Desert Creatures by Kay Chronister

A young girl and her father take a desperate pilgrimage through a blasted post-apocalyptic Mojave Desert to the Holy City of Las Vegas in this vivid and uncanny tale of outsiders in a dangerous world, perfect for fans of Lucy A. Snyder and Jeff Vandermeer. An unknown devastation has swept across the United States, a sickness causes the dead to flower and sprout fruit, and the promise of miracles draws pilgrims from all over to the Holy City of Las Vegas. Magdala and her father flee their home in the Sonora Desert, setting out across the wasteland in search of a cure for her disability. As they pass through blasted cities and ruined towns, they are forced to join with a group of survivors making their own pilgrimage. But the road to Las Vegas is filled with danger, strange cults occupying the wreckage of towns, and uncanny stuffed men roaming the desert. As a strange sickness begins to take hold, the band of survivors grows ever thinner, and months turn to years. Magdala finds herself placing her trust in the most unlikely of places, and the closer she gets to her holy destination, the further from salvation she seems.

No, seriously, how the hell was this so goddamn good?

Received a copy via NetGalley.

A book like Desert Creatures is difficult to pin down.

There are parts that have the sparse desperation of a Cormac McCarthy novel, others that match the brutality and then parts where the writing doesn't quite live up to these high points. It's perhaps deeply unfair for a writer to compare their work to someone like McCarthy right out of the gate like this, but those are the parallels that exist within the work, so...

Our protagonist is a girl named Magdala who's stuck traversing the wastelands of the southwestern US after an unexplained incident ruined everything. In the desert, people and animals are getting desert sick and turning into fluffy trees with fruit that makes anyone who eats it sick. The folks who aren't that lucky turn into monsters. Las Vegas is the lone holdout for civilization and worships a deceased cowboy.

Through the distinct parts of the book, it follows Magdala through her transformation from a scared girl into survivor badass, although there is a reprieve in the middle following a heretic priest named Elam. We're forced to see the horrors she endured, then the sacrifices to her own humanity she needed to make to survive. Her redemption is as close as we get to a resolution, and that redemption is loaded with caveats.

There are powerful themes about beliefs, women surviving trauma and what it means to be human. This is the kind of book that sticks with you and deserves your attention.