Reviews with content warning for Blood - Burnt Sugar

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.

Content Warnings

bookmaddie's review

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challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

2.5

I must admit that I finished this book primarily because it was short. While the writing style and premise intrigued me at the beginning, as the story wound on the main character just got more and more annoying to me. I feel like the author was trying to embody the ~distant artist~ vibe, which can work in some iterations, but here I found it so odd. She is an artist and clearly thinks abt her practice and emotions in some sense, yet the narrative was so flat—there is no emotional depth here. The main character refuses to address any trauma that she has faced, and while that kind of leads into the bizarre ending, I don't think it was worthwhile. It just made the story feel very shallow.

Besides that, I found the narrative structure to just be a bit lacking and jumpy—quickly going from flashback to present and back again. It was hard for me to form a coherent picture of her present day. I also thought this would be more about her mother's memory loss but instead it devolves into a picture of the main character's trauma—yet doesn't bother to really examine that much in context with her mother's memory loss.

The ending really turned the book on its head, though. I think on one hand, it added a real level of interest when contemplating the story as a whole. But even so, I still feel like it didn't add much to the story to make me like it more. While I understand what Doshi was trying to do with this book, I just feel like it fell flat for me. There was something missing—I think I just wanted more depth and acknowledgement of trauma and memory.

Content Warnings

nakutski's review against another edition

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challenging 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? It's complicated

3.75

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