Milk Fed

Yes, that’s a tig old bitty on the front. Not a donut. 🤦🏼‍♀️This is the February pick for our #spinesandwines bookclub and I can already tell our zoom discussion is going to be GOOD.Our main character, Rachel has got some serious mom issues and because of this she engages in severely disordered eating. While visiting a froyo place to get a teeny tiny low-cal snack, she meets a worker there named Miriam who is gorgeous, plus-size, and completely comfortable in her own skin. Once Miriam makes a custom froyo sundae for Rachel, everything starts to change.Whew y’all, this book! So much to unpack. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so thoroughly lodged in a character’s head before. Broder gives Rachel to us, warts and all. My heart would hurt so hard for her while simultaneously cringing at her internal dialogue. The language in this book is so luscious and sensual and intimate and where’s my thesaurus? Broder can make me so physically uncomfortable and I love that.Once they become closer, Miriam introduces Rachel to finding pleasure through food instead of restricting it. The more food Rachel consumes, the greater her sexual desire grows and vice versa. By the end she doesn’t have the healthiest relationship with either. Also, you will straight up need a church fan for several amorous scenes in this book.As someone who has a heightened radar for fat-phobic/fetish-y talk, this book definitely made me uncomfortable at times. I’ve seen several reviews praising the book for celebrating diverse body types, but at times it seems like Rachel fetishes bigger bodies. So heads up - if you have issues around eating, body image, dysmorphia, etc. there are some major triggers.I enjoyed all the different dichotomies in this book too: restricted eating and bingeing, atheism and Judaism, withholding attention and showering affection, judgment and accepting. You can get whiplash quick from them.This book isn’t for everyone, but it’s def one that’ll get stuck in your head.

Not sure how this book has so many great 5 star reviews. The first few chapters were good, unfortunately those first few chapters were also the next 20 with the repetitive theme. This is how the whole book is... insanely repetitive. There's really no "story", just a girl with some issues that the author repeats I'd imagine to fill some pages to get published. Seriously...how many chapters do you need about attending shabbat and a sleep over? I finally gave up and put this in my donation pile.

But this book was not. I reread other's reviews to gain some perspective, but I do not agree with them. The book tries too hard. I kept reading, thinking it would get funnier or more meaningful, to no avail.

My husband bought me this after reading about it. I started it yesterday and my plans for the day got scrapped when I couldn't put it down and finished it in one sitting. Truly superior writing with depth and dimension.

Wowzers. Definitely not a book for everyone….It’s like an erotic trip to the frozen yogurt shop. Full of very detailed lesbian trysts. I loved the book though and read it in a day. I could relate to the character and her disordered eating, as a lot of what she detailed were things I also did when I was deep in the throes of anorexia. And for some reason all I did was crave fro yo the entire time reading this book 🤣