Milktooth by Jaime Burnet

Milktooth

Jaime Burnet

Nimbus Publishing Limited · Paperback · April 15, 2025

Sorcha is over the hook-ups and gay haunts of her twenties.

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Who it’s for
A darkly funny, lyrical novel about leaving harm behind and imagining family anew.
Genres
Lesbian Fiction, 21st-Century Canadian Fiction, Coming-of-Age
Published
Nimbus Publishing Limited, April 15, 2025

About this book

Sorcha is over the hook-ups and gay haunts of her twenties. At thirty-one what she wants, more than anything, is to have a baby. Then she meets Chris— with her buttoned-up plaid, 90s heartthrob hair, and grand romantic gestures— and things get serious. Fast. Though Sorcha's friends find her new partner problematic, Sorcha has an explanation for everything.

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As Chris's moods turn volatile and Sorcha becomes increasingly isolated, Chris paints an idyllic picture of domestic bliss in Cape Breton. Sorcha is all in: if her conservative religious upbringing taught her anything, it's how to save. Plus, Chris promises Sorcha the thing she wants most—a baby. But when Sorcha becomes pregnant and Chris's abuse escalates, Sorcha realizes she must escape the life they've built together, just as she escaped her own stifling family years before. When Sorcha's estranged Aunt Agnes, a retired midwife, messages Sorcha out of the blue, her bothy in the Scottish Highlands seems the perfect place to hide. As the bundle of cells in Sorcha's belly diligently divides, she daydreams that Agnes will deliver the baby and they'll stay in Scotland, where Chris can't find them. And where, just maybe, Sorcha could build the sort of family she's always ached for. Exploring the clandestinity of queer abuse, the fierceness of friendship, and the magic of found family, milktooth is a bold, inventive, lyrical and darkly funny story about finding the strength to cut away what's harmed you and create something entirely new.

After the Break

A darkly funny, lyrical novel about leaving harm behind and imagining family anew.

Come here for

  • Queer literary fiction that holds abuse and fierce friendship together
  • A wry, searching take on found family and starting anew

Expect

  • Lyrical darkness with a vein of humor
  • An intimate reckoning with harm, escape, and the family one might build

Where it sits

Lesbian Fiction91%
21st-Century Canadian Fiction27%
Coming-of-Age26%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Lesbian Fiction
  • Literary Fiction
  • Women's Fiction
  • Bisexual Fiction
Show all 7 publisher categories
  • Feminist Fiction
  • 21st-Century Canadian Fiction
  • 21st-Century Scottish Fiction
Authors
Jaime Burnet
Publisher
Nimbus Publishing Limited
Published
April 15, 2025
Format
Paperback
Reading lane
Lesbian Fiction