This was such a powerful collection of stories!! I don't usually read short story collections but I'm so glad I gave this a chance. I really loved the focus on girlhood, the author did a fantastic job of capturing that time of life. Many of these stories have a dark edge, as girlhood often does, but they were somehow still hopeful. An impressive debut.

i really enjoyed this collection of short stories! very strong writing and deep messages. the stories are real and raw, examining challenging subject matter with grace. i kind of wish Mantiel W. Moniz would have written these all as novels 😫 so many good characters and storylines that i’d to have more of.

themes include girlhood, secrets, family, forgiveness, the damage we inflict on one another, denial, friendship, and much more.

5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

oh side note. i listened to this as an audiobook. first audiobook ever and i’m still unsure about them. but i definitely think it works for me for short stories.

thank you so much @netgalley & @GroveAtlantic for the ARC!

Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz is a fascinating, eloquent, and affecting collection of short stories. The stories are largely about black women and girls in Florida on the precipice of a life change. Each mesmerizing story exposes a lived experience, emotion, and vulnerability. The stories detail romantic and often complicated family relationships, race, and class. I listened to the audiobook, which was masterfully narrated by Machelle Williams, whose soothing voice embodied the range of characters she represented. I was entranced by this collection and it is truly one of the best short story collections I have ever read.

Thank you Grover Atlantic / HighBridge Audio and NetGalley for providing this ebook and audiobook ARC.

Happy Publication Day to Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W Moniz! @deezybotpress
Published by Grove Atlantic @groveatlantic
I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Machelle Williams through Net Galley @netgalley
This is an absolutely bewitching debut collection of stories. The stories focus on Floridian women and girls, as Moniz examines both the darkness surrounding her characters and the darkness within them. I found this collection reminded me of Lauren Groff's 2018 short story collection "Florida" - perhaps in part due to the shared setting of the stories, but Moniz also has a similar visceral understanding of her characters' psyches - providing insight into their most contradictory emotions and their most uncomfortable wants.
These stories are compulsively readable - I listened to the whole audiobook in a matter of a few days. I'll be eager to read whatever Moniz puts out next!

I’m a day late to wish a happy pub day to Milk Blood Heat! Thank you #netgalley, #groveatlantic, and #HighBridgeAudio for this ARC!

I’ll be the first to tell you that I don’t do short stories. I typically feel like I don’t have enough time to get to know the characters, but woah did this collection knock that statement on its head as it pulled me into a dark, twisty net.

While reading this, I felt like a bird mesmerized by a cat’s warble and caught in the enlarged pupil stare. There was a deep understanding of what was coming: death, pain, love, knowledge. The imagery was vivid and the characters immaculately constructed. The author has such a deep understanding of her characters that in a tiny cross section of a life you can understand the hopes, dreams, and ambitions of the characters in the web of forces that brought them there.

This was truly stunning work. The most beautiful thing about reading is the ability to drop into another’s shoes and this book allows the reader to do it repeatedly. Like if you were looking through an old school View Master that dropped you into a story over and over.

Be aware though that these stories are dark, raw, violent, and filled with gut-wrenching emotions. There were times I felt sick and dropped into how I felt in my worst moments, but that’s kind of the beauty of stories like these. The endings are open like life with no tidy close and the chance to look back and wonder. Thank you, Dantiel W. Montiz for sharing this work.

⚠️Serious content warning: ⚠️ suicide, miscarriage, racism, incest, death of a child and parent, religious harm

This is an incredibly cohesive and thematic set of short stories following girls & women processing inner turmoil at various points of their lives. I had such a good sense of the authorial voice and motifs of the stories by the time I had finished the whole collection. Dantiel W. Moniz tackles being a woman, motherhood, new and changing marriages, siblings, adult relationships with parents, working in the restaurant/service industry, and even interracial relationship dynamics.

We have plots following the aftermath of suicide, miscarriage and pregnancies, marriage woes, illness, mother & daughter stories, a brother & sister road trip, and more. In terms of my enjoyment, the stories started off SO strong! I loved the first 4 or so. After that point, I fell into a rhythm of truly enjoying every other story and just appreciating the ones in between (even if they end up being a little forgettable to me). With short story collections, it is hard to love every story, and that is the only reason I am giving this 4 stars instead of 5.

Thanks to Netgalley and HighBridge Audio for an opportunity to listen to this audiobook! I’ve never listened to short stories on audiobook before and I was totally intimidated that I’d get lost by multiple plots, but fortunately that was not an issue because I was able to turn on the sleep timer to end after every story, which gave me some time to reflect on the characters or the themes of that chapter. The only downside is that I didn’t keep track of any of the story names or character names (whoops!). The narrator was a great, smooth reader. Most of the stories focus on women or are narrated by female characters so the voice actor matched tone perfectly.

This debut short story collection set in Florida is simply excellent. Be warned however, that there are possible triggers within the collection that center on miscarriage, incest, abuse, and trauma.
Highly recommended.

What an amazing compilation of raw, realistic, and very honest short stories. I recognized myself in the thoughts of several characters. Thoughts that make me think I could be a bad person, when in reality I’m human and these are thoughts most people think at some point, yet rarely share with others for fear of being judged.

Dantiel has a gift for storytelling, and I feel she brings normal lives to brilliant life, helping her readers to feel seen and heard as they make their way through the book.

Please note there are many subjects in this book that could trigger readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for this advanced audiobook version.

Today is the release date for the beautifully written debut short story collection, MILK BLOOD HEAT by Dantiel Moniz. I was lucky enough to listen to an advance copy of the audiobook courtesy of NetGalley and HighBridge Audio. It's been a long time since I read a collection of short stories, and reading MILK BLOOD HEAT makes me remember how captivating they can be. The audiobook, narrated by Machelle Williams, kept me riveted, and I found myself driving more slowly, walking longer, or shutting out my family's noise(!), so that I could keep listening.

Moniz expertly drops the reader into each character's journey in a moment of turmoil, unfolding their inner conflicts with a richness and texture that made it feel like I was immersed in a much longer work. Each story finds its characters questioning beliefs or their purpose in relationships as they wade through tragedies big and small--a miscarriage, teen depression, a mother's infidelity, a husband's inability to connect with his dying wife, a new marriage already strained, and the recurring theme of both sexist and racial microaggressions. The backdrop for each story is southern Florida, and many of the characters are women or girls of color. As a white woman from the northeast, perhaps I shouldn't recognize myself in these stories, but there I was, nodding along with many of the characters' inner thoughts or recognizing their doubts. These are regular people leading regular lives in the unsure, imperfect way that we do; connecting with them feels both tragic and heartening.

I highly recommend this collection of short stories, and I can't wait to see what else Moniz has in store.

I'm a huge fan of short stories and consider this collection a new favorite. Dantiel W. Moniz makes a meal out of every line she writes. Her delicious vocabulary paints a feast of tantalizing pictures that leave you salivating for one more taste. The first story, 'Milk Blood Heat', left me choked up and pulled me into the illuminating, inner workings of Moniz's mind. I found it refreshing to hear a mix of perspectives among such complex women as they wrestle with adolescence, motherhood, and sexuality. Many of these stories evoked space for reflection on these topics and I feel others will recognize remnants of themselves in these pages. This is a remarkable debut for Moniz and I cannot wait to hold this book in my hands to indulge in the refuge it has to offer.

Thank you to NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

Book • Review

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Happy Release Day to Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz!! 🎉

This year I have decided that I want to make an effort to read more short story collections, and I could not be happier that this was the first collection I picked up. Milk Blood Heat is an incredible set of stories. I have read a few short story collections before, and usually find that there are a couple of amazing stories in the mix with a bunch of okay ones. That is not the case with this collection. Moniz does such an incredible job of unveiling the honesty of humanity within each of her characters, I found myself immediately engaged by each of their stories. Each story was so sharp and efficient, they felt like tiny jabs at my heart that were so powerful and so moving. None of the stories are very long, but each one holds so much: focusing on life and death, family, our perception of ourselves versus the perception others have of us, faith, loss, hope, and so, so, so much more. Moniz’s writing is so gorgeous and articulate, I have rarely read an author’s works that seem to be so precise with the execution of their prose. I cannot wait to get my hands on whatever she releases next.

There is so much I could say about this collection, but honestly, you just need to read it for yourself. These stories are quite simply amazing. There is not a single dud in this collection. I would say that I absolutely loved 9 of these 11 stories, my favorites being Milk Blood Heat, Feast, The Loss of Heaven, Snow, Thicker than Water, and An Almanac of Bones. I encourage you to pick up this collection as soon as you can!

Thank you Netgalley, Grove Press, and Dantiel W Moniz for an early copy of this amazing book.

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#milkbloodheat#dantielwmoniz#bookish#bookstagram#happyreleaseday#bookreleaseday#review#bookreview#shortstory#shortstories#booklove#arcreview#netgalley#reviewer#bookreviewer#2021release

Milk Blood Heat is such a strong debut. Moniz's prose was captivating and pulled me in so quickly. I just wish I had had a little more time in everyone's lives, but that makes me so excited to see if Dantiel W Moniz releases full-length novels in the future. My favorite stories in the collection were the ones that revolved around younger characters. The coming of age tales all had this raw magnetism.

Milk Blood Heat
Short Stories
by: Dantiel W. Moniz

Published: out today

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

A little honesty here. I sometimes struggle with #shortstories. I like to jump into a book and hang out there awhile, immerse myself in the world, get to know the characters, ponder a bit.

And I feel like sometimes short stories are just too short to accomplish all of the things needed in order for the story to feel complete.

However, I love #shortstorycollections where the stories are in some way tied together. One great example of this is HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES by Carmen Maria Machado.

Back to #milkbloodheat
MILK BLOOD HEAT weaves a ribbon through each story with the same continuous tone regardless of subject matter. I felt the bridge from one story to the next was seamless.

The writing was superb. The passages were introspective and thoughtful. I ended the book feeling like I had found a new voice I wanted to hear more from.

I highly recommend this in both #ebook and #audiobook format.

Thanks to #netgalley #highbridgeaudio #groveatlantic #grovepress #dantielwmoniz
For the copies of this book in exchange for my review. It was a pleasure!

Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz is a gripping collection of short stories that will stick with you long after the last page.

Set in the cities and suburbs of Florida, themes of faith, girlhood, violence, and family are explored.

While the collection feels a bit uneven, with some of the stronger stories being front loaded, it’s still one worth reading and a writer to definitely watch.

Machelle Williams beautifully narrates the audiobook. Run time is 5 hours and 31 minutes.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

Rating: 4 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free copy

This was a lovely debut collection. Dantiel Moniz's writing reminds me of Jesmyn Ward in how beautifully she captures girlhood and, often connected, grief. I do wish I had read the book rather than listened; the narrator felt flat to me at times, and I think for the style reading would be the better choice.

This was stunning. While I'm not usually an avid short story reader, Dantiel W. Moniz has just converted me to this genre. Milk Blood Heat is a collection of impeccably written, literary stories with a heavy focus on darkness and girlhood, something I could truly relate to at this moment.

It is, nonetheless, a pretty dark book, so heads up on that - it is heartbreakingly stunning.

I really enjoyed the first 2 stories of this book, but then I kept zoning out during the rest. I would skip to the next story in hopes of it being better, but then I lost track of what was going on again. So, this one was not for me.

This is a very good collection of contemporary short stories. What stands out most to me is Moniz's ability to build complex, fully formed characters in such a few number of pages. Many of the stories focus on the tumultuous relationships between mothers and daughters, and in particular I think Moniz shapes girlhood, girl's bodies and the dawn of adulthood with such raw and emotional truth. That being said, my favorite story has the only POV from a male (adult) character, whose insecurities and entitlements had me thinking about it for days. The collection is not necessarily dark, but raw and real, seeped in themes that define the human experience - including identity, race, trauma, sex and desire, motherhood, coming-of-age, class and family.

My critiques would be that the audiobook narration is poor (read this in print), the story "Exotics" felt incongruous, and there wasn't a strong sense of place in many of the stories. Since the book blurb makes sure to highlight in the first sentence that the collection takes place in Florida, I have to assume that it was supposed to feel more tied to that location.

Overall, this is a really strong collection of short stories from a debut author - and I would totally read what she comes out with next. Plus, that cover is beautiful!! You'll enjoy this if you also liked [book:Heads of the Colored People|35297351] and [book:What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky|31522415].

I voluntarily obtained an audiobook version of this book free from Netgalley and HighBridge Audio in exchange for an honest review!

Milk Blood Heat is a powerful and exquisitely written short story collection exploring themes of loss, family, and connectivity. I love that each of these stories, while unique, has a common thread in both the setting and mood of the story. The glimpses into suburban Florida life and the Black experience will leave you wanting more in the best possible way.
The characters are all raw, unfiltered, messy, and compelling and the looks into their lives will give you plenty to think about. Moniz is definitely an author to watch.
The audio for this book is filled with emotion and was a perfect way to experience these stories.
Many thanks to HighBridge Audio and NetGalley for the ALC.

Notable Quote: “She was of that special age where she knew both nothing and everything, and no matter where or at whom she looked, she saw her own reflection glimmering back like a skim of oil. She could be anyone, still.” - Dantiel W. Moniz, Milk Blood Heat

Don’t let the sunny cover fool you, this short story collection is not for the faint of heart. The only consistent factor in each of these stories was violence, and it’s enacted in all sorts of different ways. Most of the stories center on women and girls and their own particular horrors. There’s a lot to dissect here and I’m sure this collection will provide an extensive opportunity for examination for those who choose to dive deeper. Moniz is an undeniably talented writer and surely one to watch.

If anything, I think my only complaint about this is that I began to feel a little desensitized and apathetic after reading these stories in succession. Nonetheless, the stories were all compelling and engaging (in their own sad and anxiety inducing way).

I’m rating this book 3 stars instead of 4 only because I listened to it as an audiobook and the narration fell a bit flat for me (potentially contributing to the apathy described above).

Recommended for: Lovers of dark and twisty things