Reviews with content warning for Racism - Land of Milk and Honey

This book was absolutely seductive; the perfect mix of fantasy and reality. The writing felt muddy at times during scenes of tension, but was beautifully descriptive everywhere else. Zhang seamlessly weaves themes of race, poverty, environmentalism and Scientology with queerness, feminism and sexuality.

Content Warnings

kaiyakaiyo's review

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dark emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

a bit literary for my personal tastes; i expected this to be stranger and more speculative than it was. i also don’t love time skips; the last 50 pages felt like watching a movie with the second speed of fast forward on.

that being said, i liked this! at risk of sounding silly, i like books about girlfailure, bc lowkey i feel like im in a low point in life and like reading about other people waiting for their next upswing. the chef mc is at a really low point and only a brush with insane rich people can snap her out of it. also her emotional support cat is so real.

im being goofy but truly i felt so much of her hopelessness, lack of luster, lack of drive. she let that dark cloud (literally and figuratively) push her into a place where her living was carved out solely at the expense of others, the exclusion of others, and became more miserable as a result. reconnecting with humanity both at a grand level and individually gave her what she needed, and sometimes that’s the exact push i need: to go outside and share an aisle with people at tj maxx. to go out for drinks when im tired. feeling less like an individual and more like a community, a true community, really does bring the color back into life, and that was beautifully rendered in this book.

the descriptions of food are lovely, though if you are as uneducated as i am, have a dictionary out lol. the prose is crisp but not overly so, and the descriptions are sensory in just the right way for a book based on pleasure and joyfinding. thank you to my local bookstore for a quick 2nd read of the year

Content Warnings

booksandabackpack's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

Content Warnings

ieatbooks_'s review against another edition

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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? Yes

2.25

I was excited going into this cause I thought it was a pretty interesting premise, but I found it very disappointing. It feels like it’s building towards a theme or message, but the experiences of the main character are never meaningfully dissected, or reflected upon. The ending is especially bad, but overall, it’s just messy.

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