This book will rip you up and tear open every insecurity and pain that has been endured through your life. Milk and Honey is raw and full of interactions that aren’t talked about or mentioned often. The entire book is about agony and discomfort that comes with life; it opens your scars and leaves you bare. It will confront the tenderness that you feel and offer a sense of closure to topics that are seen as inappropriate and improper.

Milk and Honey is a collection of poems by the author Rupi Kaur. She describes this book as her journey of surviving through poetry. As she said, “this is the blood sweat tears of twenty-one years, this is my heart in your hands, this is, the hurting, the loving, the breaking, the healing.” The novel is broken up into four sections: the hurting, the loving, the breaking, and the healing. Each section is overfilled with emotions overwhelming the readers with her genuine descriptions. She leaves it all out there. Like she said, this book is literally her heart.

Along with the pages being drenched with emotions and conflicts that Kaur has encountered, each page is represented with a scribble or drawing that reflects upon the poem. Each page has a drawing and a poem going hand in hand with the writing. It’s a very intimate and sensitive novel. Sensitive topics, such as abuse and heartache, are mentioned. The majority of the concepts talked about in this novel are ignored by society.

However, with such a focus on the pain and sorrow that Kaur has endured, she also mentions ideas of self-empowerment and confidence, canceling out the negativity that is held within the pages. She creates an emphasis on the importance of one’s self-assurance and how to maintain this role throughout the ups and downs of life. Kaur doesn’t specify the sting that she has felt. Instead, she generalizes it so that all readers can connect and sense what she has gone through. This incredible tactic is what makes this novel so great. None of the pages are the same to readers; each page could mean or represent something different compared to another.

Milk and Honey is such an honest book, for it requires its readers to confront their pain and closure and consequently better themselves. This book will shred you up while stitching up the wound it has created.