Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

8 reviews

dafni's review against another edition

dark reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Dementia

Moderate: Sexual harassment and Toxic relationship

Minor: Infidelity

5aru's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A strong, raw exploration of motherhood and trauma through Antara's troubled eyes. Even though the book is very specifically focused on her individual struggle with her past and her complex, toxic relationship with her mother, there is much about her experience that is universal. The description of those feelings - of insufficiency, of stagnation, of bottled anger and unmet needs, of desperation and entrapment - is really what makes this novel, and drives it directly to the heart.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia and Pregnancy

Moderate: Vomit, Excrement, Dysphoria, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, and Body shaming

sabotheking's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Drug use, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Torture, Abandonment, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Body horror, Child abuse, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Infidelity, and Medical content

Minor: Incest

savvylit's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Burnt Sugar's opening sentence sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the novel: "I would be lying if I said my mother's misery has never given me pleasure." What follows that powerful confession is a brutal, raw take on a deeply toxic mother-daughter relationship. From that first sentence until the last, I found myself repeatedly cringing over Antara's seemingly endless suffering and alienation.

The character-driven nature of this story brings the ramifications of intergenerational trauma and neglect into stark relief. Tara is an irredeemably awful mother. Her intense narcissism rears its ugly head over and over again, forcing Antara to always feel as though she is an extension of her mother instead of her own autonomous person. Thus, when her mother loses her memory Antara loses not only her mother but herself. Doshi beautifully describes their intertwined lives in this book, keeping a very dark story continuously compelling.

If you are a fan of dark character-driven novels and poetic writing, add Burnt Sugar to your list!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Child abuse, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body shaming and War

Minor: Incest

waybeyondblue'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? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Dementia, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Sexual harassment

ntvenessa's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

A caustic and provocative telling of a toxic mother-daughter relationship and how they navigate an Alzheimer's diagnosis. Set in Pune.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body shaming, Child abuse, Eating disorder, and Fatphobia

Minor: Abortion, Addiction, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, and Rape

travelseatsreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

I normally enjoy books which are on the more unusual side and tend to make people feel uncomfortable but this one was a bit hit and miss for me.

I enjoyed how Doshi looked at the almost toxic relationship between the character and the mother and thought how she looked back through the different time frames worked well. She made me question at times who was at fault in that moment and what actually did happen in reality.
I also really enjoyed how Doshi displayed just how effected people can be from events in their childhood without at times realising those effects themselves.

However I found I couldn't warm to or connect with any of the characters and found the stereotypical characterization of the "Indians vs Westerners" to be over the top, caricaturistic and wildly negative. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fatphobia, Gore, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Animal cruelty

hannahmayreads's review against another edition

challenging dark funny sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

"I am grieving but it is too early to burn the body."

This is the third book (almost in a row) that I've read recently that features dementia, with the repercussions of the loss forming a central point in the novel. Coincidence or not, and despite each book being very different, it is a thread that will always bind them together in my mind. They (The Last Wave and Ghosts) are all such different stories told by very different writers but the suspended grief of mourning someone who remains only bodily runs through each of them.

The fracturing of her mother's memory sends Antara searching through her own memory. The trauma, the toxicity and the secrets of her past and present are drawn to the forefront of her mind. It is as if her mother's shifting conception of reality is forcing her to reconsider the validity of her own memories. Who is she and did she get here? Are these questions she can even answer? As her mother's memory slips further Antara's own daughter comes into the world, and the mother-daughter relationship shifts again.

"Maybe we would have been better if I had never been designated as her undoing. How do I stop myself from making the same mistake? How do I protect this little girl from the same burden? Maybe that's impossible. Maybe this is wishful thinking."

The cover quote for this book is absolutely spot-on: taut, unsettling, ferocious (Fatima Bhutto in case you were wondering).

"I will never be free of her. She's in my marrow and I'll never be immune."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Grief, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Mental illness and Sexual content

Minor: Infidelity