milktooth by Jaime Burnet | The Miramichi Reader

You can both love and fear a novel, I think. Or at least that was so in the case of milktooth by Jaime Burnet. I loved it because it’s full of love and coziness and healing, even in complex, under-reported situations. I feared it because of how well Burnet conveyed psychological abuse in a romantic relationship, and how easily a person can explain it away as their fault, and how deeply damaging it can be. Burnet tells a really challenging story here with a lot of care, tenderness, and heart. And even though I had a strong reaction to the depiction of psychological abuse, I did ultimately feel that milktooth was a novel that not only nourished and cared for its characters, but also the readers who travelled with Sorcha on her journey.

milktooth was a novel that not only nourished and cared for its characters, but also the readers who travelled with Sorcha on her journey.

Living in an old farmhouse in Creignish, Cape Breton, Sorcha’s not entirely sure how she got there. It was because of Chris, her girlfriend — who swept her off her feet, promised her the world, and then started isolating her, and Sorcha’s now tiptoeing around the house and her entire life. Sure, Chris loves her so much that she wants to have a baby together, and sure it’s disappointing that Chris doesn’t want her to go to Halifax for the weekend to see her friends, but this is what Sorcha wanted, right?

They plunge ahead with the future until Sorcha goes through IVF with a sperm donor and realizes she can’t stay with Chris. A guardian angel appears in the form of her estranged Aunt Agnes, who’s finally tracked her down. And so Sorcha manages to get out, running to Scotland, but pregnant. What do you do when you’re finally ready to have a baby, but that baby might tie you to an abuser? And what does that mean when the abuser in question doesn’t have any genetic ties to the baby?

Sorcha is sweet and unsure, and you really do root for her throughout the novel, even when you want to shake her a little bit — it’s easy to say what she should do when living outside of her trauma. Being a thirty-something living in Halifax myself, I loved all of the details Burnet included about the city and the queer culture here. I loved the story of chosen family and finding your way back to them, I loved the healing that Sorcha did while staying with Agnes, and while milktooth doesn’t tie up everything too neatly, it does tie up with hope, and that felt incredibly powerful.

milktooth was an emotional experience for me, but one I really ended up enjoying, despite how challenging it could be on my mind. This is a fantastic book, and I think truly worth the time and care.

Jaime Burnet lives with her family in Mulipjɨkejk/Herring Cove, Mi’kma’ki/Nova Scotia, where she writes, makes music, and walks by the ocean. She practices labour, employment, and human rights law in Kjipuktuk/Halifax.

Publisher: Nimbus Publishing (May 6 2025)
Paperback 8″ x 6″ | 280 pages
ISBN: 9781774713648

Alison Manley

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Alison Manley has ricocheted between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for most of her life. Now in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she is the Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian at Saint Mary's University. Her past life includes a long stint as a hospital librarian on the banks of the mighty Miramichi River. She has an honours BA in political science and English from St. Francis Xavier University, and a Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University. While she's adamant that her love of reading has nothing to do with her work, her ability to consume large amounts of information very quickly sure is helpful. She is often identified by her very red lipstick, and lives with her partner Brett and cat, Toasted Marshmallow.