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sha's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Dementia, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
franksalot's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed some parts of this book's writing but overall the pacing and timeline of it was so off
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Dementia
Moderate: Drug use and Sexual content
Minor: Incest
spinesinaline's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Possibly the most shocking opening line after that beautiful cover, “I would be lying if I say my mother’s misery has never given me pleasure”. I knew this would not be a lighthearted read from that start but this was a very intense, visceral read.
Antara has an incredibly complicated relationship with her mother, who appears to be developing dementia. As Antara struggles to care for her, and get her family and medical team to believe her worsening condition, we flash through Antara and Tara’s past, often flitting through memories at random and out of order.
The author does an excellent job at disorienting the reader and each time I thought I had a read on the MC, she would reveal something new that would twist everything I thought I knew! It’s a tricky story, dark and emotional and a little sinister and I was absolutely hooked.
Antara has an incredibly complicated relationship with her mother, who appears to be developing dementia. As Antara struggles to care for her, and get her family and medical team to believe her worsening condition, we flash through Antara and Tara’s past, often flitting through memories at random and out of order.
The author does an excellent job at disorienting the reader and each time I thought I had a read on the MC, she would reveal something new that would twist everything I thought I knew! It’s a tricky story, dark and emotional and a little sinister and I was absolutely hooked.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Dementia
Moderate: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Pregnancy
grace_cr1's review against another edition
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
sunnymushroom's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Dementia
Moderate: Physical abuse, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Classism
Minor: Pedophilia, Rape, and Slavery
franceselsie's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
“We are all unreliable.” This is the line that really resonates with me having completed this book. Overall the novel is quite slow paced and follows a daughter reflecting on her complicated relationship with her mother. The last quarter of this book is particularly gripping, and makes you question a lot of what has been presented previously.
I found one or two of the chapters a bit jarring (such as the chapter when Tara and Antara first visit the Ashram) as they seemed to break the flow of the narrative a bit, but the conclusion and ending is great. I think this novel will stay with me for some time.
I found one or two of the chapters a bit jarring (such as the chapter when Tara and Antara first visit the Ashram) as they seemed to break the flow of the narrative a bit, but the conclusion and ending is great. I think this novel will stay with me for some time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Death, and Sexual content
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
bookynooknook's review against another edition
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual content, Dementia, and Abandonment
kylan's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This book was honestly a strange mixture of things for me. There were specific parts of this book that made me uncomfortable and in my opinion unsettling. But, overall, I think what made reading this book a one-of-a-kind experience. Specifically, the depicted relationship between mother and daughter. Mother-daughter dynamics are wonderful but incredibly complicated. I think that these relationships have another layer of complexity to them because this book takes place outside of the western world, where social dynamics between children and parents are different.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content
writtenontheflyleaves's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi ✏️
🌟🌟🌟🌟
✏️ The plot: Antara's mother Tara is forgetting things. They've never had a good relationship and now not only does Tara need Antara's help, but she doesn't remember the cruelties she inflicted upon her daughter that make her so bitter towards her. As her mother's memory frays, so does Antara's grip on her own identity, and she becomes aware of how heavily she and her mother rely on each other to know themselves.
Burnt Sugar was a mixed bag. It's an apt title for what is a very bitter love story between a mother and daughter, and I think there's something very truthful in the double bind Antara is in throughout. I think it's often in the relationships where we feel the deepest love and need for the other person that we also feel the strongest resentment and anger towards them, and Doshi conveyed that brilliantly, and in gorgeous prose. I really wanted to love it.
But, if I'm being honest, I didn't love it, or at least not all of it. At the start, the narration felt kind of detached and resigned, which worked well for the character but as a reader it felt a bit like the usual bored-sounding literary fiction stuff. Once I got to read more about Tara's youth and Antara's childhood, I became deeply invested, finally feeling like I got a sense of what they meant to each other - then I was spat out of it again at the end, back into Antara's problems with her husband and a pregnancy that didn't totally make sense to me except as a conclusion to the themes of the book. There's something real and alive in this novel that I loved, I just lost the thread of it I think.
✏️ Read it if you like to read about complicated parental relationships and particularly how mothers and daughters shape each other's identities. The descriptions of the setting in Pune, India are also super vivid.
🚫 Avoid if pregnancy, childhood abuse and neglect, and dementia are themes you're avoiding in your reading right now, and if you want a sliver of hope to emerge out of themes of bitterness and anger!
🌟🌟🌟🌟
✏️ The plot: Antara's mother Tara is forgetting things. They've never had a good relationship and now not only does Tara need Antara's help, but she doesn't remember the cruelties she inflicted upon her daughter that make her so bitter towards her. As her mother's memory frays, so does Antara's grip on her own identity, and she becomes aware of how heavily she and her mother rely on each other to know themselves.
Burnt Sugar was a mixed bag. It's an apt title for what is a very bitter love story between a mother and daughter, and I think there's something very truthful in the double bind Antara is in throughout. I think it's often in the relationships where we feel the deepest love and need for the other person that we also feel the strongest resentment and anger towards them, and Doshi conveyed that brilliantly, and in gorgeous prose. I really wanted to love it.
But, if I'm being honest, I didn't love it, or at least not all of it. At the start, the narration felt kind of detached and resigned, which worked well for the character but as a reader it felt a bit like the usual bored-sounding literary fiction stuff. Once I got to read more about Tara's youth and Antara's childhood, I became deeply invested, finally feeling like I got a sense of what they meant to each other - then I was spat out of it again at the end, back into Antara's problems with her husband and a pregnancy that didn't totally make sense to me except as a conclusion to the themes of the book. There's something real and alive in this novel that I loved, I just lost the thread of it I think.
✏️ Read it if you like to read about complicated parental relationships and particularly how mothers and daughters shape each other's identities. The descriptions of the setting in Pune, India are also super vivid.
🚫 Avoid if pregnancy, childhood abuse and neglect, and dementia are themes you're avoiding in your reading right now, and if you want a sliver of hope to emerge out of themes of bitterness and anger!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Dementia, Grief, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Sexual content
ansh777's review against another edition
dark
emotional
lighthearted
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
The writing in this book is actually out of this world. The story of Tara and Antara is just really well written and it was great. It got confusing at times, but it was good at provoking emotions.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content