Meaghan Garvey's Midwestern Death Trip, she combines the road trip genre at which she excels with a heart-breaking female coming-of-age story that begins with her mother's death from cancer and extends through a series of a disastrous personal relationships, near-fatal dalliances with alcohol and drugs, and an increasing fascination with the death-haunted region of the country where she grew up, where the highest aspiration is the appearance of being normal.