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sha'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
3.5
Moderate: Bullying, Incest, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Medical content, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Dementia, Emotional abuse, and Body shaming
frankieclc's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Dementia, Child abuse, and Medical content
Moderate: Drug use and Sexual content
Minor: Incest
spinesinaline's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Dementia, and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts
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
franceselsie'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
3.75
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.
Moderate: Cursing, Death, and Sexual content
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
bookynooknook's review against another edition
3.5
Minor: Abandonment, Sexual content, and Dementia
kylan's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Sexual content
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
ansh777's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Sexual content