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Reviewed by Delene Vrey for Readers' Favorite
Valley High, Mountain Low by Ann Crawford tells the story of Mariella, who, after being married to her handsome, non-monogamous husband for more than a dozen years, decides she has had enough. During COVID-19, on January 6, 2021, she sneaks out of their lavish house in the San Francisco Hills on a dreary gray day. She heads to her childhood home in Colorado, hoping to find where she went wrong in her life. Achieving success in the tech world in Silicon Valley and being recognizable is not as fulfilling as it sounded. But when she comes home, nothing is as she thought it should be. Her mother is caught up in the madness of 6 January 2020, and her nieces are almost anorexic. Being home has its price: reconnecting with family who are as broken as she is. When she starts healing, sharing more in a week with her family than she had in decades, she is ready to figure out what she needs. And to her shock, it is the one desire inherent to most women.
Ann Crawford covers so many relevant themes that converge into what is a messy, emotionally damaged, and resilient life. We all know the effect that COVID had on the world; many people realized they did not know their spouses, and many reconnected with their families because of lockdowns. The most prominent theme is how tech companies knowingly designed their algorithms to make addicts of users. Social media has taken away the lives of younger generations and even introduced the senior generation to a whole new world of connectivity and opportunities, not all good. The second theme is that of motherhood, and the trauma of almost being a mother. What drives Mariella at the end of the book is the opportunity to become a mother, even in an unconventional manner. Family relationships are also a fundamental theme in Valley High, Mountain Low. Mariella learns that there is more to her father than just being her father, and the adult relationship that blossoms between them in her time in Colorado is beautiful.
