Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Rainbow Milk

I’d like to specify that this rating is for me personally, not speaking to the overall quality of the book, but to how I personally felt about it. I think I went into this book expecting more of a conversation around sexuality and religion, more about Jesse and his former life, rather than his life after moving to London. The graphic nature of the sex scenes, while I respect them as a bold and radical choice on the author’s part, are not my cup of tea.

Overall, I felt it to be a bit slow, a bit meandering and melancholic, and a bit difficult to get into for me personally. That being said, I am glad I read it; I think the topics it deals with are important, its characters raw and real, and its prose is polished and emotional. Cover gets five stars tho. 10/10. Could stare at it for hours.

Content Warnings

timbookshelf's review against another edition

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Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

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morningpostreads's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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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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