Reviews with content warning for Medical trauma - Hot Milk

Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

samarakroeger's review

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

I love Deborah Levy. This book hit at the right time for me — I think it’s a perfect existential mid-20s book that explores family, identity, feeling like a passenger in your own life, and general uncertainty about the future. Let’s just say I can relate to Sofia.

I totally see how this book is not for everyone — it’s weird and slow and very much literary fiction. I read this slowly, too, and it has lived in my mind for a month. There’s so much to unpack and analyze in this book — it’s definitely one with a reread in its future.

Content Warnings

thesawyerbean's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.75

Where would the Medusa's case history begin and end? Was she shocked, devastated, appalled to discover she was no longer admired for her beauty? Did she feel de-feminized? Would she walk through the door labelled 'Ladies’ or the door labelled 'Gentlemen’? 'Hommes' or 'Femmes', 'Caballeros' or 'Señoras'? I began to wonder if she had more power in her life as a monster. Where had I got to in my own life by trying to please everyone all the time? Right here. Wringing my hands.

This book is the epitome of no plot, just vibes. It feels so ethereal, like heat radiating off hot sands. A phantasmagoria you wade through, crashing into waves of metaphors and metaphysical themes, floating just like the medusas in this story. Nothing seems to be happening, and yet you are thoroughly entranced.

The writing is poetic, thought-provoking and lyrical - there were so many moments I sat in awe at the weaving of the extended metaphors into a wider context, and so many moments that clasped me by the throat.

I confess that I am often lost in all the dimensions of time, that the past sometimes feels nearer than the present and I often fear the future has already happened.

A magical book, one you have to sit and digest as you read to get the most out of.

She had catalogued over a billion words but she could not find words for how her own wishes for herself had been dispersed in the winds and storms of a world not arranged to her advantage.

Content Warnings