Milk Fed

By: Melissa Broder

Narrated by: Melissa Broder

Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Named a Best Book of the Year by Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, Time, Esquire, BookPage, and more

This darkly hilarious and “delicious new novel that ravishes with sex and food” (The Boston Globe) from the acclaimed author of The Pisces and So Sad Today is a “precise blend of desire, discomfort, spirituality, and existential ache” (BuzzFeed).

Rachel is 24, a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. By day, she maintains an illusion of existential control through obsessive food rituals while working as an underling at a Los Angeles talent management agency. At night, she pedals to nowhere on the elliptical machine. Rachel is content to carry on subsisting - until her therapist encourages her to take a 90-day communication detox from her mother, who raised her in the tradition of calorie counting.

Rachel soon meets Miriam, a zaftig young Orthodox Jewish woman who works at her favorite frozen yogurt shop and is intent upon feeding her. Rachel is suddenly and powerfully entranced by Miriam - by her sundaes and her body, her faith and her family - and as the two grow closer, Rachel embarks on a journey marked by mirrors, mysticism, mothers, milk, and honey.

“A ruthless, laugh-out-loud examination of life under the tyranny of diet culture” (Glamour) Broder tells a tale of appetites: physical hunger, sexual desire, spiritual longing, and the ways that we compartmentalize these so often interdependent instincts. Milk Fed is “riotously funny and perfectly profane” (Refinery 29) from “a wild, wicked mind” (Los Angeles Times).

©2021 Melissa Broder. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Funny and uncomfortable

This book had me blushing, shouting “oh my god,” and laughing. I still don’t know exactly how I feel about it, but I think it’s worth reading.

Never related more to a novel. Listen to it immediately!

This book was filled w relatable jewish mother/ daughter dynamics. The main character Rachel is quick witted, funny & you are cheering for her throughout. This book made me think of so many women in my life & myself. I can’t wait to read everything else Melissa Broder has written. May we all learn to be our own daughters. I can’t recommend this more. If you have an eating disorder some parts may trigger you. But you can feel the author’s intent that we all deserve to love ourselves & each other’s bodies.

Gives me the 'Ick" in every chapter

I'm sooooo close to finishing this book but it feels agonizing to get through. Zero substance- It's exclusively filled with eating disorder fetishizing and detailed accounts of erotic (yet cringey) sapphic encounters and fantasies read dryly and flatly. If they were done well then I'd tolerate the rest of the book but MY GOD If I hear her say "the smell of her Pu$sy", in the most inanimate tone mind you, one more time I might vomit.

Additionally, the way she speaks about her eating disorder is as if she worships it even still and wants you to worship it too. The graphic detailing of her purging, restricting and binging is painfully over the top and feels like it drags on for eons. It's almost nauseating.

Lastly, her metaphoric depictions such as, "I sucked on her lip as if it were a piece of liver she was feeding me." or, when describing the webbing between her crush's fingers..."...that flower opening of hers- that sweet little hole [between her fingers]..." are so offputting. Girl, WHAT. So many more examples. So much cringe.

I'm far from a prude, identify as LGBT, have experience with ED's myself and have never rated a book one star in my life so my doing so genuinely says something.

Shocking, sexy, and real

It’s not a self help book- it’s a real experience that you can process and be able to relate to your own.

I'm fed.

I liked how realistic the descriptions were on woman's bodies/smells/tastes, the personal struggles of ( the author herself I'm assuming) and the explanations of the religious undertones in this book. Definatlely didn't sugarcoat which I appreciate. There was so very personal things that were discussed in this book so kudos to the author for being so transparent. Overall great book. Kept me listening atleast.

Very sexual

It was a good story! All about a period in the authors life and focuses a lot on her food struggles and relationships with lovers. It is pretty graphic in descriptions so definitely for older audiences.

Graphic and beautiful

This novel is graphic in it’s descriptiveness, unflinchingly honest, and still somehow very soft. Rachel is a true anti hero who’s journey to self love and self tolerance I was immediately and deeply invested in

Loved the story!

I loved the story but honestly I don't like how it ended. Too quick for my taste. I still have a lot of questions. It was still a great read!

Story of a sad lost woman

I found this book disturbing and sad. At odds with her body, her mother, her sexuality, her Judaism, herself in search of meaning and finding it through rather convoluted sexual fantasy. I stuck with it, not sure why. Would not recommend though.

Just Fine

Was not as entertaining as The Pisces. And the calorie counting was triggering. She has mastered the ennui voice of the White Girl Angeleno. But I just had been hoping for more fun in this story.