Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez

17 reviews

arlaubscher's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Xenophobia, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Addiction, Alcohol, Car accident, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Classism, Colonisation, Homophobia, Racism, and Cursing

Moderate: Cancer, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Misogyny

Minor: Miscarriage and Adult/minor relationship

bookshelfhannah's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Classism, Outing, Racial slurs, Racism, Drug use, Hate crime, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Alcohol, Bullying, and Drug abuse

maddb_96's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Rape, Drug use, Homophobia, Death of parent, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Slavery

areadingstan's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring 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

4.75

‘What was life about other than to find someone whom you could share everything? Every thought, every success, every drama?’

This novel had been on my list for a long while, the final catalyst to read it being @sallygalulareads book club ‘Diversify Your Reading’. I got it out for the library without much expectation, but this turned out to be a masterpiece. 

Rainbow Milk follows a young black boy named Jesse, who leaves behind an oppressive family structure in the Black Country and moves to London, with no concrete plans but the hope that he can be himself there. During his time in London, we follow along with Jesse’s experience exploring the gay scene, and settling into his queer identity that he had repressed for so long. We see him decide to become a sex worker in order to make ends meet in an environment filled with people who don’t see him as an equal. 

I thought this was such a fresh and realistic coming-of-age story, and Mendez has really captured how it feels to be lost somewhere new, to not know where your life is going, but he still makes us feel like it is going to be OK. Mendez’s writing is also so intimate and vivid that I felt we were allowed to know so much of Jesse even though the narration was in the third person, and I felt very connected to him. 

The descriptions are filled with so much detail, but it doesn’t feel overwhelming, more like Mendez is building up layers and layers of the city like a painting. It reminded me a lot of Bryan Washington’s Memorial, in the sense that there was a clear focus and theme that seemed to bring people together; in Washington’s novel this was food, but in Mendez’s, music filled this role. It was such a huge part of Jesse’s identity, and affected the way he saw himself and the world around him. 

The book dealt with issues like racism, sex work, AIDS and family trauma (definitely check TWs) in a tender way, that showed us the experiences Jesse had and how they influenced his choices, but Mendez also showed us that Jesse is more than his trauma and negative experiences, and he was able to discover his own family, follow his passions and heal wounds that seemed like they’d never close. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Racism, and Homophobia

stormy_reading's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Racial slurs, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Rape

lidz_2tc's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Fatphobia, Drug use, Medical trauma, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Racism

Minor: Death of parent

helenab18's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, and Child abuse

sauvageloup's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring 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

3.75

I thought I might struggle to get into this since it's partly historical and I thought it might be a bit heavy, but I've raced through it 

Pros:
- gripping and interesting writing throughout, which hooked me in right away. felt enormous sympathy for Norman from the first pages and for Jesse as we got to know him. 
- the characters were painted so vividly that it felt like non-fic at times, like I could look them up online
- Mendez doesn't balk at any of grim realities Jesse faced, the abuse, some of the sex, the homophobia and internalised racism. there's never any shame put on Jesse for his choices by any of the decent characters and it really creates empathy
- I wanted so very badly for Jesse to do well, though I was afraid he wouldn't as there were so many ways he could've gone wrong - overdose, AIDS, or killed by a client. he wasn't like any other character I've read and I loved him
- it was strange but good to hear about the west Midlands in a book, the names of Dudley, Wolverhampton, merry Hill shopping centre, etc. all being familiar. and learning a bit more history of the area from a non-White perspective 
- the book is also firmly placed in time through the music, a lot of which I didn't know, but still created an atmosphere. moving towards the 2000s felt like coming into familiar territory as I knew much more of those ones. 
- as books like these always do, it made me think about my whiteness and what I can do to try to avoid the racism, personal and systemic, that Jesse faces. 
- I did like how the book was structured, with the kind of prologue flashback of Norman's life at the start which eventually linked to Jesse. 
- the book also raises the issue of beating kids as punishment, threatened by Norman and brutally carried out by Graham on Jesse. it's not confronted head on exactly, but I think it was clear it didn't work. 
- oh and I did appreciate that there wasn't any biphobia, since bi people sometimes seem to slip by the wayside, but here were main characters and never dismissed or not included or acknowledged. 

cons:
- I wish we had seen a bit more of Norman, since i liked him a lot, and it was tragic (but understandable I guess) that Jesse didn't get to meet his father. 
- I felt that the shift from Jesse being 'Not Okay' to him being 'Okay' was too sudden, skipped over in time hops and summerised through flashbacks. After all of Jesse's suffering, to have seen that growth and recovery in the present tense would've been more rewarding I think, though I suppose Mendez thought it was the boring part of Jesse's story, his stay with Derrick, finding Owen and Ginika again, etc. I felt a bit robbed that we didn't get that part of the story. 
- the part with Jean-Alain and Nick's dinner party right at the end, threw me a little too, but I suppose it was for the purpose of Jesse having that chat with J-A about the past. did feel stuck on the end though, like it was an extra scene randomly shoved into the main story. 

overall, though, it was hugely readable and gripping, with a lot of important narratives and ideas in there, stories which haven't been the focus in the past, and highlighting the everyday racism and homophobia people still experience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Car accident, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Classism, Physical abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Addiction, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Violence, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Racism

heavy, graphic sex and drug use, along with child abuse by a parent and religious bigotry

uranaishi's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Child abuse, Cursing, Medical content, Mental illness, Outing, Racism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Self harm, and Sexual content

Moderate: Blood, Bullying, Car accident, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, Violence, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

Minor: Cancer, Cultural appropriation, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Slavery, and Terminal illness

darkmattersoybean's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Drug use, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Miscarriage