get ready to laugh-cry over and over again...a perverse romance that captures the addictive and destructive forces of obsessive love. The Pisces is as hilarious as it is heartbreaking."
–Vulture.com

Last Sext

LAST SEXT

So Sad Today

SO SAD TODAY

"What separates Broder from her confessional cohort...is that she doesn’t seem to be out to shock, but to survive."
–Elle

"Broder presents a dizzying array of intimate dispatches and confessions…She has a near-supernatural ability to not only lay bare her darkest secrets, but to festoon those secrets with jokes, subterfuge, deep shame, bravado, and poetic turns of phrase."
–New York Magazine

"A triumph of unsettlingly relatable prose."
–Vanity Fair

"Her writing is deeply personal, sophisticated in its wit, and at the same time, devastating. SO SAD TODAY is a portrait of modern day existence told with provocative, irreverent honesty."
–Nylon

"At once devastating and delightful, this deeply personal collection of essays…is as raw as it is funny."
–Cosmopolitan

"Broder writes about the hot-pink toxins inhaled every day by girls and women...and the seemingly impossible struggle to exhale something pure, maybe even eternal...there's a bleak beauty in the way she articulates her lowest moments."
–Bookforum

"Broder may be talking about things like sexts, Botox, and crushes, but these things are considered alongside contemplations about mortality, identity, and the difficulty of finding substance in a world where sometimes it’s so much easier to exist behind a screen."
–The Fader

"…So Sad Today is uplifting and dispiriting in seemingly equal measure. It’s a book that’s incredibly human in the way it allows for deep self-reflection alongside Broder, which speaks not only to her powerful writing but also the internet’s magical ability to foster connections."
–A.V. Club

"...delightful...Broder embarks on an earnest, sophisticated inquiry into the roots and expressions of her own sadness...deeply confessional writing brings disarming humor and self-scrutiny...Broder's central insight is clear: it is ok to be sad, and our problems can't be reduced to a single diagnosis. "
–Publishers Weekly

"Broder is probably the Internet’s most powerful merchant of feelings…"
–GQ

"Vividly rendered and outspokenly delivered essays…Sordid, compulsively readable entries that lay bare a troubled soul painstakingly on the mend."
–Kirkus Reviews

Scarecrone

S C A R E C R O N E

"Broder manages to conjure a psychic realm best described as one part twisted funhouse and two parts Catholic school, heavy on libido and with a dash of magick. This gritty, cherry soda–black book...is bizarrely sexy in its monstrousness."
–Publishers Weekly

"I don’t know what a book is if not a latch to elsewhere, and Scarecrone has pressed its skull against the hidden door. It is neither drunk nor ecstatic to be here—it is a state unto itself."
–VICE

"Lushly dark and infused with references to black magic, Broder's work often feels less like a book and more like a mystical text."
–PAPERMAG

Meat Heart

MEAT HEART

"Out to 'crucify boredom,' her poems show us how any relationship with the divine is no less at risk of engendering grotesque lust...What makes Broder such a pleasure on the page is her insistence that these dramas play out on a workaday stage infused with surreal Pop and imaginative muscle..."
–Publishers Weekly

"With a title recalling Yeats...Broder risks the divine in her second book...shrewd, funny, twisted, sad poems..."
–The Chicago Tribune

"Meat Heart...is unbelievable and overwhelming for its imaginative power alone, but if you listen past the weird you can hear all sorts of things: sadness, seriousness, life, death, and a whole lot of laughter....Broder is a tremendous talent"
–Flavorwire

"...Meat Heart embodies that strain of sustenance, that sort of psychosomatic excitement most valiant art more or less tries to pull off…Her poems don’t bore or bear down. They beam oracle energy. They pump a music of visions for the life-lusty death dance."
–BOMB

Melissa Broder's Book Cover

MOTHER

“This debut from Broder is as funny and hip as it is disturbing… a bright and unusual debut.”
–Publishers Weekly

"…obsessive, energetic and pop-culture-infused poetry…"
–Time Out New York

"Broder’s insight and honesty will make your brain light up and your hair stand on end.”
–The San Francisco Examiner

"Broder’s verse is acrobatic and whip-smart… its own creature."
–Bomb