Dead in Long Beach, California: A Novel

by Venita Blackburn

Coral is the first person to discover her brother Jay’s dead body in the wake of his suicide. There’s no note, only a drably furnished bachelor pad in Long Beach, California, and a cell phone with a handful of numbers in it. Coral pockets the phone. And then she starts responding to texts as her dead brother.

Over the course of one week, Coral, the successful yet lonely author of a hit dystopian novel, Wildfire, becomes increasingly untethered from reality. Blindsided by grief and operating with reckless determination, she doubles —and triples—down on posing as her brother, risking not only her own sanity but her relationship with her precocious niece, Khadijah. As Coral’s swirl of lies slowly closes in on her, the quirky and mysterious alien world of Wildfire becomes enmeshed in her own reality, in the process pushing long-buried memories, traumas, and secrets dangerously into the present.

A form-shifting and soul-crunching chronicle of grief and crisis, Venita Blackburn’s debut novel, Dead in Long Beach, California, is a fleet-footed marvel of self-discovery and storytelling that explores the depths of humankind’s capacity for harm and healing. With the daring, often hilarious imagination that made her an acclaimed short-fiction innovator, Blackburn crafts a layered, page-turning reckoning with what it means to be alive, dead, and somewhere in between.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Contemporary, LGBT, Thriller, Queer, Mystery Thriller

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 23, 2024

About the author

Venita Blackburn is an English instructor at Arizona State University. Her stories have appeared in numerous publications, including American Short Fiction, Faultline, the Georgia Review, and SmokeLong Quarterly. She was awarded a Bread Loaf fellowship and a Pushcart Prize nomination in 2014.

Reviews

[lark benobi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this novel was like having a conversation with a brilliant hyperactive person who is a bad listener and I couldn’t follow the half of what was being said but somehow, on a level more fugue than semantic sense, the story cohered into a reading experience something like attending a poetry slam in a foreign language with which I have only a passing familiarity.

[Lupita Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a set of unknown voices that open this novel and their goal is to tell a story that Coral, the main character, cannot. Coral is the first person to discover that her brother is dead.

There is no note to be found but it’s clear that he has died of suicide and before Coral has the chance to process going from being a sister visiting her brother to someone without him, his phone starts to ding. Messages are coming in from her niece, her brother’s daughter, and others. But instead of using his phone to share the news of his passing, she replies pretending to be him. She doesn’t know exactly why she does it, why she isn’t able to say to others this thing that has happened.

But for an entire week, we are plunged into a grief-stricken feverish dream with Coral as she plunges between memories of their life growing up together, her present reality of trying to sustain such a lie and show up at work, while also slowly losing herself into her work as an author. Nestled in this novel are sections of Coral’s bestselling dystopian novel, Wildfire, and fanfiction, and while neither makes sense pushed between Coral’s present and Coral’s memories — it felt to me like illustrating in words that in between plane which exists after the loss of a loved one — the plane in which nothing feels real because everything and everyone keeps moving.

This novel for me felt so unique in its approach to exploring the trauma that grief brings along. Not just trauma from the loss but past trauma that bubbles its way to the surface when navigating memory. Blackburn’s writing continues to leave me in awe each time I pick up something from her, that I could dedicate a whole post simply to how innovative and unique her work is.

“In the clinic for Telling lies to Avoid Pending Death, we say we’ve been here before. We say that each new loss, each new goodbye, teaches us how to handle the next one and the one after that. We say many things that are not really true. We do not say that each death is different, each goodbye will rip in new and unforeseeable ways, and the pain is never exactly the same.”

[Stitching Ghost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that was an unusual reading experience. Blackburn's prose is quite stylized and she makes great use of repetition to move the story forward, I enjoyed that a lot.

[BAM who is Beth Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

When does speculative fiction become nonsense? Right here. This book.

My thoughts while reading this book

Oh this is a Greek chorus. Okay okay.
Um. What’s this on the boat now?
Wait, who’s Blank?
What’s with all these lists? And how is abortion surviving the apocalypse when it can’t even survive republicans?
These interstitials are…. I dont know….confusing at best and frustrating at worst.
I don’t even know what’s happening anymore. Obsessive amounts of time talking about office pizza? Khadija’s two voices? Continued catfishing. I am really just confused.
My mind keeps wandering…or is it the book that’s wandering and I can’t follow it? Or is it I don’t care anymore and so I’m just reading to finish?
I don’t care about Khadijah or the pitbull or Coral.
This is the longest last chapter of my life

Thank gosh I’m done

[aubrey · Rating 1 out of 5]

not to be mean but should've stayed dead in Long Beach

[Sacha · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

Wow. Just...wow.

I'm an incoming fan of Blackburn's short stories and flash fiction and love some pieces so much that I teach them on rotation (i.e., I love them enough to read some truly wild interpretations of them and still find enjoyment in them. That's special and rare). My expectation for Blackburn's debut novel was it was going to be unlike anything I'd read previously. This came to fruition.

This isn't going to be for everyone. It's dark, experimental, and sometimes confounding, and I say that after having read the e-book and listened to the audio (which is remarkably well narrated; I recommend this option when and where accessible). Folks who are familiar with strange, gritty parts of Southern California, including but not limited to the overall scope of Long Beach, obviously, and bonus points for those who went to Medieval Times in Buena Park 15 years ago - you won't believe the related reference, will find a sinister kinship with this entire narrative based on Blackburn's sense of and depiction of place.

I'm planning on a third read (likely listen) again in the near future. This is something else.

Blackburn's work is in a class of its own, and I'm already looking forward to whatever chaotic, thought-provoking creation hits us next.

*Special thanks to NetGalley, MCD, and Macmillan Audio for this arc and alc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

[Megan]

My review is now up at the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/20/bo...

Here's an excerpt:
There may be no right or wrong way to grieve, but impersonating a recently departed loved one could get a person in trouble. To be fair, Coral — the protagonist of Venita Blackburn’s first novel, “Dead in Long Beach, California” — doesn’t exactly mean to pick up her brother Jay’s phone and start texting as him after she finds him dead from suicide in his apartment. It’s just something she does … and keeps doing.

Over the next few days, Coral shows up for her day job, honors her scheduled appearances as the author of a science fiction graphic novel, sets up dates on her own phone and keeps up with Jay’s texts on his. Coral understands that what she’s doing is “at worst a kind of crime and at best an infraction of decency,” but it’s surely better than telling Jay’s loved ones, especially his daughter, Khadija, that he is dead. But as Coral sustains the illusion that Jay’s life is intact, her life unravels. The prolonged, intensifying strain that she creates by maintaining this deceit becomes the novel’s central problem.

Full review here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/20/bo...

[JASARA HINES · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and McMillan audio for this ALC.

As someone with numerous degrees in Literature, and who has read thousands of books, I can safely say that this text is one of the rarest forms of composition that I have ever read. What I would call somewhere in the middle of fiction, stream of consciousness, satire, and memoir, this text adeptly explores ideas of guilt, loss, and reslience in a form I could only call experimental. There were times that I was confused, but drawn in and pulled along. I would think the confusion was purposeful on the author's part, as when someone experiences such a devestating, unexpected loss, feels that way as well. This is not a book that you will read for "light" reading. It will make you work as a reader, and you will be an active participant in this plot.

This is a wonderful example of the innovative ways that authors are tackling storytelling in 2024.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a difficult one to review but i *think* i enjoyed it mostly? or i can at least appreciate the ambition in the writing. I didn’t know what was going on for half of this book, it’s written in a very unique and sporadic way with a lot of ambiguity. it will not be for everyone but it’s definitely something special.

[Alex Juarez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grief isn’t linear and is often messy, jarring, backwards, and disorienting. In her true experimental sensibility, Blackburn’s debut novel is unlike anything else.

Coral discovers her brother’s body and begins to use his phone. But while this seems like a thriller, it’s a very internal and philosophical look at grief and the human condition. Coral is the author of a semi-popular dystopian graphic novel Wildfire and her narrators of the series (a first-person plural omniscient entity) is the narrator of the entire book. Flashbacks, excerpts from Wildfire, musings on humanity, and Coral’s week following her brother’s death—weave together harmoniously to the end.

Also, as someone from Long Beach California, this book is a beautiful ode to an oily, salty city!

[Jolanta (knygupė) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ne ne, čia ne detektyvas.

Tai buvo viena iš pačių keisčiausių mano skaitymo patirčių. Knygą skaičiau du kart ir vistiek jaučiuosi jos padoriai neperskaičius "/ Ir visiškai nesuprantu kaip ji man sugebėjo palįsti po oda. Gal, labai stiprus autorės balsas, išskirtinis stilius (akivaizdiai - eksperimentinis), gal, kad KITAIP apie netektį ir gedulą.
Pati autorė sako: "The book is not about healing. It's not about getting to the end of grief. It's not about offering solutions. It's not about the particular feeling, the hard crack of disaster in a family - and not getting any answers."

3,5* nes klaikiai nuvargino žiauriai paini konstrukcija ir veikėjų "choras".

[Ashlyn Cozad · Rating 1 out of 5]

At no point did I know what was going on

[Bbecca_marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you so much NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy and giving me the chance to review it honestly.

I received Dead in Long Beach, California as an ALC and I found it to be an OK listen. I enjoyed the narrator and the writing style but that’s pretty much all I enjoyed. Unfortunately I requested this book based on the title and cover and not so much on the description. Maybe I just didn’t get it because I did find myself to be confused at times. I honestly just think I had the wrong expend or this book. As always, please take my opinion with a grain of salt. Just because it didn’t work for me, doesn’t mean it won’t work for you.

Happy reading!

[Emilie · Rating 2 out of 5]

when i understood what was going on, i enjoyed the prose but i rarely understood what was happening. maybe that was the point? i really didn’t like Coral tbh

[Gracie Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think it probably did what it meant to well….i just didn’t like what it was trying to do. Difficult to audiobook, hard to speed up. Very stream of consciousness, lots of jumps and fast paced which made it difficult to follow for me.

[Victoria Sampley · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐️ I am conflicted with this one. I applaud the commentary on grief and showcasing how it isn’t linear. When I first started this book I was very confused with the pacing. I began to understand how this was written around the 30% mark. The set up is very different than just about anything I’ve read. It is confusing for sure, and not something to read lightly. It needs your full attention. There are some risks taken here that I appreciate. Though it does feel a bit gimmicky and wasn’t fully successful for me.

[Kelly Lamb · Rating 4 out of 5]

A chaotic and complicated exploration of and beyond grief. Essentially had no idea what was going on in the plot for most of this book but was utterly fascinated the entire time by the prose and unique narration style. Love me an internal monologue and this was like an externalized internal monologue - what a treat!

[Brandon · Rating 1 out of 5]

that was a mess

[claud · Rating 2 out of 5]

could not get into this one. the stylistic choices and structure just would not click in my brain

[Marc · Rating 3 out of 5]

"We are learning what precious is and what time is and how it attacks and soothes all at once and can leave without a trace."

What if you dealt with grief by inventing a distant future where machines catalogued/discoursed upon the human condition while retelling the story of how you delayed the impact of your brother's death by assuming his identity online and through responding to texts and calls with his phone immediately after his actual demise? Dissociation can take such creative avenues, but were this future actually true, it still wouldn't change your story. It might only change how dispassionately it was told...

I'm struggling to review this book because I loved the voice, the machine critique of human life and culture, and the way this distancing technique made the main character's processing of grief even more heartbreaking. Turns of phrase and wording choices distill the human condition sharply and comically at many a turn in this book. And yet... And yet... It felt like 3 strands, two loosely braided, and the one stubbornly human--all stretched a bit thin.

Well, I suppose my review/reaction splits into similar strands: two loosely braided in their admiration and sheer enjoyment of the writing and the concept, and one somewhat narratively still expectant (wanting that ever dangerous More we humans too often seek).

This was the pick for the June 2026 Bladensburg Library Book Club discussion and I'm thrilled it introduced me to Blackburn. (Now, I'm quite eager to read her short stories.)
--------------------------------
Fun and interesting interview with Blackburn here: https://www.interviewmagazine.com/lit...

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Venita Blackburn warns the reader that Dead in Long Beach, California is "A Novel." Coral goes to her brother Jay's apartment and finds his dead body. This is not a murder mystery; he committed suicide. The book reads like a book group discussion of itself. The discussion touches on plot, characters, and themes to provide context. Part of this self-contextualizing comes from the inclusion of drafts of portions of Coral's own novel, Wildfire. Her novel is dystopian and refers to "Red Autumn," perhaps a stand-in for covid. Instead of calling family members and Jay's friends, or even the police, Coral just leaves the apartment. She takes her brother's phone with her when she leaves. She returns some text messages, pretending to be Jay. As her mourning becomes more irrational, she even meets two of his dates briefly. Coral is a lesbian and appears to be using her sexual orientation as one of the major contributors to the family dynamics she is dealing with. Her biggest conflict is how to tell her niece Kadijah that her father is dead. Blackburn incorporates an unusual literary device by labeling about a half dozen clinics as shorthand for the various conflicts Coral faces. For example: Clinic for Telling Lies to Avoid Pending Death and Clinic for Weaponizing Fame in Order to Achieve Public Adoration and a Cover for Myriad Crimes. Blackburn sums up Coral's wants: "She wanted more chances to do better and a little time just to live unrestricted, as many used to wish for. Women her age wanted more youth and money and were stupid for the trouble."

[Bess]

dnf, appreciate the ambition and creativity but it didn’t work for me.

[CJ Alberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really beautiful writing that I wasn’t in the mood for unfortunately, hard to get through for some reason

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. This was not what I was expecting at all. I feel like I need to read it three more times to get everything, but I'm pretty sure it was brilliant.

[Mackenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coral is so messy omfg...

But the writing of this is absolutely incredible. I love unique perspectives (We Ride Upon Sticks is still one of my favorites), and the greek-chorus style storytelling here is beautifully transporting. Was I a little confused at times? Perhaps. But it didn't even matter when the prose was so stunning and imaginative. I bought this book on a whim, and now I'm crossing my fingers hoping Venita Blackburn writes another book soon!

[Richie Cheese · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was... something. I had been really excited abt the premise since it seemed interesting but the execution was interesting to say the least. To me this book read more of like a first draft rather than a final draft because so much of it felt messy and unfinished.

It had some great moments, but none of them are worth the hair I had to pull out to finish this.

This book wanted to say so many things at the same time which caused none of the commentary it includes to be fully fleshed out and leaves you wanting more. As it shoehorns things in, it almost makes you forget the main plot and it honestly is hardly ever touched upon until you start reaching the end. You get more about Coral's (tha main character) book series than you do the A story, which you understand the point of excerpts of the in universe book being there, but then you also get hit with smut fic about said series mid way through and it really seems to add nothing.

The formatting of the book itself also confused the hell out of me as it switches between Coral's past and present, but only ever signals when the past is happening and never when we switch back to the present. So there ends up being a lot of moments where you're thinking you're still in the past, only for something not to make sense and then you don't know where the past ends and the present starts.

This book also uses a LOT of repetition. Which I get as a literary device can build suspense and emotion but here it is just. Annoying. You end up having to re-read long sentences over and over and sometimes they occur like seven times in the same page and makes you want to stop reading. I almost DNFed this book because of it to be honest.

Overall I think this book should have been so much shorter than it was because if you just kept with the main plot it would be about less than one hundred pages and still be able to make the same point.

[Lata · Rating 3 out of 5]

A deeply challenging book about a woman who discovers her dead brother, who has just committed suicide, and who is then overcome by grief and anger. She begins replying to texts on his phone as if she were him, and over several days we learn of Coral's and her brother Jay's lives.

Coral is an author of a successful speculative fiction novel, and as she reviews her life, both past and present, parts of her book, Wildfire, become part of her reality.

This is an amazing book with terrifically constructed prose about grief, trauma and secrets, but it is hard to get through because of its unconventional style and structure.

[Lois Barley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn’t read this book. It was so confusing. I felt like I needed to take notes just to keep it straight in my head. I gave up after 2 chapters.

[Ana-Luisa Anaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing was super good and I love a crazy lesbian, also had no idea what was going on!

[EJ]

Not gonna rate this because I think stylistically it was very interesting and the writing was good, i just wasn’t in the right head space for something like this. An “it’s not you, it’s me” situation, if you will.