I expected to really like this book, but I was disappointed in it. A novel about a weight obsessed Jewish girl with mother problems and sexual identity issues should have been very engaging for me, Milk Fed never did it for me.

I liked the start of the book, but as it went on, there was nothing I could relate to. I found so much of it repetitive and boring.

So, despite my high hopes for a fun read, I found myself unable to enjoy the book.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

‘Milk Fed’ won’t be a book for everyone... but I absolutely adored it. I read it in one sitting - not stopping to pee or make tea.

The dialogue was fresh, in your face bold, smart & savvy. Given that Rachel, our protagonist had an eating disorder, I shouldn’t have liked this book at all.... (our daughter was hospitalized five times battling anorexic) ....
so I tend to stay away from the topic today. ( our daughter has been recovered for many years)....

But I loved ‘Milk Fed’.... I laughed ... enjoyed the very crisp writing ...
and well just about everything about it.

I’m sure readers will find fault - roll their eyes- say ‘ooo’ to themselves in parts ... but not me.
Well...it’s raining here today in California-so I may skip my morning walk to sit on our spinnaker stationary bike...
and I ‘might’ say ‘ooo’ when I sit on the bike today ...
given a ‘bike’ description in
Melissa Broder’s book....
or... I’ll probably just giggle to
myself.

Rachel had just been chosen by a low-trafficked entertainment blog as one of 25 young female comics to watch.
When she texted her mother, she wrote, “how did they find you?”

Rachel wasn’t expecting fanfare from her mother, but she thought she would at least be a little bit proud.
Rachel‘s therapist said she should expect nothing.
“It was a phrase you’d associate with a person who didn’t need anything from anyone; a closed system, an automaton. Rachel wanted to be that person.
So, Rachel sent her mother a text saying....
“Hi. I will not be reachable for the next 90 days. Thank you”.
I wondered to myself how big that was going to go over.
Rachel’s mother wrote back immediately: “What are you talking about?”
“Sorry, I replied. Unavailable”.
Then she called.
“I’m detoxing, I said”.
“What do you mean, detoxing?”
“From our relationship, I said it’s emotionally unsafe”.
“What do you mean, emotionally unsafe?”

“This is the thing about boundaries: they made sense in therapy, but when you tried to implement them in the real world, people had no idea what you were talking about”.

From beginning her college career as a theater major at the University of Wisconsin, Rachel, ( not liking theater people), she began her open mic stand up comedy.
After school she moved to Los Angeles where her first job was waitressing at a vegan diner. She learned that she was a terrible waitress and she didn’t have the energy to stand on your feet all day.

Rachel had food rituals to keep herself skinny.
She was also on day 3 of ‘mom-detoxification’.... feeling rather proud of herself.....
ha,
texting her mom in her head…hearing her mothers invisible text words back.

A favorite line:
“I wondered whether there was a deadline for when a person had to finally stop blaming her mother for her own thoughts”.

My goodness- there were so many little things I loved about this book ..
Here’s a rundown of the puzzle pieces ....( you’ll have to put the puzzle pieces together yourself if you read the book);

...Yo!Good frozen yogurt....
...Orthodox boy....
...Zaftig girl...
...Looking both Jewish and not Jewish at the same time....
...Dr. Mahjoub
...Sugar-free, fat free...
...Hunger deprived....
...sprinkles...
...Permission to eat everything in a day...(24 hours of limitless consumption)...
...Savory to break up the other the sweets...
...Mom...
...Dad...
...Jewish voodoo doll/monster: a golem...
...bisexual, lesbian... preferred masturbation to having sex with men...
...”This Show Sucks”...
Ofer...
Ana...
...Miriam Schwebel...
...Jace ( Jason Blagojevich)
... sexual fantasies...
...hand holding...
...sex...
... change chewing nicotine gum...
...a party with drunk Chassidic men...
...food... lots of variety of food...
...Twizzlers are kosher...
...Shabbos dinner...
... girlfriends...
... squirrels and chipmunks...
...gym workouts...
...movies...
...weight gain...
...kissing...
...therapy...
...Rachel...
...love

“Rachel‘s mother ate shrimp, ignored Shabbat and hadn’t been in a synagogue since Rachele‘s bat mitzvah. She referred to Orthodox Jews as:
“Oy, those people” ....

“Oy, this book”.....
Outlandishly-enjoyable!!!

Thank you Netgalley, Scriber, and Melissa Broder ( you rock and I’ll read your other books I missed)

This was my first Melissa Broder read. I was very captivated by Melissa’s writing style which captures very realistic emotions and feelings of her characters and language was very simple and not convoluted. I have not read her highly raved book, ‘Pisces’ to compare to, but I really liked her story telling!

This book is about 24 year old Rachel, who is very obsessed with not gaining weight, to the extent that her daily intake of food is same. Rachel is also the type of person who is looking to find love and acceptance in the society. Her monologues were amazingly smooth and funny...I found the story very witty and humorous!! There were some parts of the story about her obsession with a certain person that I did not enjoy at all. But overall this was a quick, fun, humorous read for me!!

Thank you #netgalley,, #scribner & #melissabroder for a gifted copy in exchange of my honest review!

Relationships form the main theme of this novel. I've not read anything by Melissa Broder before. While her writing is excellent, the story moved outside of my comfort zone. To its credit, I read the entire novel, but more for obligation than for pleasure. Sometimes a book and its reader do not mesh. This was one of those for me.

📕If you count your calories like you are counting sheep when you are trying to sleep, you are gonna have a veryyy bad time. Not that deficiency will affect your physical health, it’s gonna hit your mental health. You are going to look for ways to get you out of the vicious cycle of extreme calorie intake control and 3 hours of cycling unconsciously
-
📗Rachel hit that point once she stopped communicating with all her enablers, which made her prone to let go of her crazy diet but also opened her eyes to her loneliness and unanswered desires. Food replaced sex, then sex replaced food. Then they started to complement each other. She started to dream of losing herself in bodies that she avoided turning into and these dreams turned into reality when Miriam entered the picture
-
📘At the end, religion, faith, sex, food, self realization and traumas rolled into one to remind Rachel who she was and what was missing in her life. Funny, little raw (but good raw) and bit of heartbreaking tale of self discovery! Thanks @scribner and @netgalley for the ARC!

This review will be released on my instagram account on 2/2/2021

I loved The Pisces, and this book very much carries on with Broder's incisive writing style and disconcerting tone, so I was probably destined to love this one. We have here another difficult woman, but facing a completely different set of challenges, and unfortunately, no mermen.

I found Broder's protagonist in this story more sympathetic and less delusioned about her circumstances. What is so interesting is that while she appears absolutely stalwart in her routines and hyper-controlled eating habits, you can see the healthier ideas from the women around her seeping in as Rachel begins to see herself as someone worthy of her own love.

In an attempt to read outside of my comfort zone, I decided to check out Milk Fed. I had never read anything by Melissa Broder so I was unsure as to what I was going to find. Overall, I am glad that I read this book, even if it is not an instant favorite for me. This was a challenging read, partly because the topics covered were challenging and partly because it was just a tad too Freudian for my taste. I felt that this novel was the strongest when it dealt with Rachel’s eating disorder and her sexuality. The very raw representation of body dysmorphia and the struggles that these individuals face was expertly demonstrated across the pages of this book. Additionally, I really enjoyed the sassy and quirky writing style of the novel, even if at times the writing was crude but necessary. I even enjoyed the hints of innocence in the romance with Miriam; however, I struggled a bit with the way that Rachel sometimes objectified people and at times even ventured into fetishizing Miriam for her obesity. While I think this might have been meant as a commentary on the constant objectification of women that is widely accepted in our society, it made me uncomfortable. Granted, I may have to sit with these feelings a bit more to explore the source of the discomfort. Ultimately, I think my struggle boiled down to my inability to connect with the protagonist. She was on a path to growth and self-discovery that was beautiful and necessary but at times she made decisions that trampled others with little regard for their wishes and feelings and this caused me to feel at odds with her. Overall, I think this is a solid story (3.5 stars) and I do recommend people read it. The story touches on a lot of important topics like mental health, healthy boundaries, sexuality, and religion…and I think a lot of people can benefit from reading more stories with flawed characters even if they don’t walk away loving them.

*I would like to thank Netgalley and the publishers for a free copy of Milk Fed, which I received for free in return for an honest review.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest novel by Melissa Broder. 3 stars with lots of trigger warnings about eating disorders.

Rachel is a young, lapsed Jew with an eating disorder who constantly seeks out mother figures to fill a void. From an early age, Rachel's mother promoted calorie counting and thinness as a goal. Rachel's therapist suggests a 90-day detox from communicating with her mother in order to help her heal. At her favorite frozen yogurt shop, Rachel meets Miriam, an Orthodox Jew who loves to eat and loves to feed people, including Rachel. Rachel loves who she becomes when she is with Miriam, throwing calorie counting aside and embracing a new relationship with food and her body. The two enter into a secret relationship together because Miriam's family would disown her otherwise.

I will preface this review by stating that I'm sure I'm not the target audience for this book. There were parts of this book I loved - Rachel is very relatable to so many women who count calories eaten and expended, who tie their weight to their self-esteem. I loved seeing the progression of Rachel, growing into a healthy relationship with food and her body as well as in her relationships with those around her. What I didn't love so much were the repetitive dream sequences and very erotic sex scenes.

I loved this book, as I was expecting to since I also loved The Pisces. I loved how Broder explored body dysmorphia, God and female desire through the main character Rachel. The writing was excellent — thoughtful, humorous and made me really think about my own feelings and experiences on the subjects. Rachel’s relationship with Miriam is something I could not get enough of. Female desire is still a fairly taboo subject but perhaps my favorite of all. Also I generally enjoy explicit content but Broder’s sex scenes are some of the best - sexy in a weird way, realistic. I will be ordering a physical copy of this book!

Milk Fed came across my reading radar this pat fall and after reading the book synopsis I was intrigued. I ended up having mixed feelings about this novel as a whole but I think some of that just came from my mood while reading it. The dialogue and situations were relatable and the chracters were fleshed out and multiafacted which I love in a fiction book.

The writing was smart and the queer romanace premise was so well done. Where I struggled was that it has so much going on (as well as includings dreams, symbolism, etc) that some of the powerful moments (gowth and self acceptance and figuring out what you want in love and life) got a little lost for me. This was my first book by author Melissa Broder and I know many readers who are big fans of her writing style, it just felt a little all over the place for me. 3.5 stars.

I appreciate having had the opportunity to read Milk Fed and I am very much looking forward to seeing other readers reactions when it is published next month. Thank you to Scribner Books for my advanced copy. As always, all thoughts and opinion are my own.

I read the author’s previous book, The Pisces in 2019. I thoroughly enjoyed that book and was excited to read her latest release, Milk Fed. One thing is certain, Broder knows how to write characters who are seemingly self-absorbed and dealing with mental issues. She does this with a whit that has you chuckling at some points throughout the story.

This novel focuses on Rachel, a non-practicing Jew who is in therapy for eating disorders and develops a relationship with a practicing Jew. The dialogue and situations in the book are believable and entertaining. The book is an easy read and could be consumed easily in one afternoon.

I was given the opportunity to review an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley.

From the unapologetically dark Melissa Broder, poet and author of the essay collection (and Twitter account) So Sad Today and sexy, splashy fish man romance The Pisces comes this story of eating-disordered lapsed Jew Rachel, whose whole calorie-counting ethos comes crumbling down when she falls in love with the young and deliciously Rubenesque Orthodox woman, Miriam, who pops up one day behind the counter at her favorite fro-yo place. Together Rachel and Miriam feast on hot fudge and whipped cream, clove cigarettes, kosher Chinese food, black-and-white movies—and each other. But with Rachel’s dependence on her frosty, enabling mother and Miriam’s devotion above all to her family and faith, is theirs a relationship that can last? Or perhaps more importantly, one that can draw Rachel out of her doom spiral? Be warned that the writing about Rachel’s eating disorder here is harrowing—I’d expect nothing less, though, from the up-front Broder. A read for Ottessa Moshfegh devotees.

I may be one of the few people who did not read The Pisces before reading Milk Fed, so I experienced Broder's writing for the first time in reading this novel. Rachel, a Reform Jew who struggles with an eating disorder, lives in Los Angeles and works for a talent agency. In the midst of "detoxing" from her mother, she meets Miriam, and Orthodox Jew heiress to a froyo shop. Miriam is fat, and that is almost fetishized by Rachel throughout the novel. They become friends and start hooking up and eating together. Rachel begins to eat nonstop throughout the novel, relearning to love food the way she used to before the words of her mother instilled in her the process of being less.

I struggled with an eating disorder in my late teens and early twenties. I still live with disordered thoughts around eating and my weight. So, at first, Milk Fed was both triggering and relatable. I really thought, "This book gets me." But then as the novel progresses, the depiction of Rachel's eating disorder becomes a caricature. That is my least favorite part of the book.

Onto the positive, though; the queer romance is good. The junction between religion and being queer and choosing between one or the other is addressed beautifully. The writing is well-done. There is a LOT of sex and sexually explicit thoughts. At times, I felt like I was reading a smut novel! But all in all, Milk Fed was good. It spoke to me in a lot of ways, and I suspect it will speak to a lot of queer women, women with eating disorders, women with mothers.

Thank you to NetGalley, Melissa Broder, and Scribner for allowing me to read this as an advanced reader copy.

📚 Whew, this is one of those books that's hard to read and yet impossible to put down.
📚 I feel like I could spend forever unpacking the many layers of power and control and submission in this book and all the ways we encounter those forces - food, family, sex, religion, and more.
📚 Okay, I really thought I could write a coherent review for this book but I can't. It's strange and wonderful, dreamlike and horribly realistic, beautiful and gross, comforting and terrifying. I can't wait to read more of Broder's work.
•
Content warnings: biphobia, body shaming, eating disorder, emotional abuse, fatphobia, homophobia, religious bigotry, and self harm.

CW: fatphobia, eating disorders, toxic relationships, body dysmorphia

Honestly I struggled with Milk Fed and was unable to finish it. I myself struggled with weight as a teen and it brought back a lot of those memories and feelings I thought I had dealt with.
Broder writes characters that are unlikeable and obviously going through some tough stuff, and honestly I do love that. But between the obsession Rachel had with Miriam’s fat body and the way she used people to find the love her mother had never given her, I just couldn’t continue on. I will say the writing was brilliant though, and this is definitely an intriguing read.

CW: disordered eating, depression, erotic content.

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis (own words): Rachel, the main character, is a bisexual woman infatuated with food. She counts every calorie, burns every calorie with rigorous exercise, and has a dysfunctional relationship with her mom and religion. Milk Fed is contemporary fiction in which Rachel develops an infatuation with an Orthodox Jewish women, Miriam, who is the opposite of Rachel. Miriam eats in excess, doesn't obsess over calories, and doesn't have a known eating disorder. Rachel finds comfort in the appearance of Miriam, a woman living in a larger body and seemingly loving herself. Miriam and Rachel both battle with their friendship, sexuality, and religion.

I thoroughly enjoyed this erotic, queer, and often hilarious read. This is the first Broder novel I've read and admittedly I blushed through most of it. Milk Fed covers various topics such as: sex, religion, unhealthy relationships with food, and bisexuality. More of author Broder novels include: The Pisces, So Sad Today, Last Sext, and Superdoom.

Melissa Broder's Milk Fed is a tightly plotted novel exploring the life of Rebecca, a twenty-four year old woman working a low level entertainment job in LA while battling an eating disorder. The eating disorder aspect is executed perfectly--focusing on the internal control and rituals that accompany it. As Rebecca grows, her need for control subside and she transitions to healthier eating habits but remains unhealthy in her relationships.

I love recommending books that go past the traditional "coming out narrative." Rebecca is kind of out and Miriam makes it clear that she never plans on coming out. "Coming out" is never a discussion. Rebecca is certainly gaining confidence in her sexuality and discusses the complexities of being into women, but it never feels like this is the novels sole purpose.

Broder explores themes of control, religion, isolation, trust, body image, and consumption in a way that feels new and different from any contemporary novel. I loved every second of this novel and can't wait to recommend it to readers!

Wow. I hadn't really read the description of this book-- I read Melissa Broder's The Pisces, which made me want to read Milk Fed. The Pisces was fun, a little weird, but Milk Fed absolutely blew it out of the water.

The passages where Rachel talks about her calories/eating disorder and the poor relationship she has with her mother and other mother figures really hit home for me, as I also have experienced some of the same issues. It really reminded me of My Year of Rest and Relaxation, where you're kind of just walking through this person's life and nothing Big is happening, but by the end you're shocked about all the things you learned and the message. Absolutely loved it, will recommend, 4-4.5/5 stars from me.

This is a truly, uniquely bold book that addresses the topics of body dysmorphia, desire, and religion like no book has before. Not only are there entire pages dedicated to Rachel’s obsessive food intake & rituals, but there are also graphic sex scenes that might be too excessive for the tame at heart. The image on the cover will definitely get you some looks your way when reading this in public. Rachel has vivid, often sexually bizarre dreams that made me uncomfortable a few times. She’s a flawed protagonist, but so much of what she experiences or thinks is relatable. ⁣
I do wish the ending would have had a bit more substance to it. It ended abruptly, and I was hoping for more resolution regarding Rachel, Miriam, and Rachel’s relationship with her mother. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed this book and will be seeking out the author’s previous works. ⁣

Like the sun to The Pisces’ moon! I did not expect to devour this like I did, but it’s so delightfully readable. Really smart and entertaining - and also provided me with a perfect epithet for my tombstone (“probably someone who genuinely enjoyed a nice pear”) - but this is maybe one of the most abrupt endings I’ve ever read? Still, overall a very juicy read and a welcome distraction.