Ratings9
Average rating4.2
"A livewire debut from Dantiel W. Moniz, one of the most exciting discoveries in today's literary landscape, Milk Blood Heat depicts the sultry lives of Floridians in intergenerational tales that contemplate human connection, race, womanhood, inheritance, and the elemental darkness in us all. Set among the cities and suburbs of Florida, each story delves into the ordinary worlds of young girls, women, and men who find themselves confronted by extraordinary moments of violent personal reckoning. These intimate portraits of people and relationships scour and soothe and blast a light on the nature of family, faith, forgiveness, consumption, and what we may, or may not, owe one another. A thirteen-year-old meditates on her sadness and the difference between herself and her white best friend when an unexpected tragedy occurs; a woman recovering from a miscarriage finds herself unable to let go of her daughter--whose body parts she sees throughout her daily life; a teenager resists her family's church and is accused of courting the devil; servers at a supper club cater to the insatiable cravings of their wealthy clientele; and two estranged siblings take a road-trip with their father's ashes and are forced to face the troubling reality of how he continues to shape them. Wise and subversive, spiritual and seductive, Milk Blood Heat forms an ouroboros of stories that bewitch with their truth, announcing the arrival of a bright new literary star."--Provided by publisher.
Reviews with the most likes.
Milk Blood Heat is a stunning debut collection of short stories. Told in incredibly vivid detail through the perspective of the protagonist of each story, you feel intimately connected to each of them. Moniz has a way of painting pictures with her words, making the reader feel as if they are part of every story, experiencing every emotion the characters are going through. Whether it is the angst of an adolescent girl experiencing possibly undiagnosed clinical depression or the woman struggling to move on while still mourning the loss of her baby due to a miscarriage, I felt each story in a raw, visceral way. I found that I could picture these characters as if they were standing right in front of me and I was drawn into their lives and, at the end of each story, wanting to know what happened next. Dantiel Moniz is an exceptional writer. I genuinely enjoyed this book and can't wait to read more of her work.
**I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a review. Opinions are my own. This book is scheduled to be released February 2021.