Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang

14 reviews

athenas99's review against another edition

reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The best parts of this book were the lovely prose, the sensual, complex relationship between the two main characters and the narrator’s meditations on what it means to be an Asian woman in predominately white male spaces. The masterful incorporation of food and taste as kind of secondary characters in the novel was also a highlight. However, despite a very interesting premise, the book was extremely boring. Pretty much everything that’s really interesting - animal de-extinction, negotiations with investors, climate collapse- happens off the page. You spend most of the novel trapped in the narrator’s mind, and it gets repetitive in there. Also, although the writing itself was lovey, due to the narrator’s interiority, I often found myself annoyed by all the metaphor and florid language. There were many moments where I wished the author would just write plainly. Now,  I don’t mind a slow pace if there’s payoff and there is a surprise of sorts at the very end, but it didn’t feel earned at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

oz2021's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Child death and Car accident

rei_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Physical abuse, Racism, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, and Alcohol

Minor: Car accident

mxhcat's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Classism

Moderate: Eating disorder and Toxic relationship

trin's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

A book about food that is unappetizing; a book about how rich people are terrible that is somehow unconvincing, even though that seems like the biggest layup imaginable. This was not for me. I found the prose pretentious -- very capital-L Literary in an unearned way -- and the characters thin and unbelievable. The protagonist is not terribly competent and makes insane, out-of-left-field decisions, as dictated by the achingly slow plot. I appreciate some of what Zhang was trying to say, especially about the experience of being an Asian woman, but it was buried under what felt like an extended version of that scene from Succession where Tom and Greg eat ortolan, except less entertaining, or effectively satire. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Physical abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

shubka's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This dystopic future seems all to real & plausible- which made it difficult to read at times. The food & cooking imagery is what kept me reading as the story unfolded slowly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Classism

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

jayisreading's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

3.75

I really enjoyed Zhang’s debut novel, so I entered Land of Milk and Honey with relatively high expectations. Much like How Much of These Hills Is Gold, Zhang delivered exquisite lyricism and a distinct writing style that will be hit-or-misses for readers. She also presented some really interesting themes in Land of Milk and Honey—especially in relation to a dystopian world—which was a variety that included beauty, social class, pleasure, and climate change. I will say, though, that the themes were not overtly stated and might require the reader to tease them out, which could be frustrating given the prose. I also thought it would have been nice if Zhang had stuck with fewer themes to explore in-depth as opposed to the multiple that she seemed to have wanted to discuss.

I think Land of Milk and Honey fell flat for me because I wasn’t entirely invested in either the story or the characters. Regarding the story, there certainly was a plot, but it was a very slippery one to grasp that resulted in me losing interest over time. As for the characters and their relationships with one another, they were interesting enough, but I didn’t think they were particularly memorable. With all this said, I will say that I think I may have picked this book up at the wrong time and just wasn’t in the right headspace for it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Racism, Violence, and Classism

Moderate: Eating disorder, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Drug use, Car accident, and Alcohol

alleahwebb's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

scifi_rat's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

lorenag5's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Classism, and Deportation