Marianna Neal's Reviews > Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder

A review copy was provided by the publisher

PSA: Do NOT read this on an empty stomach, or when you're even remotely hungry. Just don't do it. Otherwise you might end up eating everything in sight and then order some takeout on top of it.

More to the point though, this novel wasn't really what I expected based on its subtitle - A Novel of Food and Murder. True, the story does revolve around a murderer, but what the author really wanted to explore are societal norms when it comes to women, beauty standards, expectations, and all of that is tied into cooking and food. For my taste (no pun intended) Butter is too long because, while the prose is expressive and effective, there were plenty of times where I wished the book would move along as the point the author was trying to make was clear. It's definitely a slow burn, and I suppose if you're really into elaborate food descriptions and reflecting on mundane things (nothing wrong with that) I can see how this book can be really enjoyable, but I was getting impatient. I also found some of the cooking and eating descriptions to be quite off-putting, but that's just a me thing - overly detailed descriptions of experiencing food make me uncomfortable.

All that being said though, I actually though the characters were interesting and in the end their personal journeys are what kept me going. Butter is a good book, and it was very different from what I normally read, but in the end I just didn't love it.