The Valley and the Flood

Content Overview

Overall Content
Severity
1.8

Language

5.4/10

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

0.4/10

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

0.5/10

Violence, Weapons, Blood, Crime

0.3/10

Potentially Intense Themes

2.5/10

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

The Valley and the Flood

Rebecca Mahoney

Rose Colter is almost home, but she can’t go back there yet. When her car breaks down in the Nevada desert, the silence of the night is broken by a radio broadcast of a voicemail message from her best friend, Gaby. A message Rose has listened to countless times over the past year. The last one Gaby left before she died.

So Rose follows the lights from the closest radio tower to Lotus Valley, a small town where prophets are a dime a dozen, secrets lurk in every shadow, and the diner pie is legendary. And according to Cassie Cyrene, the town’s third most accurate prophet, they’ve been waiting for her. Because Rose’s arrival is part of a looming prophecy, one that says a flood will destroy Lotus Valley in just three days’ time.

Rose believes if the prophecy comes true then it will confirm her worst fear–the PTSD she was diagnosed with after Gaby’s death has changed her in ways she can’t face. So with help from new friends, Rose sets out to stop the flood, but her connection to it, and to this strange little town, runs deeper than she could’ve imagined.

-Excerpt taken from Goodreads.

Check Goodreads to see the book’s ratings.

My Opinion

2 out of 5 stars (2 / 5) You know those books that are so bizarre that you just eat them up and you like the bizarreness? I really wanted this one to be like that. Still, after finishing it, I don’t even know what I just read. It was confusing and strange and I’m still puzzled. 

There were weird vibes throughout, not creepy, but you can tell pieces are missing. It wasn’t intriguing so much as confusing. But then I’d get more information and it would confuse me more. There has to be an explanation for it, right? I don’t feel I got one.

It explores grief and PTSD in ways that I connected with but the bulk of the story never resonated. I expected an ending that brought all the pieces together but it was anticlimactic and I’m still confused. Did I mention I’m confused? Sigh.

Content Summary: There is very little offensive content in this book. The main element I’d be concerned with is the car accident that gets replayed multiple times. The grief is high and may be sensitive for some. There are a few somewhat scary moments of an entity-type thing that slithers around or talks to the teens.

Thank you to Penguin Teen for the gifted copy in exchange for an honest review. This book releases February 23, 2021.

Detailed Content Review

Language 

F***- 5

H***- 15

S***- 21

A**- 4

B****-

D***- 4

Bas****-

Religious Cursing

J****-

Chr***-

G**- 12

L***-

Derogatory terms etc-

Alcohol, Drugs, Smoking

A young woman asks a young woman to make sure she doesn’t drink at a party. 

A driver that was intoxicated, causes a horrible car accident.

Intimacy, Sex, Immodesty

*Minor LGBTQ+ aspects included*

A woman mentions her wife. 

Two women are married. 

A young woman guesses a young man likes a young man. 

A young man kisses a young man quickly.

A young man kisses a young man. 

Violence, Weapons, Crime, Blood

A young woman speaks of her violent boyfriend.

Something bites a young man. A large web shimmers and something speaks. 

A young woman thinks of hurting a young man with a knife. She doesn’t. 

Potentially Intense Themes

A young woman is haunted by her best friends death. She left her a voice message that she plays to remember her. The message was left right before she died. Her grief is shown throughout the book. She has panic attacks and odd hallucinations throughout.

Two best friends each lost their dads when they were young. 

A young woman has hallucinations of getting hit by a car in the same way her friend did. 

A shadow with 50+ “arms” is a living thing and can be scary. It can get violent (kill?)  if it needs to protect. 

A young woman hallucinates her best friend. 

There is a highly emotional scene if a mother breaking down over the death of her daughter. 

Teens talk to a voice they hear. They don’t know who or what it is. 

A young woman vaguely thinks of suicide. She refers to it as “intrusive thoughts.”

A car accident plays out in detail. 

A young woman has many panic attacks. 

**Any quotes from the book are taken from the advanced copy and therefore may not be fully accurate or correctly compare to the final copy of the book.

**As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

4 Comments

  1. With those books that are mysterious and make sense to the Author, I wish they’d have an unattached editor read it to point out the parts that don’t come through! Beta readers are good for that too

  2. The synopsis is even a little out there – sounds like a great premise for a YA thriller though 😅 the “3rd most accurate prophet” cracked me up though

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