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jillaay_h's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Dementia, Fatphobia, Medical content, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Grief, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, and Dysphoria
sparklesandcupcakes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Toxic relationship
Moderate: Child abuse, Dementia, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Bullying, and Fatphobia
Minor: Gaslighting
grace_cr1's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Mental illness, Alcohol, Blood, Eating disorder, Child abuse, Cursing, and Dementia
sunnymushroom's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Classism, and Abortion
Minor: Pedophilia, Rape, and Slavery
awaywiththefairies's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Dementia
Moderate: Toxic relationship and Mental illness
sophsg88's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Dementia
Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Body horror, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Pregnancy
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
laurataylor's review against another edition
- 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
2.0
Graphic: Abandonment, Body shaming, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Cursing, Death, Dementia, Emotional abuse, and Suicidal thoughts
sabotheking's review against another edition
- 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
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
ellemwan's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
Graphic: Dementia, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Mental illness
Moderate: Abandonment and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Body shaming, Suicidal thoughts, and Physical abuse
writtenontheflyleaves's review against another edition
- 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
🌟🌟🌟🌟
✏️ 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!
Graphic: Grief, Child abuse, Dementia, Mental illness, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Sexual content