Dead in Long Beach, California: A Novel

Praise for Dead in Long Beach, California: A Novel

"[Blackburn's] sentences zing with lively precision . . . as the narrative scaffolding stabilizes, we see how Coral’s grief is braced within it — held alight, too, by the disarming humor and vivacity of Blackburn’s prose. Told by machines from the future, Blackburn’s idiosyncratic grief novel is as freshly devastating as they come." —Megan Milks, The New York Times Book Review

"There are no wasted words in the fictions of Venita Blackburn. Her stories are quick as lightning; her sentences, entire lifetimes flashing by. A clause might pierce a character’s frailties, a word might tip the analysis into absurdity . . . In this enthralling story about farcical invention in the face of calamitous grief, the writing is taut as ever. " —Carolina A. Miranda, Los Angeles Times

"The authoritative and bizarre voice of the guides gives the book a playful quality that keeps it buoyant. They describe Coral’s actions, and human activity as a whole, with a bemused distance that allows Blackburn to place humor and whimsy alongside the sorrow." —Stephen Kearse, The Washington Post

"Dead in Long Beach, California deploys Blackburn’s signature, crystalline, time-bending sentences to heart-stopping, stay-up-all-night-reading effect." —Rita Bullwinkle, Interview Magazine

"A masterful feat of storytelling . . . a profound and surprising demonstration of how there’s no way to fully outrun or outmaneuver or out-strategize the pain of loss." —Stef Rubino, Autostraddle

"[A] conceptually ambitious, delightfully queer novel. . . The beauty of Blackburn’s fun and complex novel, in other words, resides in its intense discernment of our species as a troubled, self-destructive, glorious one." —Anita Felicelli, Alta

"Dead in Long Beach, California examines trauma, desire, grief, hunger, loss, and our society at large in an inventive, form-shifting novel that truly no one but the singular Venita Blackburn could’ve written." —Rachel León, Electric Lit

"With her debut novel, Dead in Long Beach, California, Blackburn uses her ability to zero in on the intricacies of a minute moment and explode that attention outward, creating an inventive, arresting investigation of how a person can stall and spin out in grief."— Michael Colbert, Shondaland

"Dead in Long Beach, California is the work of a gifted writer who understands love bonds, family, death and inevitability, but also has a sense of humor about all of the above. Blackburn’s novel presents grief as memory puzzle, grief as creative license, grief as fuel for delusion and awakening." —Naomi Elias, KQED

"Venita Blackburn's prose is stunning, sensitive and that-made-me-snort funny. Richly layered and ambitiously structured, this unconventional novel about death and denial is bizarre in the best way." —Lucy Tu, Scientific American

"Despite the heavy subject matter, sensitively handled, this is frequently a deeply funny novel . . . Blackburn shares a deep intellect and odd sensibility with authors like George Saunders and Rion Amilcar Scott, but this novel is its own thing: intelligent, bizarre, and brilliantly written. An astonishing debut novel from a remarkably creative writer." —Kirkus (starred review)

"An engaging and original portrait of a woman on the verge . . . Blackburn is formidable, her writing is experimental in intriguing and meaningful ways, and this is another winner." —Booklist

"Bold and formally inventive . . . Blackburn is an excellent prose stylist. Coral’s sections are full of acerbic wit . . . This ambitious effort is worth a look." —Publishers Weekly

"Dead in Long Beach, California is somehow both tender and incredibly sharp. It's mesmerizing in its ability to twist inward on itself; a genuine ouroboros of pain and loss. Venita Blackburn's writing here is profoundly gorgeous. At every turn, I found myself split between laughter and tears. An incredible look at how we work to divert the flow of grief, only to find those tributaries suddenly rejoined without our consent, the pain we wished to avoid flowing directly back to us. This book rewired my brain; it's a bonafide knockout." —Kristen Arnett, author of With Teeth

"I've been waiting for a novel like the one Venita Blackburn has just unleashed on us. Grief as a science-fiction itself, grief as a fount of absurdity and mad laughter, grief as a time travel machine locked inside a person's body. You can try bracing yourself for the ride this story takes you on, but it's best to just surrender. Your wig is going to fall off no matter what you do." —Saeed Jones, author of How We Fight for Our Lives

"Utterly original and bitingly funny, Dead in Long Beach, California is one of the most riveting compendiums of what makes us tick and ticked off. Hair, online dating, grief, ghosts, mental health, death, global warming, childrearing, and relative fame are only a handful of the topics that Venita Blackburn tackles with ease, revealing a mind that is truly one-of-a-kind. And this novel is a testament to the belief that, despite our world's madness and mayhem, we can and will do better. Blackburn's presence in this literary landscape isn't only refreshing, it's necessary." —Mateo Askaripour, author of Black Buck

"Riveting in its style and innovations of form, Venita Blackburn has given us a wholly original, moving, gorgeous novel in Dead in Long Beach, California. An education of the mind and heart alike. Chef’s kiss, pick it up." —Sarah Thankam Matthews, author of All This Could Be Different

"A spell-binding meditation on grief, loss, and familial obligation. Dead in Long Beach, California delves into the aftermath of an unexpected death to illuminate what it means to be alive." —Jonathan Escoffery, author of If I Survive You

“Wry, subversive, and gorgeously inventive. In Dead in Long Beach, California, Venita Blackburn explores disorientation, deception, and the impulse toward connection in the aftermath of grief.” —Jocelyn Nicole Johnson, author of My Monticello

"A prismatic, genre-defying novel where the past is layered over the present and where grief takes on a life of its own. With dazzling dark humor, Venita Blackburn captures the awful and wonderful strangeness of what it means to be alive in the twenty-first century. Dead in Long Beach, California is achingly honest, always surprising and unlike anything I’ve read before." —Elaine Hsieh Chou, author of Disorientation

"A luminous, propulsive reflection on grief and the love that underlies it." —Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, author of On the Rooftop

"Venita Blackburn's Dead in Long Beach, California is a remarkable novel. A profound mix of imagination, sadness, and humor that is truly unlike any other book I've ever read." —Megan Giddings, author of The Women Could Fly