Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Rainbow Milk

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.

Content Warnings

serendipitysbooks's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

Rainbow Milk is a semi-autobiographical novel exploring the intersection of race, sexuality, class, and religion. Jesse is a young Black gay man who was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness and grew up in an abusive home with a white step-father. The clash between the faith he was raised in and his sexuality results in Jesse being kicked out of both church and home and moving to London. His life there initially makes for very tough reading - lots of fairly graphic descriptions of sexual encounters that were unhealthy both physically and emotionally. An injury forces Jesse to rethink how he is living and art plus a chance encounter offer him another way forward.

Although most of the novel centres on Jesse it actually opens nearly 50 years earlier. Norman Alonso and his wife Claudette are part of the Windrush generation, trying their best to make a good life for their family despite the blatant racism they sometimes face. The eventual connection between the two storylines provides a satisfying conclusion to the book.

This book was unflinching and confronting in places which made for uncomfortable reading. Thankfully the ending had Jesse in a healthier and safer environment, seemingly more at peace with who he was. It was a rough journey but the destination made it worthwhile. That was true for me as a reader; my hope is that it is equally true for all the real life Jesses in the world.

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jbraith's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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nikolas_fox's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

This book was something else. I received this in a subscription box and I was unsure if it was a book I would enjoy, and I was so wrong. This book was so honest and raw and hit straight into me at so many times. It looks generationally from East Indian immigrants to England, in the Black Country, all the way through 2016. We hit hard on the AIDS epidemic and all the loss that's involved with that. This book was just so amazing in so many ways, and there are lines that hit me hard from beginning to end. I am so glad I gave this book the chance it deserved and I expect to see great things from Paul Mendez in the future.

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the_literarylinguist's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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milliebrierley's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.0

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