Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Cursed Bread

The title alone had me interested in this book. It's right up my alley in terms of deranged female narrators taking us through an unsettling ride.

The story shifts between Elodie's POV as a baker's wife, and her letters to her friend Violet. It starts plain and quite boring, unravels very slowly, and then drops the plot twist over a few pages in a nightmarish daze.

The main theme is obsession, the need to live as someone else, and steal their life, their love, their intimacies. It's a heavy focus on masochistic, degrading fantasy, born from boredom, neglect, and Elodie's invisibility as a woman and sexual being.

The writing is one long fever dream that gets more twisted and confusing as you go. It was hard for me to find footing, which is probably purposeful. Even the time period was hard for me to figure out. This kind of verbose, vague inner monologue writing style often loses me, but give it a try if you're into that, as well as really demented characters.

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jennikreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

4.0

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callmeamelia's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

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bronzeageholly's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

There were incredibly sculpted moments in this book, but the majority of the pacing was not for me. Despite the short length, I found it difficult to keep going and often had to convince myself to come back to it with the thought that there might be another brilliantly written section coming up. I saw it described as a “fever” and I think that fits it perfectly - the highs and lows of temperature.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes beautifully crafted characters who it’s hard to wholly like or hate.

The main character experiences a lot of obsessive thoughts around sex, bodies, eating, and violence, and I would not recommend this book to anyone who might find this triggering.

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feebles640's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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madamelacy's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The cursed bread almost seems quite peripheral until towards the end of the book. However, this is a gripping tale of a woman who becomes infatuated with a couple who move into the village. Disturbing, bizarre things start to happen and hilarity does not ensue. Highly recommend. Read trigger warnings though.

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serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

Cursed Bread is set in a small village in France in the 1950. Elodie is the wife of the local baker and she’s very frustrated since her husband is obsessed with making the perfect loaf of bread and not at all interested in her. When the American ambassador and his glamorous wife Violet move into the village Elodie is soon fascinated with them and falls under their spell. Meanwhile strange and dark things start occurring in the village. This Women’s Prize longlisted book that was more of a miss than a hit for me. While I could appreciate its literary merits, the sometimes beautiful writing and imagery, this book is often described as a fever dream and I’m not the sort of reader who enjoys fever dreams. I knew the story was inspired by true events and the beginning of the book had me intrigued. The more the story progressed the darker and less easy to comprehend it became. It’s combination of desire, obsession, deceit, and violence plus the level of uncertainty about who to believe and what actually happened meant it didn’t align with my readerly tastes, but it will be perfect for other readers.

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