Who Fears Death

This started off as intriguing and engaging. But after about the first quarter it just got duller and duller. How many different variations can we have on the theme of mystical thing happens in the desert and protagonist loses her temper? By the end I had to force myself to finish it. Perhaps this needed to be a short story. It's possible that there were some interesting points being made in there about race/ethnicity, religion, and gender - but they just got lost in the endless sand. And finally, it's a huge stretch to call this post-apocalyptic; any hints to that effect would be better described as simple fantasy world-building.