It immediately puts me off, especially when it’s such a central feature of a novel. Yes, I know I said I enjoyed learning more about Judaism, and I did, I just don’t enjoy religion in novels as a standard. Just like the religious aspect to the novel, Rachel’s relationship with her sexuality was complicated, layered and a real point of conflict for her and I think it was handled really sensitively while remaining honest. The way it examined queer desire, particularly repressed queer desire. I can’t say much about the representation because I’m not a part of that community, but Rachel’s own relation to her religion was really interesting and complex. I learned a lot about Judaism in ‘Milk Fed’, especially in regard to Orthodox Jews who are a group of people that I knew very, very little about. And the sexy is absolutely there in this book, even if it was a bit uncomfortable in those scenes due to Rachel’s reoccupations.
Melissa Broder’s writing is stark, brutal, and emotional, while also being really sensual. Storygraph has a element where content warnings can be provided as part of reviews and all of those are listed attached to the book.Īs I said earlier, I have super mixed feelings about ‘Milk Fed’. In ‘Milk Fed’ we have:Īnd I’m sure there are even more that I didn’t pick up on. It’s a novel about love, desire, hunger, longing, both physical and spiritual.īefore I get any further in this and you go off to get yourself a copy, you need to know about the slew of trigger warnings for this book as it had an effect on me in lots of ways and aside from my previous knowledge of Broder’s writing, there was no hint at the triggers between the pages. She’s immediately captivated by Miriam, and Miriam is equally captivated in her attempts to feed up Rachel and bring her back into the fold of her religion. She’s a lapsed Jew, obsessed with calorie counting and not getting fat, has serious mummy issues and she’s falling in love with Miriam, an Orthodox Jewish woman who has just started manning the counter at her favourite frozen yoghurt place. ‘Milk Fed’ is about twenty four year old Rachel.
I came away with some really conflicting feelings about it. That meant that as soon as ‘Milk Fed’ was announced, I knew I needed to give it a whirl. I read Melissa Broder’s bizarre, sensual, visceral first novel way back in 2019 as I was working my way through the Women’s Prize longlist, and it was one of my most favourite and memorable novels of the year.
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