A review by literarycherub
Milk Fed by Melissa Broder

dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 
Melissa Broder isn’t for everyone, but she is definitely for me. I devoured her previous books and was excited to get a review copy for Milk Fed. Broder knows how to write about such difficult topics while staying sexy, comical, and thought-provoking. This novel is filled with food, sex, and religion.

“Did anyone genuinely like anything? Most art was bad. I preferred the work of dead people. At least the dead weren’t on Twitter.”

Please stop here if you get triggered with eating disorders. We follow Rachel, who we are instantly shown to have a bad relationship with food and her mother. She has a daily ritual at a fro-yo shop where she fills her cup just to the brim with plain yogurt. One day, a new girl at the shop assists her and convinces her to get toppings, causing Rachel to binge and become obsessed with the new girl’s lifestyle. Rachel is hungry to find motherly love since her own mother has never shown her the unconditional love she seeks.

“Maybe that’s all that prayer was anyway—a cosmic google. In that case, any iPhone could be a synagogue.”

I loved the bisexuality representation and I always relate to Broder’s writing having spent the majority of my twenties living in Los Angeles. The dating culture Melissa writes isn’t that unrealistic. If you are a fan of Ottessa Moshfegh or Daisy Buchanan, then you will love Milk Fed!

Thank you to Bloomsbury Circus and Netgalley for the arc! This title was released March 4, 2021. 

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