Proceed With Caution:
This book contains kidnapping, drugging, captivity, deprivation, dubious consent, Stockholm Syndrome, and discussions of death.
The Basics:
Comfort Food is narrated by thirty-ish-year-old Emily Vargas. She's a "self-help guru" on her latest cross-country tour when she suddenly wakes up blindfolded and tied to a chair. Soon enough, she's greeted by her captor who never speaks. He just feeds her chicken noodle soup. Why did he take her?! What does he want from her?! Emily doesn't know, but she knows this situation is wrong, but she's not responding to her captor in the way she should...
My Thoughts:
Comfort Food is one of those books that I haven't stopped thinking about. I first read it in 2011, and it blew my mind. I was shaken to my core. I've been wanting to read it again ever since then, and now I finally have. I feel like it definitely held up all of these years later. Sure, it wasn't as shocking to me, since I knew what was coming. But I was able to notice new things that I may not have realized about it the first time around.
This is not a Romance novel. It is not an Erotic Romance novel. This is dark Erotica with a heavy emphasis on the psychological effects of Stockholm Syndrome. Are Emily's feelings real after the months she spent in captivity? Her Psychology classes are screaming no, but does that matter when those feelings are very real to her. She's the one experiencing it all, so ultimately, isn't it up to her to determine what that relationship means to her?
I can't answer that! I mean, she was kidnapped, locked up, and broken down. But she wasn't abused in the traditional sense, which I think makes it even more confusing and twisted. Her "master" gave her incredible pleasure and every luxury she could imagine and more. But at what cost? Comfort Food is just an experience.