A review by jayisreading
Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

This was a fresh collection of short stories that hones in on the everyday lives of Black women (primarily) in Florida and, often, the way they are viewed by society. The protagonist of each story essentially have to reckon with a traumatic event that occurred at some point in their life (or is dealing with at the moment), and Moniz explores this unflinchingly though also with some grace. She dives into uncomfortable territory when it comes to the topics she covers: infidelity, sexual assault, pregnancy/miscarriage, among others. For the most part, I wouldn’t say that these stories are gruesome, but none of them are particularly easy to digest either as she peels away the layers of these women to reveal something deeply complex.

I found the title of this collection particularly interesting and, very cleverly, Moniz interprets at least one of those three words in some fashion within each story. I think “blood” jumped out at me the most, but that might be because this was more visceral than the others, especially in the final story (which was probably my favorite). Relatedly, Moniz is an excellent writer and really has a way with words to draw a reaction out of you. I think despite feeling lukewarm about some of these stories, I was taken to all of them because of her writing. 
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