REVIEW: ‘Milk Fed’ by Melissa Broder (fat and infatuation)
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. That meant that as soon as ‘Milk Fed’ was announced, I knew I needed to give it a whirl.
I came away with some really conflicting feelings about it.
‘Milk Fed’ is about twenty four year old Rachel. 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.
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.
It’s a novel about love, desire, hunger, longing, both physical and spiritual.
Before 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. In ‘Milk Fed’ we have:
Disorded eating
Calorie counting
Calorie restriction
Fatphobia
Lesbophobia
Body shaming
Emotional abuse
And I’m sure there are even more that I didn’t pick up on. Please do your research with this one. Storygraph has a element where content warnings can be provided as part of reviews and all of those are listed attached to the book.
As I said earlier, I have super mixed feelings about ‘Milk Fed’.
Some things I loved:
Melissa Broder’s writing is stark, brutal, and emotional, while also being really sensual. And the sexy is absolutely there in this book, even if it was a bit uncomfortable in those scenes due to Rachel’s reoccupations.
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. 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.
The way it examined queer desire, particularly repressed queer desire. 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.
Some things I didn’t:
Religion. 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. It immediately puts me off, especially when it’s such a central feature of a novel.
It didn’t feel like a satisfying read. The resolution, if you can call it that, disappointed me and I just wanted more for the characters, though I understand that it was a very realistic, real life ending. I guess I always just hope for a more in fiction.
I ended up giving ‘Milk Fed’ 3 stars, and I’ll definitely continue to read Melissa Broder as I love her writing and the way she pushes the envelope, I just don’t think this was the book for me.
If you’re curious to read it yourself, the paperback publishes in the UK today! If you wanted to give a little something back to us and to independent bookshops, you can use our affiliate bookshop.org link below.
Have you read ‘Milk Fed’ or ‘The Pisces’? I’d love to know your thoughts!
Written by Sophie
