Review: Milk Teeth

Milk Teeth by Jessica Andrews

Goodreads/Amazon

From the author of the award-winning Saltwater comes a beautifully told love story set across England, France and Spain.

A girl grows up in the north of England amid scarcity, precarity and the toxic culture of heroin chic, believing that she needs to make herself smaller to claim presence in the world.

Years later, as a young woman with unattainable ideals, she meets someone who calls everything into question, and is forced to confront episodes from her past. Their relationship takes her from London to Barcelona and the precipice of a new life, full of sensuality. Yet she still feels an uneasiness. In the sticky Mediterranean heat, among tropical plants and secluded beaches, she must decide what form her adult life should take and learn how to feel deserving of love and care.

This book was not my cup of tea, but I am glad I read it. Milk Teeth is viscerally vivid, sometimes wonderfully strange, and gives a sharp insight into the trials of an eating disorder. 

First of all, the writing is creative, alive, and unique, but sometimes a little too forced and confusing. Occasionally, Andrews' prose can be overly decorated with non-sensical metaphors in a way that distracts from the central story. Moreover, the beginning and conclusion of the novel are the weakest parts as Andrews struggles to start or end her story coherently. I found the middle section to be the most engaging and thought out. 

The strongest point of the novel is focused on the narrator's disordered eating. Andrews very perceptively crafts the protagonists dangerous relationship with food with particular nuance paid to the pull between desire and self-denial. Her metaphors in the sections about food are more apt and alluring. Moreover, scenes of Barcelona, London, and Paris are very well done. I really felt transported to the different city settings. 

The weakest point of the novel is the romance and the love interest. I believe the novel would be stronger if the protagonist did not end up with her romantic interest in the end. Their relationship is unbelievable and portrayed as an unhealthy co-dependancy. This is where the flowery writing fails Andrews. Moreover, the two parties end up hurting each other more than helping and healing one another. To reiterate my earlier point, the novel would have been improved if the central relationship in the novel was between the protagonist and food. 

The abrupt conclusion and the non-cohesiveness of the structure left me particularly unsatisfied in the end, especially as I was growing more invested in the protagonist's fate and then left wanting. However, I do believe there is something poetic about a book leaving the reader wanting more in a story about the pulls of desire and indulgence. 

Overall, Milk Teeth was a sensory experience. While it struggled in areas, I really did find myself impressed by certain passages and the nuance with which Andrews explores the dangers of disordered eating.