Milktooth
Jaime Burnet’s delicate, striking novel Milktooth chronicles the horrors of abuse and the life-giving power of friendships and found family.
When Sorcha meets dashing, butch Chris, she wants to create a family with her. The two dream of raising a baby in a charming cottage by the sea. Sorcha’s friends are wary of her new lover, though, because of Chris’s controlling nature and sporadic bursts of anger.
When Chris promises Sorcha a life of domestic bliss in Cape Breton, Sorcha ignores her friends’ concerns, quits her steady job, and uproots her life, hoping to achieve her dream of motherhood. However, as Chris’s violent outbursts grow more extreme and Sorcha becomes more isolated from her friends, her dream slips away.
When Sorcha becomes pregnant, she decides to leave Chris, escaping to Scotland to live with her estranged Aunt Agnes. Buoyed by Agnes’s warmth and care, Sorcha reflects on her past with fresh eyes. The two make discoveries about their experiences escaping the religious fundamentalism of their childhoods. As new life grows inside her, Sorcha begins to imagine an alternate future, anchored in the light of friendship, queer community, and found family.
Funny, lyrical, and elegant, the book explores the complexities of queer life and motherhood as Sorcha moves from domestic abuse into newfound autonomy. Moving from the icy beaches of Nova Scotia to the foggy plains of the Scottish Highlands, it probes the depths of Sorcha’s world as she comes to new realizations about her identity, desires, and hopes for the future.
Milktooth is a stirring, reflective novel that wrestles with trauma and makes a compelling case for alternative forms of family, love, and self-determination.
Reviewed by
Bella Moses
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
