Reviews with content warning for Dysphoria - Muttermilch

Melissa Broder writes shame so well. This book explores queerness, inner child work, body dysmorphia, mother wound, and religious trauma beautifully and painfully.

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tpeacock9's review against another edition

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emotional funny 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

4.25

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w0rmonastring's review against another edition

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fast-paced

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

1.5

i went into this knowing that i wasn't the target audience for this novel but still came out at the end of this book feeling like i had been through something extremely off-putting. it's a psychosexual obsessive and heavy-handed story with just an uncomfortable level of descriptive Freudian fantasization.

there were a lot of interesting ideas from the author but not a single one of them felt fully explored, probably because there wasn't a single 3-dimensional character to flesh them out. it felt flat and repetitive and anti-climatic.

also, my favorite quote from the entire novel turned out to just be a Yiddish proverb.

<i> "Ah! For a little love, you pay all your life." </i>

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rabidcat's review against another edition

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emotional funny tense 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

4.0

when i was reading this, i liked it a lot. this book is very comfortable with queerness and the outward expression of sexual queer desire and pleasure it was rlly nice to see! but when i sit and think about this book critically, i would probably have to rate it less than i am rating it now. rachel’s fatphobia towards miriam was straight up excused it felt like? i feel this book has a lot to say but barely addresses it? rachel’s mommy issues and the way that it affects her relationships with herself and other people is interesting to see. especially with ana and her, and how she projected what she wanted with her own mother into ana, despite both of these people being the same. i found it so odd how miriam and rachel’s relationship ended because of the palestine/israel conflict like wtf? definitely could’ve been written better LMAOO!!!!!! this book suffers from being wayyy too short, the ending was just so lackluster?

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bedtimesnack's review against another edition

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funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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lindsaccount's review against another edition

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1.25

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hannalizzy's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.25

I really enjoyed this book. I think Broader’s frankness around disordered eating habits and self love/mental health issues is needed in literature, to truly capture what it is like to experience these things. It’s raw, it’s graphic, but it is reality to many people. I wish I would have gotten a little more detail about Rachel’s mother, since the relationship was so toxic and effected her so deeply. We can still see its toxicity through the lack of contact between them in the book, but I guess it would have helped me understand Rachel a bit more since cutting out her mother was the catalyst for her healing.

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camdelo96's review against another edition

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funny hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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