Kayleigh | Welsh Book Fairy's Reviews > Sugar, Baby

— 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 —

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: Sugar, Baby
𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: N/A
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫(𝐬): Celine Saintclare
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Contemporary
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝: 27th July 2023
𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝: 24th June 2023
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 3/5

”Because when all is said and done, being beautiful only offers you a temporary haven. A pedestal to fall from.”

Gosh, I’m not quite sure what to make of this! I definitely enjoyed it but also I am left feeling a little bit bizarre; reflective, triggered, and baffled.

My initial take on this book was that it was scandalous, funny, and filthy. However, it also took itself very seriously, so there’s a lot of tension to be had by reading it. The funny parts are typically from the main characters inner monologue using dry observational humour. The scandal and the filth are much stronger components. Which is great. I love to be scandalized. And I love it when a book acts as a reflection to society.

There are some really interesting themes that are explored, the main one being, of course, sex work. The story provides arguments to both morally support and discourage sex work and I love that it provided this balance. Another strong theme was the religious guilt, not only experienced by the main character, but introduced to other characters too. Wherever sex work goes, slut shaming follows, so this topic was also explored and I actually think that the exploration of this topic was my favourite, it provoked strong emotions in me with the main characters trials in school. The last topic I wanted to mention was substance misuse which is a recurrent theme within the story. It felt to me that the higher the main character went, socially and financially, the more drugs she would take and how the environment somebody takes drugs in factors in a lot to how socially acceptable it is—it’s easier to accept someone snorting coke on a ridiculously expensive marbled counter surrounded by powerful friends than it is to accept someone taking it on a street corner. I think the topic of sex work is also congruent of this.

Agnes is a strange main character. There were times when I would enjoy her and times when I didn’t. Ironically—with all the slut shaming in the novel—she is a really easy MC to judge. It was genuinely so easy to become judgmental of her. But I felt as though I couldn’t see the driving force behind her intentions and behaviour. It made me feel as though she wasn’t fully realised. She reads as though personality has been thrown away in favour of trauma.

Overall, this book is fresh and original and I’d be interested in reading more by the author as they handle complex multi themed storytelling very well.

—Kayleigh🤍
@ Welsh Book Fairy🧚‍♀️✨

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