Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Rainbow Milk

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez

35 reviews

abbiel's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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auteaandtales's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was such a powerful story! I really enjoyed it, for the most part. It was very raw and emotional, yet somehow still quite funny in parts. As a white person myself, it was insightful in the life of a gay black man who grew up in a highly religious and abusive family, and what it was like to be a sex worker in the 2000’s. I believe this is Paul’s true story, told through Jesse, and I always find true (even semi-true) books hard to review, like reviewing someone’s personal life, but it was well written.

My negatives though that I feel need to be said is that I found it odd how someone who is clearly intelligent, well read and educated and heavily left wing could still be fatphobic. It wasn’t frequent but it was frequent enough, and I expected it to be addressed or something at some point but it never was. He mentioned when someone was thin once as a positive, but all the occasions he mentioned someone was fat it was done negatively.

I also didn’t like that it kept bouncing between timelines, by the end of the book it wasn’t as hard to follow but especially to begin with it was hard to know where we were in Jesse’s life and when.

Definitely one to read for those interested! A solid four star read for me, I think.

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nialiversuch's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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leahfigiel's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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timbookshelf's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

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owenwilsonbaby's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Loved this book and thought parts of it were viscerally powerful; Mendez writes so wonderfully and with such insight about love, sex, desire, bodies and trauma. The feeling of longing springs off the page as you progress through the novel. However, the structure for me felt a little disappointing. I wish both Norman and Jesse's stories were given equal weight, as Norman's felt so promising but was ultimately short and underdeveloped - almost like it could have been incorporated into Jesse's narrative without a separate section.

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nordstina's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

Rainbow Milk is a touching debut novel by Paul Mendez about a young man named Jesse McCartney. He grows up in the Black Country in England, and is coming to terms with his identity as a black gay man. His life is in the Jehovah's Witness faith and he is disfellowshipped. He leaves everything he knows behind and goes to London to seek a new and more accepting community. Jesse is an engaging main character- we follow him through jobs in the food industry and as a sex worker. The descriptions are raw and intense, and music and art are common themes throughout. I want to go back and listen to the music that is referenced as it is so integral to how Jesse is feeling. The one thing in the book that took me out a bit was it had a long-dish beginning introducing us to a completely separate character in the 1950's who has recently moved from Jamaica to England. And his tale appears completely disconnected until the latter half of the book, and even then, I am not sure how much I needed that amount of context at the beginning. I really look forward to what Mendez writes next because this is an incredibly strong debut.

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