Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Sugar, Baby by Celine Saintclare

8 reviews

midnightmarauder's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Sugar, Baby by Celine Saintclaire follows Agnes, a young woman in her early 20s who's trying to find herself. She feels stagnated in her life, as she's working a dead-end job as a maid for rich residents. The daughter of one of her clients, Emily, sees Agnes' disdain and offers her an alternative: sugaring.

Agnes grew up in a household where she was raised by her single mother, Constance, alongside her sister, Marlena, in a boring town Agnes calls "The Wasteland". Constance, a very religious woman, sheltered her daughters as much as possible and didn't really allow them much room to fly away from the nest. This caused Agnes to resent her and the life she had to live under her mother's watchful eye, which eventually lead her into sugaring. 

Agnes' decision to go into sugaring was definitely something she did initially to spite her mother. After getting caught in a lie about her whereabouts,

Constance puts Agnes out

. She has nowhere to go other than Emily's apartment in London that she shares with shares with three other girls/sugar babies: Yomawu, Sara, and Kiki. There, she is able to continue her endeavors with no judgement. Eventually, she grew to somewhat enjoy it. 

This book covered a lot of different themes. Aside from the theme of parental rebellion, another theme that was explored in the novel was how wanting a better life for yourself could lead you into destructive paths. At first, sugaring wasn't so bad to Agnes. She found one consistent person, Matthew, who she was able to explore with, alongside getting paid. But,

once that fell through

, finding someone else to fill that void took some more effort. The contrast between the amount of work it took for Agnes to make money from sugaring in comparison to her counterparts (i.e., Emily and the rest of the girls in the flat) was pretty big. Especially the amount of effort that her white counterparts (Emily and Sara) had to contribute. Sugaring also became stressful for Agnes when she eventually started to feel overwhelmed at being treated like a sexual object instead of a person (an aspect of sugaring that initially made her reluctant to try it). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Grief, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming

dionnesims's review

emotional lighthearted reflective sad 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

a fantastic debut novel. a Black sugar baby with religious trauma is such a great concept and it's pulled off with nuance and without shame. the writing style is one I had to warm up to, by now I can't wait to read anything else this author writes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Moderate: Eating disorder and Panic attacks/disorders

josie2k's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

veelaughtland's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

sruhsh's review against another edition

dark reflective 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Drug use, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

laurakfinnegan's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol

Minor: Body shaming

erynelle's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

4.0

+ a somewhat dark but fun and humorous account of a sugar baby’s experiences. Saintclare exposes the realities of seemingly glamorous lives, as well as the fact that, at the end of the day, sugaring is sex work and it can take a toll. 
+ I like that Saintclare chose to focus on the relationships between the sugar babies, and the importance they had in each others lives. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Alcohol

aimsro's review against another edition

dark reflective sad 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol