Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Milk Fed by Melissa Broder

82 reviews

sarahmccorm's review

funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I'm not sure I really understood this one. Maybe I did at points. I think it's definitely a book that I will refer to other reviews to fully understand the metaphors and symbolism and meaning of this book. I wish I understood.It may have been the constant sexual innuendos, experiences, and references that made me pull away from any real meaning or depth to the book. But I don't think that is a critique on the author or her work. Sex should be a casual and normal thing to discuss and read about in adult contemporary fiction, it is just personally not something that allows me to fully focus on deep themes/meanings of a book if it is too present. 

I felt like I struggled to really get into any long term reading sessions with this book. Lately when I read I want to sit and read 50-100 pages each session. But with this book I felt like I could only chug out 15-30 pages each time I picked it up. Not sure if that was personal or more so based off of the stylistic choices of the author. Her chapters are very short, around 5 pages per chapter. That probably had something to do with my productivity with this book, because the setting or discussion going on changed so often with each chapter. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Sexual content

This book is largely about the main character Rachel struggling with her extremely toxic relationship with her mother, which culminated in her developing an intense eating disorder. Throughout the book she discusses this at length. There are large discussions of fatphobia and homophobia from various characters throughout the book, and sometimes from the main character herself. There is a LOT of sex in this book as well, so content warning for that.

maxattack's review

dark funny reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This was honestly a really fun story, but I can’t say I particularly liked any of the characters. They’re all train wrecks. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Vomit, Sexual content, Mental illness, Body shaming, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Cursing

Minor: Biphobia, Classism, Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, and Violence

The main “love interest” is a mere fetishization of a “type” of human being

changelingreader_adrian's review

challenging dark emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Excrement and Lesbophobia

jg34's review

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I agree with many of the other reviews stating that the first 30ish % was really good then it really started to lose me. I wasn’t very sold on the love story part of things and maybe that was the point, that is was actually lust (or hunger????). I was a bit confused about how the eating disorder was handled. There was one part where Rachel was thinking something along the lines of “should I tell Miriam I used to have an eating disorder?” Which first of all, USED TO is not correct just because she’s been eating what she wants for like 2 weeks. I think we saw a lot of the struggle but none of the resolution with both the eating disorder and with her relationship with her mother. 
Also I’m open to a bit of weirdness but please the line about Miriam’s shit traumatized me

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Body shaming, Lesbophobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Excrement

gtutu5's review

dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Toxic relationship

Minor: Religious bigotry, Hate crime, and Lesbophobia

swrrlgrrl's review

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Fatphobia, and Eating disorder

Moderate: Toxic relationship

dar101's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Homophobia, Eating disorder, and Lesbophobia

abisnail564's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, and Religious bigotry

rooney_shay's review

emotional funny reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

A little too erotic for my tastes, but definitely an eye-opener. Following the main characters changing relationship with food, her own body, religion and other characters was riveting. I read this book in a day! To this who don’t like sex or sexual desire openly stated in a book, this is not the one for you!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Religious bigotry, Eating disorder, Body horror, Biphobia, Fatphobia, Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

Minor: Vomit, War, Violence, and Alcohol

lindsaccount's review

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Sexual content, Eating disorder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Fatphobia and Islamophobia