diff --git a/changes/2024-05-30T145855-0400.txt b/changes/2024-05-30T145855-0400.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a49ea0e177
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/2024-05-30T145855-0400.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Reorganize ValidationFailure error message to be more readable
diff --git a/src/Chainweb/BlockHeader/Validation.hs b/src/Chainweb/BlockHeader/Validation.hs
index 7bd425c9ee..87c4ebfc2a 100644
--- a/src/Chainweb/BlockHeader/Validation.hs
+++ b/src/Chainweb/BlockHeader/Validation.hs
@@ -288,10 +288,10 @@ webStepFailure hp = ValidationFailure
 instance Show ValidationFailure where
     show (ValidationFailure p as e ts)
         = T.unpack $ "Validation failure"
-            <> ". Parent: " <> encodeToText (ObjectEncoded . _parentHeader <$> p)
-            <> ". Adjacents: " <> encodeToText ((fmap (ObjectEncoded . _parentHeader)) <$> as)
-            <> ". Header: " <> encodeToText (ObjectEncoded e)
             <> ". Description: " <> T.unlines (map description ts)
+            <> ". Header: " <> encodeToText (ObjectEncoded e)
+            <> maybe "" (\p' -> ". Parent: " <> encodeToText (ObjectEncoded $ _parentHeader p')) p
+            <> maybe "" (\as' -> ". Adjacents: " <> encodeToText (ObjectEncoded . _parentHeader <$> as')) as
       where
         description t = case t of
             MissingParent -> "Parent isn't in the database"