Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - 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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ariparip's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

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

2.75

TL;DR: extremely slow; horny, but not in the fun way; dark and descriptive, inching towards profundity without ever getting there.

I was so excited to read this book and was so disappointed. It is extremely slow. The audiobook is only 5 hours and I listened on 1.25 speed but it still took me over a month to finish. I kept reading thinking the pace might pick up and because I was interested in the characters, but the prose was flowery without real substance.

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mstall_'s review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

This might be my FAVORITE book of 2024 and we're only 3 weeks in. A lot of other reviews state that this book was "vibes only" with no plot, and like if you can't appreciate good literature just say so. Cursed Bread is a story of a woman sick with desire who wants to consume a beautiful newcomer and her husband who just settled in their small French village a few years post WW2.

This story was inspired by a true series of events, and Sophie does a magical job of making you feel like you're reading personal accounts from those days. Writing in first person usually reads as lazy and sloppy to me. It's very rare that first person narrative is done truly well, and Cursed Bread is that exception. You feel like you are reading the personal journal of a woman going slowly mad with boredom, lust, jealousy, and disgust. I highly, highly recommend. I will be thinking about this book for years.

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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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erisouls's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

If you enjoyed reading Bitter Orange you will enjoy this book. It felt strangely similar at times. I liked it enough to read it all in one sitting but I wouldn’t pick it up again, nor do I think I would tell anyone else to read it.

I was incredibly disappointed that Violet and Élodie never hooked up. I realize that thematically, the ending made sense, however I was crushed hearing how cruel they were to her. Perhaps I am the gullible one for thinking they were ever interested.

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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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misskatz's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.25

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charliecc's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense 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

4.0

Taut, sensual, dark. Like a fever dream. Confusing and claustrophobic. But brilliant.

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