Mini Review: Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

My Rating: 3/5 TARDISes

Series: Standalone

Date Published: November 4^th, 2014

Publisher: Createspace

Pages: 204 pages

Source: Library

Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Synopsis: Milk and Honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. It is about the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. It is split into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose, deals with a different pain, heals a different heartache. milk and honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.

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This is a spoiler-free review.

Milk and Honey is a collection that has me finding difficulty in pinpointing my feelings about it. I think part of this is due to the hype surrounding this collection—it didn’t quite live up to my expectations based on reviews I had seen floating about. However, it was far from disappointing at the same time, leaving me feeling a bit lukewarm about it as a whole. These poems started out very strong and immediately captivated me. Kaur’s writing style was beautiful and poignant, and she displayed quite a bit of candor throughout. I definitely felt the most connection to and impact from the opening sections.

However, the strong start did not last until the end of the work. For me, I began to like each part less and less, and this caused me to become quite detached from the poems by the end of the collection. I think this is where I began to feel a decrease in the fluidity of the writing as well—some parts came across as a bit jumbled and choppy. Though her intended message retained its power, the disjointedness was a bit off-putting. Nevertheless, I can see why Kaur’s writing has touched so many people’s lives.

These poems display a lot of bravery and boldness—they unflinchingly tackle tough yet important topics. Journeying deep into the core of humanity, Kaur delves into dark topics in a very heartfelt way. Though it fell a little bit flat for me in the end, I truly do appreciate the beauty in her words and the impact of the messages she is conveying to the reader. Overall, I would definitely recommend giving this collection a try, and see if and how it speaks to you.