Ava knows she really is a monster, or at least she feels like one; unnatural and unfamiliar in her body. Before thirteen, she hadn't realized empty was a thing you could carry. But who put it there? Sometimes she wonders if she will ever be rid of it, and other times she never wants to give it back. It is a thing she owns.
In Milk Blood Heat, Moniz explores so much of womanhood through a collection of short stories. From the beginnings of being a woman to motherhood and everything in between. All the stories are set to the backdrop of Florida and share a piece of what it is to be both a Person of Color and a woman.
This is not my first short story collection, but it is the first short story collection I really enjoyed from beginning to end. After finishing countless short story units in school, I think I am more used to short stories having a little bite to them in the last couple paragraphs. I like my short stories to feel like twilight zone episodes. I need That feeling of something being off, but you can't quite put your finger on it until the very end of the episode when everything comes to light in a disorienting way. Milk Blood Heat did this for me and I think that really added to my enjoyment of the collection. each story felt as effortless in its building of characters as it did in the flow and structure of the story. This was truly a collection of tiny masterpieces. Milk Blood Heat is filled with fleeting beauty that is eclipsed by something a little darker and more sinister in undertones.
This is Arlo, our father, and he is everywhere in me. He taught me how to cook, how to type, when walking, not to look at my feet. He had always been precise with me and did not treat me as a child. He told me the names of things; when there was death he called it death, and when he tucked me in at night he would say into my ear, por la sangre, and wouldn't leave until I repeated it back. Until I made him believe that I believed it. I had loved him and was frightened of him, as he thought all good daughters should be.
A story detailing the sadness of a young girl as she compares her life as a Black teen to that of her white friend, a story about a prestigious supper club made up of members with an insatiable appetite for exotic cooking, and a mother protecting her child from the grips of a sexual predator were among some of my favorites but I truly loved every story. I loved the way the stories of Milk Blood Heat fit together. The intentional way the author took so many ideas and stories and managed to piece them into this collection feels breathtaking in the scope of its success.
This collection was not very light in content, so if you are looking to settle in with something more delicate and comforting, this might not be for you. The topics this collection explores have a lot more grit to them. If you are a woman in the world I bet you can easily imagine what that "grit" encompasses.
From here, her mother looks young--could be any of the girls, making sure the face she's wearing is the one the world wants-- and at this thought, Frankie suddenly breaks through, not just a mother, but a whole person. Separate and full of awe. It dawns on Margot that, old as she is, it's her mother's first time on this earth, too. Against her will, she softens
Content warning:
suicide, miscarriage, implied rape, implied sexual abuse at the hands of a person in the position of trust, racism, religious abuse
Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic Publishing for an Advanced Readers Copy of Milk Blood Heat in exchange for an honest review.
You can find Milk Blood Heat on bookshelves near you on February 2nd 2021
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