A review by bethantg
Sugar, Baby by Celine Saintclare

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

2.5

An interesting concept but unfortunately lacks insight — lots of themes broached, very few explored in much depth. I liked the relationships between Agnes and Marlena, but would have liked more on her relationships with her friends. The girls from the flat are introduced in a pretty one-dimensional way, which is clever in that it makes them easy to differentiate between, but disappointingly they stay like this throughout — even Emily and Yomawu, who I really think had a lot more potential for development. 

The thing that sticks in my head is the bit about Agnes' Instagram account, since it was built up quite a bit and had no actual pay-off; this maybe would have been more worthwhile if Agnes and Jess' argument and relationship had been developed more, but instead Agnes just talks about feeling a bit miffed with Jess and then changes her mind, when her initial annoyance isn't really given any explanation either. She didn't seem annoyed, then said later that she was, then as I say she just changes her mind.
There are lots of characters but even the main character lacks consistency and well-roundedness. It's very unfortunate as I think this book could have done something really interesting if it was just more fleshed-out and polished.

The writing was very easy to read for the most part, but was sometimes way too conversational. I will say that the visual descriptions were done really well — easy to picture without taking away from the story — so I could often be properly immersed in the setting. I just wish this was the same for the characters.
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