What do you think?
Rate this book
Milk, Bread, Teeth
Not yet published
Expected 19 Jan 27Milk, Bread, Teeth, Amy Twigg’s electrifying new novel, is a work of literary body horror in the vein of Nightbitch and Milk Fed, with the dark social critique of The Substance.
Lena’s body is no longer her own. It is occupied by a growing appetite, a hunger that demands to be fed. From inside her luxury apartment, Lena tries to appease it by gorging herself, day and night. Whole loaves of bread, protein shakes—tins of cat food if all else fails.
When Joan, an actress on the cusp of stardom, moves into the apartment above, Lena is quick to make friends. She soon finds herself in Joan’s orbit, enjoying the trappings of wealth and privilege, the kind she has always pined for. But with the hunger demanding more and more, Lena’s carefully constructed image of herself starts to unravel. And as her appetite veers into the inedible, she must fight to remember who she is.
Milk, Bread, Teeth is an unflinching exploration of invisible illness, a deliciously eerie and transgressive tale that draws the reader into a frenzy of insatiable desire and consumption.
Lena’s body is no longer her own. It is occupied by a growing appetite, a hunger that demands to be fed. From inside her luxury apartment, Lena tries to appease it by gorging herself, day and night. Whole loaves of bread, protein shakes—tins of cat food if all else fails.
When Joan, an actress on the cusp of stardom, moves into the apartment above, Lena is quick to make friends. She soon finds herself in Joan’s orbit, enjoying the trappings of wealth and privilege, the kind she has always pined for. But with the hunger demanding more and more, Lena’s carefully constructed image of herself starts to unravel. And as her appetite veers into the inedible, she must fight to remember who she is.
Milk, Bread, Teeth is an unflinching exploration of invisible illness, a deliciously eerie and transgressive tale that draws the reader into a frenzy of insatiable desire and consumption.
275 pages, Paperback
Expected publication January 19, 2027
About the author
Amy Twigg
2 books91 followersAmy Twigg is a writer, born and raised in Kent. Her debut novel Spoilt Creatures won the BPA Pitch Prize and was longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Competition. It was acquired by Tinder Press as one of their lead fiction titles, due to be published in June 2024.
In 2024 she was chosen as one of the Observer's Best New Novelists.
Amy lives in Surrey, England.
In 2024 she was chosen as one of the Observer's Best New Novelists.
Amy lives in Surrey, England.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
originally i was leaning more towards a 3.5/3.75 but now that i've had time to digest Milk, Bread, Teeth *ba dum tss*, i'm leaning more 3.25/3.5 so i'm rounding down for gr.
first of all, that ending? sooo satisfying & unhinged, which automatically bumped the rating of this up a bit. however, the longer i sit & think about the book as a whole, the more i realize it kind of did nothing for me. it's not a bad book, but i never really felt any excitement from it either? i honestly just needed MORE!
i think overall Milk, Bread, Teeth is well written & i never found myself struggling with the pacing, which is always a plus. if you're anything like me & love an unhinged, unlikable, or unreliable mc, you'll be happy to meet Lena who is all of those things.
i like the themes this touches on... medical misogyny, overconsumption, dissatisfaction & what we'd do to fit in, to name a few.
my biggest complaint is probably this being marketed as horror. in my humble opinion, this read more like weird girl lit fic with some horror elements here & there, which is fine! i do enjoy a good weird girl fic when i'm in the mood for it BUT because this is mainly being marketed as horror, i expected the horror elements to be a main focus vs. an afterthought.
i've seen a few people talk about the body horror this has to offer & if i'm being honest, i found it pretty boring for my personal taste. i recognize this is more than likely a me thing because i do consume A LOT of horror media, with body horror being a favorite trope/subgenre, so take that as you will. i think Amy Twigg could have really gone there considering what the story is about, but i understand heavy body horror/gore is not everyone's cup of tea.
i will say there was one part in particular that had me say, "oh, well surely that can't be good for Lena," that did scratch that itch of wanting more, but i don't really think it had a purpose other than being included for shock value? like, we didn't really need to go there to get the point across, if that makes sense.
i would have liked more depth when it came to the side characters. most of them felt flat, specifically Angie, like girl, what is your problem?
i think we could have spent more time touching on Caroline as a mom too
even though this didn't go in the direction i was hoping for, i will say it again: that ending was so satisfying, so i can't say i have any complaints there.
Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review
first of all, that ending? sooo satisfying & unhinged, which automatically bumped the rating of this up a bit. however, the longer i sit & think about the book as a whole, the more i realize it kind of did nothing for me. it's not a bad book, but i never really felt any excitement from it either? i honestly just needed MORE!
i think overall Milk, Bread, Teeth is well written & i never found myself struggling with the pacing, which is always a plus. if you're anything like me & love an unhinged, unlikable, or unreliable mc, you'll be happy to meet Lena who is all of those things.
i like the themes this touches on... medical misogyny, overconsumption, dissatisfaction & what we'd do to fit in, to name a few.
my biggest complaint is probably this being marketed as horror. in my humble opinion, this read more like weird girl lit fic with some horror elements here & there, which is fine! i do enjoy a good weird girl fic when i'm in the mood for it BUT because this is mainly being marketed as horror, i expected the horror elements to be a main focus vs. an afterthought.
i've seen a few people talk about the body horror this has to offer & if i'm being honest, i found it pretty boring for my personal taste. i recognize this is more than likely a me thing because i do consume A LOT of horror media, with body horror being a favorite trope/subgenre, so take that as you will. i think Amy Twigg could have really gone there considering what the story is about, but i understand heavy body horror/gore is not everyone's cup of tea.
i will say there was one part in particular that had me say, "oh, well surely that can't be good for Lena," that did scratch that itch of wanting more, but i don't really think it had a purpose other than being included for shock value? like, we didn't really need to go there to get the point across, if that makes sense.
i would have liked more depth when it came to the side characters. most of them felt flat, specifically Angie, like girl, what is your problem?
i think we could have spent more time touching on Caroline as a mom too
even though this didn't go in the direction i was hoping for, i will say it again: that ending was so satisfying, so i can't say i have any complaints there.
Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review
September 20, 2026
Wow this book was honestly disturbing (in the best way).
This is the horror at its best where the author does not rely on crazy twists or paranormal/unexplainable forces to put fear into the audience, but slowly most discomfort and dread until your skin is genuinely crawling.
This was hoenstly incredibly effective - I felt a guilty pleasure coming back to this book because I felt as though I was humouring this sick fascinating. It's the kind of sick guilty feeling one gets when you can't look away from a car crash.
The premise and protagonist were unique and whilst they were by no means likeable you were rooting for them to make the one decision that would actually help them; or finally go over the edge to something there was no coming back from.
Honestly, I did not see the ending - I'm sure I and many readers will have had the same ending in mind so I think it's remarkebly clever to take it in this other unexpected direction.
I would really recommend this if you're into horror - especially the kind that makes your skin crawl as opposed to make you check if your doors are locked - but please look up trigger warnings! I can only imagine there are a lot to cover.
This is the horror at its best where the author does not rely on crazy twists or paranormal/unexplainable forces to put fear into the audience, but slowly most discomfort and dread until your skin is genuinely crawling.
This was hoenstly incredibly effective - I felt a guilty pleasure coming back to this book because I felt as though I was humouring this sick fascinating. It's the kind of sick guilty feeling one gets when you can't look away from a car crash.
The premise and protagonist were unique and whilst they were by no means likeable you were rooting for them to make the one decision that would actually help them; or finally go over the edge to something there was no coming back from.
Honestly, I did not see the ending - I'm sure I and many readers will have had the same ending in mind so I think it's remarkebly clever to take it in this other unexpected direction.
I would really recommend this if you're into horror - especially the kind that makes your skin crawl as opposed to make you check if your doors are locked - but please look up trigger warnings! I can only imagine there are a lot to cover.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
MILK, BREAD, TEETH by Amy Twigg is a bizarre, unsettling, and deeply uncomfortable exploration of insatiable hunger, obsession, and the lengths we go to in order to feel fulfilled. Lena is the definition of an unlikable, unreliable protagonist, and watching her increasingly disturbing behavior spiral out of control was equal parts fascinating and repulsive. I loved the underlying social commentary on overconsumption, but I couldn't help feeling like I wanted more from the story. While the writing is strong and the pacing kept me turning pages, the plot felt a bit repetitive. This book is more weird girl lit mixed with body horror than full-blown horror, but I'm not mad about it. The book's final act is absolutely bonkers in the best way and delivers an ending that's deliciously unhinged which made the pay-off totally worth it. MILK, BREAD, TEETH is a compulsively readable and wonderfully strange book the left me disgusted yet entertained!
September 6, 2026
"The thing about loneliness isn’t so much about being alone but the endless possibilities it creates."
Okay, so I went into this completely blind. I knew that it was horror and that the end was insane, so that’s really all I needed to hear. I never needed to know anything else.
What we have here is something that made me sick to my stomach and put my anxiety at an all time high. I was on edge through the entirety of this book. Plus that end was one of the most unhinged things that I’ve ever read. I just wish the in-between was a lot better.
Now, this was very well written and the author knew how to add intensity to scenes that you didn’t know needed it. Parts were pure insanity, while others were typical everyday scenarios. Combined made this one crazy story where I never want to make friends ever again nor will I let anyone near my pets every again. I'm sick just thinking about certain things. Ugh!
'Milk, Bread, Teeth' was f**king WILD!!! If you can stomach this then go for it! Most of it was worth it. Otherwise, pop a xanax and chill.
I think this book has ruined me…
Okay, so I went into this completely blind. I knew that it was horror and that the end was insane, so that’s really all I needed to hear. I never needed to know anything else.
What we have here is something that made me sick to my stomach and put my anxiety at an all time high. I was on edge through the entirety of this book. Plus that end was one of the most unhinged things that I’ve ever read. I just wish the in-between was a lot better.
Now, this was very well written and the author knew how to add intensity to scenes that you didn’t know needed it. Parts were pure insanity, while others were typical everyday scenarios. Combined made this one crazy story where I never want to make friends ever again nor will I let anyone near my pets every again. I'm sick just thinking about certain things. Ugh!
'Milk, Bread, Teeth' was f**king WILD!!! If you can stomach this then go for it! Most of it was worth it. Otherwise, pop a xanax and chill.
I think this book has ruined me…
October 20, 2026
Haven’t been this consumed by a book in a while! This is exactly the kind of book I love. Unhinged, disgusting, and obsessive. Reminded me a lot of the movie May and The Substance. Thanks so much to the publisher for my review copy!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
It's not often a book leaves me speechless, but I'm sitting here after just finishing this and all I can think is, "What the hell did I just read?"
I feel like this book has left me coated in a layer of filth and I need to go take a scalding shower, and I mean that in the most positive and complimentary way possible. Milk, Bread, Teeth is exactly what I want from horror fiction, which isn't necessarily scares or spookiness, but an absolutely oppressive sense of discomfort, disgust, and unease that's still somehow deeply relatable and human. It constantly had me wanting to crawl out of my own skin.
I'm not going to tell you anything that happens in the book, because I honestly think the less you know about this going in, the better it'll be for you. I'd even say to skip reading the synopsis and just go right in if you're looking for some freaky and gross horror. However, I will warn those of you that're squeamish to buckle up, because you're gonna be in for a wild ride.
Definitely going to be keeping an eye out (pun intended) for more of Amy Twigg's work in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the review copy!
I feel like this book has left me coated in a layer of filth and I need to go take a scalding shower, and I mean that in the most positive and complimentary way possible. Milk, Bread, Teeth is exactly what I want from horror fiction, which isn't necessarily scares or spookiness, but an absolutely oppressive sense of discomfort, disgust, and unease that's still somehow deeply relatable and human. It constantly had me wanting to crawl out of my own skin.
I'm not going to tell you anything that happens in the book, because I honestly think the less you know about this going in, the better it'll be for you. I'd even say to skip reading the synopsis and just go right in if you're looking for some freaky and gross horror. However, I will warn those of you that're squeamish to buckle up, because you're gonna be in for a wild ride.
Definitely going to be keeping an eye out (pun intended) for more of Amy Twigg's work in the future.
Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for the review copy!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I saw that another reviewer described this as more weird girl than horror. I agree with that, though it isn't my main issue with the book.
There's no story here.
Seriously, there's no plot. Lena gets hungry. She eats a lot. She eats a lot more. Her weirdness starts to cause her relationships to go wonky. She eats a lot more. The ending scene is terrific, but it's just that...a scene in what is mostly a vignette.
Lena's weirdness bugs me a bit as well. I love weird girl books, but we are starting to get so many intentional weird girls that it starts looking performative. Lena tripped the line from 'weird girl' to 'not like other girls' and I didn't love her.
It's a compulsive read - and one that will have you losing your appetite - but it definitely seems like a small window into a mental breakdown with no actual plot.
Not really for me.
There's no story here.
Seriously, there's no plot. Lena gets hungry. She eats a lot. She eats a lot more. Her weirdness starts to cause her relationships to go wonky. She eats a lot more. The ending scene is terrific, but it's just that...a scene in what is mostly a vignette.
Lena's weirdness bugs me a bit as well. I love weird girl books, but we are starting to get so many intentional weird girls that it starts looking performative. Lena tripped the line from 'weird girl' to 'not like other girls' and I didn't love her.
It's a compulsive read - and one that will have you losing your appetite - but it definitely seems like a small window into a mental breakdown with no actual plot.
Not really for me.
October 7, 2026
Ya girl was hungry
July 27, 2026
*Review of an ARC. Thank you so much to Headline for sending me a copy.
Currently kicking my feet and giggling with glee at the body horror in this book. Amy really went there… and I’m thrilled. A book where the intrusive thoughts win.
Stunning writing and character work. Reflects so deeply the rage inducing experience of medical misogyny and trying to regain control over a body you feel detached from. This was everything that I wanted it to be and more. Amy has just catapulted herself to the top spot of literary, body horror queen.
Currently kicking my feet and giggling with glee at the body horror in this book. Amy really went there… and I’m thrilled. A book where the intrusive thoughts win.
Stunning writing and character work. Reflects so deeply the rage inducing experience of medical misogyny and trying to regain control over a body you feel detached from. This was everything that I wanted it to be and more. Amy has just catapulted herself to the top spot of literary, body horror queen.
August 24, 2026
TW: Body Horror - This book was unhinged and VERY disturbing, but in the best ways. Lena is not the best person but you find yourself relating to her and her inner dialogue at times. The build up is a bit slow, but it makes more sense for the plot versus starting off too strong. You might think this book is just unsettling and weird, but I like that it shines a line on everyday problems we all face, like medical misogyny and trying to fit in, while also feeding the weird girl horror aspect! Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This book was horrific, disturbing, and, extremely WEIRD. I genuinely don’t even know how to describe what I just read. 😂 but I couldn’t look away and it really did consume me - read it in one sitting!!
“I will eventually reach the meaty horizon of who I am.”
The deeper meaning behind all the madness was intriguing. That insatiable hunger for more, the danger of constantly wanting and consuming until it literally consumes everything you are.
I literally just sat there after finishing this book. I needed to tell someone what I had just witnessed because WHAT WAS THAT?! I almost felt disgusting for finishing it and like I needed a shower after lol
Mukbang, but make it deeply disturbing.
This isn’t going to be for everyone, but if weird girl lit is your thing this one will take you on a wild ride with several shocking moments including the ending that will have you staring at the wall.
Thank you @blackstonepublishing for the gifted copy!
“I will eventually reach the meaty horizon of who I am.”
The deeper meaning behind all the madness was intriguing. That insatiable hunger for more, the danger of constantly wanting and consuming until it literally consumes everything you are.
I literally just sat there after finishing this book. I needed to tell someone what I had just witnessed because WHAT WAS THAT?! I almost felt disgusting for finishing it and like I needed a shower after lol
Mukbang, but make it deeply disturbing.
This isn’t going to be for everyone, but if weird girl lit is your thing this one will take you on a wild ride with several shocking moments including the ending that will have you staring at the wall.
Thank you @blackstonepublishing for the gifted copy!
Read
October 17, 2026i wasn't expecting to based on the first half but i ended up loving this! it's an examination of so much--consumerism, ambition, neglect, expectation, responsibility, need--and a visceral journey that you can't help but go on with lena. I really enjoyed how the brutally honest narration juxtaposed and balanced with the way some truth is withheld, and some of the prose is truly gut-wrenching
October 25, 2026
Wow! This is one of those books you need 3-5 business days to recover from. It had me feeling physically ill with some of the descriptions our FMC eats. The ending is absolutely insane in the best horrific way, I couldn’t have asked for more.
There is this underlining message about how Lena, our fmcs insatiable hunger is linked to being a woman. How we have all these social pressures to perform and be perfect. The struggles of wanting healthy relationships with friends and family. How addiction overtakes your life and can ruine so many things. Can we ever truly live upto expectations and be happy?
Lena has trauma that’s kind of hinted at, but never made a focus. I wish that was explored alot more. She’s obsessive, destructive, and one of those characters you love to hate. I found myself so absorbed and intoxicated by her and this journey.
Something that was done really well was the example of seeking medical help with a chronic illness. Being brushed off and not taken seriously was so real and frustrating. Ive personally struggled with eating disorders. The obsessive thought process of always wanting food and how it occupies your brain constantly, is so well depicted. The way food or any addiction can ruine your quality of life! Real.
Huge fan of this. It was def weird girl lit with a splash of horror. It’s abrupt and in your face. It’s short but packs a huge punch. I will be reading all books from Amy from here on out.
Thankyou NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for this Advanced copy. I will need a physical one asap 🙌🏼🙌🏼
There is this underlining message about how Lena, our fmcs insatiable hunger is linked to being a woman. How we have all these social pressures to perform and be perfect. The struggles of wanting healthy relationships with friends and family. How addiction overtakes your life and can ruine so many things. Can we ever truly live upto expectations and be happy?
Lena has trauma that’s kind of hinted at, but never made a focus. I wish that was explored alot more. She’s obsessive, destructive, and one of those characters you love to hate. I found myself so absorbed and intoxicated by her and this journey.
Something that was done really well was the example of seeking medical help with a chronic illness. Being brushed off and not taken seriously was so real and frustrating. Ive personally struggled with eating disorders. The obsessive thought process of always wanting food and how it occupies your brain constantly, is so well depicted. The way food or any addiction can ruine your quality of life! Real.
Huge fan of this. It was def weird girl lit with a splash of horror. It’s abrupt and in your face. It’s short but packs a huge punch. I will be reading all books from Amy from here on out.
Thankyou NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing for this Advanced copy. I will need a physical one asap 🙌🏼🙌🏼
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This book was disgusting and I absolutely loved it. Amy Twigg wrote a novel about a woman compelled to eat everything and damn, she meant it. Seriously, some of these images will live in my head rent-free for a long time.
The horror is so well done. The inescapable discomfort, the not being believed, the inevitably of surrendering to your worst impulses. Lena is a compelling protagonist even when you want to give her a good shake and she manages to be relatable in her obsessiveness and desire to be seen.
It's so refreshing to read a book about hunger that isn't centred around how women's bodies look, how they expand, the inadvertent linking of largeness with being bad or ill. I've read a few books recently where it felt like the character's changing body was the punchline, and this book isn't like that at all. For all its wild, grotesque and outlandish scenes, it's sensitively and thoughtfully written, which is a real testament to Amy's skill as a writer.
A bloody, brilliant second novel after the brilliant Spoilt Creatures.
The horror is so well done. The inescapable discomfort, the not being believed, the inevitably of surrendering to your worst impulses. Lena is a compelling protagonist even when you want to give her a good shake and she manages to be relatable in her obsessiveness and desire to be seen.
It's so refreshing to read a book about hunger that isn't centred around how women's bodies look, how they expand, the inadvertent linking of largeness with being bad or ill. I've read a few books recently where it felt like the character's changing body was the punchline, and this book isn't like that at all. For all its wild, grotesque and outlandish scenes, it's sensitively and thoughtfully written, which is a real testament to Amy's skill as a writer.
A bloody, brilliant second novel after the brilliant Spoilt Creatures.
November 2, 2026
Thank you to Amy Twigg and Blackstone Publishing for providing me with this complimentary eARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. It’s due to be released in early 2027!
This book is one of those slow-burn horrors. It almost could be read as journal entries because we just get running interior commentary about everything going on in Lena’s life and body. You can viscerally feel her hunger and obsession. As you read, you have this niggling feeling in the back of your head as you wonder when the horror will show its face. It eerily bides its time under the surface and slowly oozes out until it comes to a head and everything comes crashing down in the most grotesque and disgustingly brilliant way. The deeper allegories of women’s medical issues being brushed off, the need for control, and filling the void by utilizing overconsumption to overcompensate were done in an absolutely unsettling, downright unhinged, and disturbing manner… and I am here for it! This was my first Twigg book and it definitely will not be my last. I’m definitely a fan!
This book is one of those slow-burn horrors. It almost could be read as journal entries because we just get running interior commentary about everything going on in Lena’s life and body. You can viscerally feel her hunger and obsession. As you read, you have this niggling feeling in the back of your head as you wonder when the horror will show its face. It eerily bides its time under the surface and slowly oozes out until it comes to a head and everything comes crashing down in the most grotesque and disgustingly brilliant way. The deeper allegories of women’s medical issues being brushed off, the need for control, and filling the void by utilizing overconsumption to overcompensate were done in an absolutely unsettling, downright unhinged, and disturbing manner… and I am here for it! This was my first Twigg book and it definitely will not be my last. I’m definitely a fan!
October 28, 2026
Milk, Bread, Teeth made me feel THINGS. The book follows Lena, who is house sitting for her sister's rich boyfriend while they are abroad, and starts dealing with an insatiable hunger that comes out of nowhere, and what she does to satisfy it.
The eating and insatiable hunger take Lena quite literally to the extreme, and the descriptions were so vivid that it made the whole thing very immersive and visceral. That vividness is also what made it hard for me, because all the depictions of hunger were triggering for me as someone who has complicated relationship with food.
The end was so intense I could not believe my eyes. I wish I could see a bit more of Frances and Carmine, and it was hard for me to root for Lena given how inconsiderate she was being at the end of the day. But this was good and I'm going to be thinking about this for a while.
Please check trigger warnings before picking this one up!!
The eating and insatiable hunger take Lena quite literally to the extreme, and the descriptions were so vivid that it made the whole thing very immersive and visceral. That vividness is also what made it hard for me, because all the depictions of hunger were triggering for me as someone who has complicated relationship with food.
The end was so intense I could not believe my eyes. I wish I could see a bit more of Frances and Carmine, and it was hard for me to root for Lena given how inconsiderate she was being at the end of the day. But this was good and I'm going to be thinking about this for a while.
Please check trigger warnings before picking this one up!!
October 3, 2026
Review of advanced copy received from NetGalley
Amy Twigg’s debut novel, Spoilt Creatures, was one of my favourite reads of 2025 so I was really looking forward to reading this one. Unfortunately, I found Milk, Bread, Teeth to be disappointing. Lena’s character is a blank slate with no defining features. Whilst you could make the argument that it’s quite fitting that she fades into the background and is dominated by her hunger, her desire and want is similarly weak. There’s no clear motivation for her escalating hunger, with any parallels with obsession feeling underdeveloped. As someone who reads quite a bit of horror, particularly body horror, I found the build and crescendo of Lena’s consumption to be predictable rather than shocking or thought provoking. It doesn’t help that the narrative arc is given away by the title. There were a few moments of Lena losing control that could have been interesting if they had been followed through on, but sadly they were quickly dropped.
Ultimately, this just read as an increasingly bizarre shopping list rather than a solid exploration of women’s desires, needs, and obsessions.
Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for the opportunity to read and honestly review this ARC.
Amy Twigg’s debut novel, Spoilt Creatures, was one of my favourite reads of 2025 so I was really looking forward to reading this one. Unfortunately, I found Milk, Bread, Teeth to be disappointing. Lena’s character is a blank slate with no defining features. Whilst you could make the argument that it’s quite fitting that she fades into the background and is dominated by her hunger, her desire and want is similarly weak. There’s no clear motivation for her escalating hunger, with any parallels with obsession feeling underdeveloped. As someone who reads quite a bit of horror, particularly body horror, I found the build and crescendo of Lena’s consumption to be predictable rather than shocking or thought provoking. It doesn’t help that the narrative arc is given away by the title. There were a few moments of Lena losing control that could have been interesting if they had been followed through on, but sadly they were quickly dropped.
Ultimately, this just read as an increasingly bizarre shopping list rather than a solid exploration of women’s desires, needs, and obsessions.
Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for the opportunity to read and honestly review this ARC.
September 26, 2026
Thanks to NetGalley and Headline Books for an ARC of this book.
It’s definitely not for the faint-hearted or squeamish. It’s one of the weirdest, most stomach-churning books I’ve read for a very long time.
Lena knows there is something wrong with her. She is consumed by hunger, and her appetite grows throughout the story as she gradually loses control of her life, her emerging friendships and her job. She eats anything and everything, including things that really shouldn’t be eaten. As the story develops, Lena’s loneliness and loss of control become more apparent, and her hunger intensifies.
The shock factor builds along with Lena’s appetite, and there are some seriously stomach-churning moments. Key themes are chronic illness, medical misogyny, loss of control and abandonment.
This is a fast-paced, well-written and very graphic book. If I’d been watching this story on TV, I’d probably have had my hand over my eyes!
It’s definitely not for the faint-hearted or squeamish. It’s one of the weirdest, most stomach-churning books I’ve read for a very long time.
Lena knows there is something wrong with her. She is consumed by hunger, and her appetite grows throughout the story as she gradually loses control of her life, her emerging friendships and her job. She eats anything and everything, including things that really shouldn’t be eaten. As the story develops, Lena’s loneliness and loss of control become more apparent, and her hunger intensifies.
The shock factor builds along with Lena’s appetite, and there are some seriously stomach-churning moments. Key themes are chronic illness, medical misogyny, loss of control and abandonment.
This is a fast-paced, well-written and very graphic book. If I’d been watching this story on TV, I’d probably have had my hand over my eyes!
Read
July 29, 2026well that was disturbing only read if you don’t mind cannibalism, I do
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
A doctor dismissed her symptoms. Her symptoms ate her.
That was the thought that had me throwing up, crying, throwing up after finishing Milk, Bread, Teeth by Amy Twigg, a darkly funny, deeply uncomfortable novel about chronic illness, medical misogyny, class, and what happens when you know something is wrong with you but you don’t know how to make someone else understand it.
Lena knows something isn’t right. She seeks medical help. She asks questions. She pushes for something to be done. She wants things to change. But Lena doesn’t tell the doctor about the inexplicable hunger taking over her life.
That detail was the real kicker because Lena isn’t withholding because she doesn’t want help. She withholds because she does. She knows how it will sound. Somehow Lena has already learned the rules of credibility. Tell them something is wrong but do not say anything that sounds like you’ve entered your delusion era. And it’s complicated because Lena is not the most reliable person.
She’s financially dependent but pretends she isn’t. She’s quiet quitting her job so hard. Maxxing out her sister’s boyfriend’s plastic. She lies, performs, makes terrible decisions. When she falls into the orbit of her new upstairs neighbour, the actress Joan, Lena attempts to construct a version of herself that can belong in Joan’s world, but in her anxiety of being perceived by Joan’s friends, she becomes more chaotic and honestly infuriating. But being unreliable about your life doesn’t make you an unreliable witness to what’s happening to your own body. She consistently tells the truth about one thing: something is wrong with me.
She doesn’t know what it is. Neither do we.
For the record, her BMI is in the healthy range.
I love that the author resists giving us that clean distinction between physical illness and psychological distress because you can be wrong about what’s wrong with you and still be right that something is wrong.
And then what do you know, her body starts dropping receipts.
Her need to feed expeditiously grows increasingly extreme and almost impossible to reconcile with ordinary appetite. She crosses boundaries. The receipts start piling up, but the paradox at the centre of it all is that the more receipts that show something is wrong, the less Lena resembles the kind of patient whose account is likely to be trusted.
I think this is where Milk, Bread, Teeth really stands on business. The author doesn’t give us the perfect patient. Lena is messy. She withholds information. Her anxiety complicates medical encounters. Her behaviour becomes increasingly difficult to understand. But the novel asks us to take her suffering seriously without first requiring Lena to become a more credible patient.
And underneath all of this is class. While her body is getting crazy intense to control, she’s also trying to control the version of herself other people see. Her relationship with Joan turns Lena’s consumption social and aspirational as well as physical. She wants food. She wants things. She wants access. She wants another kind of life.
That’s the trap at the centre of this book.
She wants change, and the symptom she most needs help understanding is the one she feels least able to articulate because she knows that telling the whole truth might make her less believable, easier to dismiss.
Milk, Bread, Teeth is a darkly funny, uncomfortable, disturbing read with increasingly feral body horror. And underneath all the consumption, I found a nuanced exploration of illness and credibility that hit a little too close to home.
Lena knows something is wrong. She knows better than to tell them how wrong.
Thank you to NetGalley and Headline Books for sending me an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
It ate. No crumbs.
That was the thought that had me throwing up, crying, throwing up after finishing Milk, Bread, Teeth by Amy Twigg, a darkly funny, deeply uncomfortable novel about chronic illness, medical misogyny, class, and what happens when you know something is wrong with you but you don’t know how to make someone else understand it.
Lena knows something isn’t right. She seeks medical help. She asks questions. She pushes for something to be done. She wants things to change. But Lena doesn’t tell the doctor about the inexplicable hunger taking over her life.
That detail was the real kicker because Lena isn’t withholding because she doesn’t want help. She withholds because she does. She knows how it will sound. Somehow Lena has already learned the rules of credibility. Tell them something is wrong but do not say anything that sounds like you’ve entered your delusion era. And it’s complicated because Lena is not the most reliable person.
She’s financially dependent but pretends she isn’t. She’s quiet quitting her job so hard. Maxxing out her sister’s boyfriend’s plastic. She lies, performs, makes terrible decisions. When she falls into the orbit of her new upstairs neighbour, the actress Joan, Lena attempts to construct a version of herself that can belong in Joan’s world, but in her anxiety of being perceived by Joan’s friends, she becomes more chaotic and honestly infuriating. But being unreliable about your life doesn’t make you an unreliable witness to what’s happening to your own body. She consistently tells the truth about one thing: something is wrong with me.
She doesn’t know what it is. Neither do we.
For the record, her BMI is in the healthy range.
I love that the author resists giving us that clean distinction between physical illness and psychological distress because you can be wrong about what’s wrong with you and still be right that something is wrong.
And then what do you know, her body starts dropping receipts.
Her need to feed expeditiously grows increasingly extreme and almost impossible to reconcile with ordinary appetite. She crosses boundaries. The receipts start piling up, but the paradox at the centre of it all is that the more receipts that show something is wrong, the less Lena resembles the kind of patient whose account is likely to be trusted.
I think this is where Milk, Bread, Teeth really stands on business. The author doesn’t give us the perfect patient. Lena is messy. She withholds information. Her anxiety complicates medical encounters. Her behaviour becomes increasingly difficult to understand. But the novel asks us to take her suffering seriously without first requiring Lena to become a more credible patient.
And underneath all of this is class. While her body is getting crazy intense to control, she’s also trying to control the version of herself other people see. Her relationship with Joan turns Lena’s consumption social and aspirational as well as physical. She wants food. She wants things. She wants access. She wants another kind of life.
That’s the trap at the centre of this book.
She wants change, and the symptom she most needs help understanding is the one she feels least able to articulate because she knows that telling the whole truth might make her less believable, easier to dismiss.
Milk, Bread, Teeth is a darkly funny, uncomfortable, disturbing read with increasingly feral body horror. And underneath all the consumption, I found a nuanced exploration of illness and credibility that hit a little too close to home.
Lena knows something is wrong. She knows better than to tell them how wrong.
Thank you to NetGalley and Headline Books for sending me an advance reader copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
It ate. No crumbs.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
★★★★★
Oh, this was absolutely extraordinary. I read Milk, Bread, Teeth in two sittings and genuinely couldn’t get enough of it. I was completely consumed by this book.
Amy Twigg has one of the most exciting and original voices I’ve read in ages. Her prose is just DELICIOUS. On a sentence-by-sentence level, the writing is so inventive, precise and completely unpredictable. You never quite know where the next sentence is going to take you, and I was constantly stopping to admire a particular turn of phrase or wondering how on earth she’d thought to describe something in that way. It’s rare to find writing that feels this distinctive without ever becoming exhausting or overly self-conscious. I would honestly read anything she wrote.
And the story itself is absolutely VILE, in the best possible way. It’s disturbing, uncomfortable and at times completely grotesque, but I found it utterly irresistible. Even when I was horrified by what I was reading, I desperately wanted more.
But underneath all that grotesqueness, I thought there was something genuinely moving about the novel’s exploration of chronic illness. Lena’s insatiable hunger feels like such a brilliant, horrifying allegory for living in a body that no longer feels like your own. The desperation of knowing something is wrong, of being unable to explain what’s happening to you, and of having your suffering dismissed or misunderstood felt painfully recognisable. I loved that Twigg doesn’t give us a neat distinction between physical illness and psychological distress, or a perfectly sympathetic character whose suffering is easy for everyone to understand. Lena is messy, frustrating and increasingly difficult to defend, but that doesn’t make what she’s experiencing any less real.
I also thought there was something fascinating about how her physical hunger becomes tangled up with all the other things she’s starving for: love, friendship, belonging, status, a different life. She’s constantly trying to fill some enormous absence, whether that’s through food, other people or the version of herself she wants the world to see. And the more she consumes, the less satisfied she becomes. It’s such a clever way of exploring loneliness, class and the impossible expectations we place on our bodies and ourselves.
What impressed me most was how perfectly the writing and the subject matter complemented each other. The prose can be beautiful one moment and deeply repulsive the next, sometimes within the same sentence. Twigg has this incredible ability to make something horrifying feel almost seductive, and something seemingly ordinary feel profoundly wrong. It’s such an intoxicating reading experience.
And THAT ENDING. I genuinely don’t know what to say without spoiling anything, except that I was completely floored. It’s the kind of ending that makes you want to immediately find somebody else who’s read it so you can talk about what on earth you’ve just experienced. I finished feeling slightly stunned and very aware that this book was going to stay with me for a long time.
I love books that take risks, trust their readers and aren’t afraid to make us uncomfortable. This does all three, while also being ridiculously entertaining. It’s grotesque, captivating, brilliantly written and far more emotionally intelligent than its increasingly outrageous premise might initially suggest.
An absolute must-read. I feel like I’ve been through something, and I mean that as the highest possible compliment. A very enthusiastic five stars.
Oh, this was absolutely extraordinary. I read Milk, Bread, Teeth in two sittings and genuinely couldn’t get enough of it. I was completely consumed by this book.
Amy Twigg has one of the most exciting and original voices I’ve read in ages. Her prose is just DELICIOUS. On a sentence-by-sentence level, the writing is so inventive, precise and completely unpredictable. You never quite know where the next sentence is going to take you, and I was constantly stopping to admire a particular turn of phrase or wondering how on earth she’d thought to describe something in that way. It’s rare to find writing that feels this distinctive without ever becoming exhausting or overly self-conscious. I would honestly read anything she wrote.
And the story itself is absolutely VILE, in the best possible way. It’s disturbing, uncomfortable and at times completely grotesque, but I found it utterly irresistible. Even when I was horrified by what I was reading, I desperately wanted more.
But underneath all that grotesqueness, I thought there was something genuinely moving about the novel’s exploration of chronic illness. Lena’s insatiable hunger feels like such a brilliant, horrifying allegory for living in a body that no longer feels like your own. The desperation of knowing something is wrong, of being unable to explain what’s happening to you, and of having your suffering dismissed or misunderstood felt painfully recognisable. I loved that Twigg doesn’t give us a neat distinction between physical illness and psychological distress, or a perfectly sympathetic character whose suffering is easy for everyone to understand. Lena is messy, frustrating and increasingly difficult to defend, but that doesn’t make what she’s experiencing any less real.
I also thought there was something fascinating about how her physical hunger becomes tangled up with all the other things she’s starving for: love, friendship, belonging, status, a different life. She’s constantly trying to fill some enormous absence, whether that’s through food, other people or the version of herself she wants the world to see. And the more she consumes, the less satisfied she becomes. It’s such a clever way of exploring loneliness, class and the impossible expectations we place on our bodies and ourselves.
What impressed me most was how perfectly the writing and the subject matter complemented each other. The prose can be beautiful one moment and deeply repulsive the next, sometimes within the same sentence. Twigg has this incredible ability to make something horrifying feel almost seductive, and something seemingly ordinary feel profoundly wrong. It’s such an intoxicating reading experience.
And THAT ENDING. I genuinely don’t know what to say without spoiling anything, except that I was completely floored. It’s the kind of ending that makes you want to immediately find somebody else who’s read it so you can talk about what on earth you’ve just experienced. I finished feeling slightly stunned and very aware that this book was going to stay with me for a long time.
I love books that take risks, trust their readers and aren’t afraid to make us uncomfortable. This does all three, while also being ridiculously entertaining. It’s grotesque, captivating, brilliantly written and far more emotionally intelligent than its increasingly outrageous premise might initially suggest.
An absolute must-read. I feel like I’ve been through something, and I mean that as the highest possible compliment. A very enthusiastic five stars.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
4.5
Thank you to the publishers via NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
What a perfectly twisted body horror this was, and so clever in its delivery. I will say, the pacing for the last 25% I simply couldn’t put the book down and stayed up way too late to finish it - and I couldn’t have predicted that ending and how satisfying it was.
While the non central characters can kind of be lost, not having a clear distinction in voices from the coworkers to Joan’s friends - I think in this case it actually works. In every dynamic, there is Lena’s sun - the person whose affection she desires most, within a group that has her feeling like the outsider. This need to remove or placate the others so that she can no longer be looking in, but be seen. She has it at work, the fact we never get to see her interact with her boss and the office windows and walls always keeping her out. We see it with Joan. We see it even with Frances and her need to villainise Carmine.
I wish however this novel just let go and went fully into the madness in the last half. I wanted Yemma to stay on longer, a slower impending doom with the state of the apartment. Have her quit just before Lena loses her job, right before she knows what plans Carmine/Frances have. Then the meeting between her and Joan. I’d love for the lines of reality and madness to blur further, have her break into someone’s door promptly after because of the hunger needing to be sated - have her on the lawn with crowd gathering as she tries to talk to the police and see Joan out there with Peter and Angie. Have Valerie standing there with her family. The delivery driver. The woman from the spa from the slow lane. Yemma. Maybe even her cat stalking across the grass which is impossible. Have her see Caroline amongst the crowd. Let it come crashing around her and everyone seeing her hunger finally and that not being enough before the final ending scene plays out. We’re alongside you Twigg, we see what you’re doing, don’t be afraid to fully commit and take it there.
It covered a multitude of topics, and the simplicity of being a woman seeing a doctor and being dismissed was so on the nose. The frustration you feel while knowing you’ve probably had a similar experience. The need to blend in but the wish to be truly seen and accepted. The way our inner child yearns to fix the problems of our youth as adult and fill those voids however we can.
This is an author to watch. This book truly hits the mark.
Thank you to the publishers via NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
What a perfectly twisted body horror this was, and so clever in its delivery. I will say, the pacing for the last 25% I simply couldn’t put the book down and stayed up way too late to finish it - and I couldn’t have predicted that ending and how satisfying it was.
While the non central characters can kind of be lost, not having a clear distinction in voices from the coworkers to Joan’s friends - I think in this case it actually works. In every dynamic, there is Lena’s sun - the person whose affection she desires most, within a group that has her feeling like the outsider. This need to remove or placate the others so that she can no longer be looking in, but be seen. She has it at work, the fact we never get to see her interact with her boss and the office windows and walls always keeping her out. We see it with Joan. We see it even with Frances and her need to villainise Carmine.
I wish however this novel just let go and went fully into the madness in the last half. I wanted Yemma to stay on longer, a slower impending doom with the state of the apartment. Have her quit just before Lena loses her job, right before she knows what plans Carmine/Frances have. Then the meeting between her and Joan. I’d love for the lines of reality and madness to blur further, have her break into someone’s door promptly after because of the hunger needing to be sated - have her on the lawn with crowd gathering as she tries to talk to the police and see Joan out there with Peter and Angie. Have Valerie standing there with her family. The delivery driver. The woman from the spa from the slow lane. Yemma. Maybe even her cat stalking across the grass which is impossible. Have her see Caroline amongst the crowd. Let it come crashing around her and everyone seeing her hunger finally and that not being enough before the final ending scene plays out. We’re alongside you Twigg, we see what you’re doing, don’t be afraid to fully commit and take it there.
It covered a multitude of topics, and the simplicity of being a woman seeing a doctor and being dismissed was so on the nose. The frustration you feel while knowing you’ve probably had a similar experience. The need to blend in but the wish to be truly seen and accepted. The way our inner child yearns to fix the problems of our youth as adult and fill those voids however we can.
This is an author to watch. This book truly hits the mark.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Can grotesque be used as a compliment?
If so this book was insanely grotesque (in the best way!) Milk, Bread, Teeth is the quintessential “weird girl lit” that we all love and crave. Amy Twigg really hard me wanting eat all kinds of random things for lunch and then by dinner I was truly doubting if I’d ever have an appetite again!
Lena is your typical young woman who is truly just trying to get by and maybe even improve her life along the way. She has a beautiful apartment, that’s owned and loaned to her by her brother-in-law, and a job that she mostly likes, even though she’s feeling a little redundant. What transpires on the next several months is a nightmare of epic proportions and one I will not be forgetting ANYTIME soon!
What starts out as an unquenchable appetite evolves into an all-consuming hunger that is completely ruining her life and starting to terrify Lena. I really appreciated and related to the exhausting effort it takes to go to a doctor for help and be utterly dismissed. It was a very spot on take on the heath care system and how it tends to downplay women’s medical concerns and dismiss them altogether. “The tests came back normal, so you’re totally fine!”
Lena is already struggling with loneliness, depression, and just an overall lack of motivation. But when she meets her new upstairs neighbor, Joan the actress, she finds a new form of hunger in her obsession with intertwining her life with Joan. I was cheering Lena on through the first half of the book but as her obsession grows with Joan and the picture perfect life she is trying to create, she quickly loses her footing and things start to unravel.
— I do wish we got a little more info on the sister’s storyline at the end. I was hoping for maybe their reunion to explain some of the issues the brother-in-law was having but we didn’t.
I wish everyone could’ve seen my face through the last several chapters because I don’t think I’ve ever actually grimaced while reading a book and I’ve definitely never gotten nauseous, but Amy Twigg really went there and I love her for that!
I don’t know what more I could say to praise this book but I HIGHLY RECOMMEND! Just maybe don’t read it while eating lol
Thank you so much to Amy Twigg, Blackstone Publishing, & NetGalley for the advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review!
If so this book was insanely grotesque (in the best way!) Milk, Bread, Teeth is the quintessential “weird girl lit” that we all love and crave. Amy Twigg really hard me wanting eat all kinds of random things for lunch and then by dinner I was truly doubting if I’d ever have an appetite again!
Lena is your typical young woman who is truly just trying to get by and maybe even improve her life along the way. She has a beautiful apartment, that’s owned and loaned to her by her brother-in-law, and a job that she mostly likes, even though she’s feeling a little redundant. What transpires on the next several months is a nightmare of epic proportions and one I will not be forgetting ANYTIME soon!
What starts out as an unquenchable appetite evolves into an all-consuming hunger that is completely ruining her life and starting to terrify Lena. I really appreciated and related to the exhausting effort it takes to go to a doctor for help and be utterly dismissed. It was a very spot on take on the heath care system and how it tends to downplay women’s medical concerns and dismiss them altogether. “The tests came back normal, so you’re totally fine!”
Lena is already struggling with loneliness, depression, and just an overall lack of motivation. But when she meets her new upstairs neighbor, Joan the actress, she finds a new form of hunger in her obsession with intertwining her life with Joan. I was cheering Lena on through the first half of the book but as her obsession grows with Joan and the picture perfect life she is trying to create, she quickly loses her footing and things start to unravel.
— I do wish we got a little more info on the sister’s storyline at the end. I was hoping for maybe their reunion to explain some of the issues the brother-in-law was having but we didn’t.
I wish everyone could’ve seen my face through the last several chapters because I don’t think I’ve ever actually grimaced while reading a book and I’ve definitely never gotten nauseous, but Amy Twigg really went there and I love her for that!
I don’t know what more I could say to praise this book but I HIGHLY RECOMMEND! Just maybe don’t read it while eating lol
Thank you so much to Amy Twigg, Blackstone Publishing, & NetGalley for the advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Milk, Bread, Teeth by Amy Twigg follows Lena, a woman who wakes up one day with an insatiable appetite. This hunger occupies most of her waking thoughts and this novel follows her dealing with that on top of living her life.
I loved this book. It was everything I wanted in a weird girl horror novel. Lena is a flawed character who makes terrible decisions but it is easy to see why she does what she does. The hunger she deals with seems to be a metaphor for invisible illness and how that can dominate every aspect of your life. Reading about Lena's struggles to feel satisfied after eating and trying to eat different things felt like how a lot of people that deal with chronic illnesses live their lives.
This is a book that is best to go in knowing very little but just be aware that it gets kind of gross. Not just the things that Lena tries to eat but the way it is written. After finishing this book, I actually felt nauseous which does not happen to be often as a seasoned horror reader.
I can see some readers picking this book up and thinking there isn't a lot of plot and I would agree. There are not a lot of action packed scenes but I think that was the author's intent. We are just watching Lena live her day to day life while having this immense hunger and I felt like as a reader, I felt how difficult that was for her.
This is one of the best books I have read this year and one that will stick with me for a long time. I think if this book finds the right audience, it is going to be a very buzzy book! I look forward to yapping about this book for the next several weeks before it releases and I am already planning on reading this author's previous novel as soon as I can get my hands on it. It is not often that I read one book by an author and consider them to be a favorite but I would definitely consider Amy Twigg a new favorite author to me!
I loved this book. It was everything I wanted in a weird girl horror novel. Lena is a flawed character who makes terrible decisions but it is easy to see why she does what she does. The hunger she deals with seems to be a metaphor for invisible illness and how that can dominate every aspect of your life. Reading about Lena's struggles to feel satisfied after eating and trying to eat different things felt like how a lot of people that deal with chronic illnesses live their lives.
This is a book that is best to go in knowing very little but just be aware that it gets kind of gross. Not just the things that Lena tries to eat but the way it is written. After finishing this book, I actually felt nauseous which does not happen to be often as a seasoned horror reader.
I can see some readers picking this book up and thinking there isn't a lot of plot and I would agree. There are not a lot of action packed scenes but I think that was the author's intent. We are just watching Lena live her day to day life while having this immense hunger and I felt like as a reader, I felt how difficult that was for her.
This is one of the best books I have read this year and one that will stick with me for a long time. I think if this book finds the right audience, it is going to be a very buzzy book! I look forward to yapping about this book for the next several weeks before it releases and I am already planning on reading this author's previous novel as soon as I can get my hands on it. It is not often that I read one book by an author and consider them to be a favorite but I would definitely consider Amy Twigg a new favorite author to me!
Read
July 30, 2026*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
Milk, Bread, Teeth follows Lena as she develops an urge to consume. She is constantly hungry and never sated. Lena is lucky enough to live in a luxury apartment and she gets up eating all day and night. The doctors don’t know what’s wrong with her and she’s even gone to drastic lengths to fulfil her hunger such as eating wet pet food. Lena makes friends with a woman called Joan when she moves into the apartment above. Joan is everything Lena wants to be but being surrounded by privilege doesn’t help when Lena’s hunger grows. Lena’s life starts to unravel and she must go to extreme lengths to fulfil her hunger and discover who she truly is.
To be completely honest, I just don’t get this book. I wanted to read this as I thought it might be similar to The Lamb by Lucy Rose which I loved but this just didn’t work for me. I never connected to Lena and everything felt very surface level. I never understood why Lena was so hungry. This book just doesn’t feel new, the themes have been done before in books a lot better than this and it feels like the author is trying to say something but never quite gets there. I was bored with this and whilst I tend to enjoy books that involve consumption, this was a bit too disgusting for me. Without giving away spoilers, I don’t want to read about someone eating pet food or body parts. This just left me feeling nothing and I’m sad about that because this had a lot of promise. I don’t want to be completely negative though as this will work for some people so I will still recommend this. This is written well and Lena has a complicated relationship with her mother which was interesting to explore.
Milk, Bread, Teeth follows Lena as she develops an urge to consume. She is constantly hungry and never sated. Lena is lucky enough to live in a luxury apartment and she gets up eating all day and night. The doctors don’t know what’s wrong with her and she’s even gone to drastic lengths to fulfil her hunger such as eating wet pet food. Lena makes friends with a woman called Joan when she moves into the apartment above. Joan is everything Lena wants to be but being surrounded by privilege doesn’t help when Lena’s hunger grows. Lena’s life starts to unravel and she must go to extreme lengths to fulfil her hunger and discover who she truly is.
To be completely honest, I just don’t get this book. I wanted to read this as I thought it might be similar to The Lamb by Lucy Rose which I loved but this just didn’t work for me. I never connected to Lena and everything felt very surface level. I never understood why Lena was so hungry. This book just doesn’t feel new, the themes have been done before in books a lot better than this and it feels like the author is trying to say something but never quite gets there. I was bored with this and whilst I tend to enjoy books that involve consumption, this was a bit too disgusting for me. Without giving away spoilers, I don’t want to read about someone eating pet food or body parts. This just left me feeling nothing and I’m sad about that because this had a lot of promise. I don’t want to be completely negative though as this will work for some people so I will still recommend this. This is written well and Lena has a complicated relationship with her mother which was interesting to explore.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Milk, Bread, Teeth follows Lena as she suddenly has an appetite she can’t control. When Joan, an actress, moves into the apartment above hers, Lena becomes obsessed. As her ravenous hunger demands more, Lena starts to unravel.
This was an interesting book. I kind of have mixed feelings on it. On one hand, I really enjoyed the horror elements. It was gore-y and gross—especially the end. The ending was intense in a good way, but not surprising. I was mostly engaged while reading, but I did find myself wanting more horror elements. There is a lot of Lena eating and going through the motions. I think I wanted more of an explanation. And maybe it just went over my head. But I wanted more concrete reasonings and motivations.
I do think the author is very good at description and creating a very tense and unnerving environment. Lena did feel like a loose canon. I was very curious to see what she’d do when interacting with people—especially in the third act. The dynamic with Angie was well done. I would definitely read more from this author, I think this one just wasn’t what I wanted.
If you love horror or weird girl lit fit, definitely give this a try!
Thank you to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the arc
This was an interesting book. I kind of have mixed feelings on it. On one hand, I really enjoyed the horror elements. It was gore-y and gross—especially the end. The ending was intense in a good way, but not surprising. I was mostly engaged while reading, but I did find myself wanting more horror elements. There is a lot of Lena eating and going through the motions. I think I wanted more of an explanation. And maybe it just went over my head. But I wanted more concrete reasonings and motivations.
I do think the author is very good at description and creating a very tense and unnerving environment. Lena did feel like a loose canon. I was very curious to see what she’d do when interacting with people—especially in the third act. The dynamic with Angie was well done. I would definitely read more from this author, I think this one just wasn’t what I wanted.
If you love horror or weird girl lit fit, definitely give this a try!
Thank you to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the arc
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Milk, Bread, Teeth is a fresh take on body horror in the age of social media and neglecting everyone else’s problems except your own.
The majority of the book slowly follows Lena’s spiral into her loss of self control and desperate need to feel accepted.
Lena’s deepening hunger is very slow paced, as it should be. It helps the reader to follow her step by step and feel each change as she slowly starts to throw her morals and values out the window. I felt fully immersed in Lena’s mind and felt like I could understand why she made certain decisions and acted certain ways in front of her friends and family. This also helps to fully immerse the reader into the environment she has set herself in. You can smell her apartment and taste the Critter Crunch she’s eating at 3:00 in the morning. This book is very detailed and, in turn, very gory and unsettling. At some points, it’s straight up disgusting.
As for the ending, it was absolutely a surprise and I personally loved it. It was so out of the realm of what I thought was going to happen that I spent the last 10 pages with my mouth hanging open. It felt like a succinct finale.
Thank you to Blackstone Publishing via NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
The majority of the book slowly follows Lena’s spiral into her loss of self control and desperate need to feel accepted.
Lena’s deepening hunger is very slow paced, as it should be. It helps the reader to follow her step by step and feel each change as she slowly starts to throw her morals and values out the window. I felt fully immersed in Lena’s mind and felt like I could understand why she made certain decisions and acted certain ways in front of her friends and family. This also helps to fully immerse the reader into the environment she has set herself in. You can smell her apartment and taste the Critter Crunch she’s eating at 3:00 in the morning. This book is very detailed and, in turn, very gory and unsettling. At some points, it’s straight up disgusting.
As for the ending, it was absolutely a surprise and I personally loved it. It was so out of the realm of what I thought was going to happen that I spent the last 10 pages with my mouth hanging open. It felt like a succinct finale.
Thank you to Blackstone Publishing via NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Milk, Bread, Teeth is a deeply strange and compelling tale following the increasingly unhinged Lena as her appetites grow and her body and its needs become unrecognisable to her. I love unsettling body horror and this delivered! The horror was a slow burn (the final act was full blown insanity) but there was plenty of glorious, skin-crawling detail throughout as well as creeping dread and psychological horror. I read this in less than 24 hours.
An allegory for female chronic illness, this is such a moving and beautifully written book that I think I've highlighted at least half of it. Although Lena is not particularly likeable, I found myself actively rooting for her, hoping she would either get a grip and sort herself out or (more fun) would spiral further into her madness. Her loneliness and discomfort in her body was surprisingly endearing - her narration was so intimate and vulnerable that I think it's impossible not to relate to her.
Amy Twigg has easily become an auto-buy author with this and her debut Spoilt Creatures.
An allegory for female chronic illness, this is such a moving and beautifully written book that I think I've highlighted at least half of it. Although Lena is not particularly likeable, I found myself actively rooting for her, hoping she would either get a grip and sort herself out or (more fun) would spiral further into her madness. Her loneliness and discomfort in her body was surprisingly endearing - her narration was so intimate and vulnerable that I think it's impossible not to relate to her.
Amy Twigg has easily become an auto-buy author with this and her debut Spoilt Creatures.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thanks to Net Galley and Blackstone Publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC!
I loved this book so so much! It follows Lena, whose body is suddenly possessed by an insatiable hunger. An actress named Joan moves in upstairs from Lena, and she quickly becomes infatuated with her. As Lena’s appetite becomes more and more out of control, so does the life she’s trying to build for herself. This thing has everything I could’ve hoped for. It’s funny, has some gory moments, and is really disturbing in a lot of ways. Lena’s appetite and all the ways that she tries to satisfy it highlight loneliness, desperation, and dissatisfaction that I think anyone could relate to in one way or another. It feels super intimate and out of control--like you’re spinning out right along with her. It’s kind of a disorienting slow burn that builds up to an ending that I thought was perfect. I can’t say enough good things about this one. Just get your hands on it and read it. It’s fantastic!
I loved this book so so much! It follows Lena, whose body is suddenly possessed by an insatiable hunger. An actress named Joan moves in upstairs from Lena, and she quickly becomes infatuated with her. As Lena’s appetite becomes more and more out of control, so does the life she’s trying to build for herself. This thing has everything I could’ve hoped for. It’s funny, has some gory moments, and is really disturbing in a lot of ways. Lena’s appetite and all the ways that she tries to satisfy it highlight loneliness, desperation, and dissatisfaction that I think anyone could relate to in one way or another. It feels super intimate and out of control--like you’re spinning out right along with her. It’s kind of a disorienting slow burn that builds up to an ending that I thought was perfect. I can’t say enough good things about this one. Just get your hands on it and read it. It’s fantastic!
November 2, 2026
I really enjoyed this unhinged story and it's commentary on over consumption and overall dissatisfaction. This had all the makings of slow discomfort and psychological unpeeling that I really enjoy with this genre. I did find the body horror aspect pretty tame - and feel this was more 'weird girl lit' than horror necessarily.
The ending was really satisfying and clever, I will definitely read more of this author
Thank you NetGalley and Headline books for sending me an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The ending was really satisfying and clever, I will definitely read more of this author
Thank you NetGalley and Headline books for sending me an E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews