Book Three: The Sugar Queen

“She accepted it from then on. Books liked her. Books wanted to look after her.”

Rating: Bobby Frasor 

I told you guys in my last review that I'm a sucker for a sappy chick lit, which is why I read The Sugar Queen immediately after finishing The Girl Who Chased the Moon. I was hoping that it would be just as great as the first novel, but I was left disappointed by this one. I understand that some people really like magical realism, and I do, to a certain extent, but this book was just a little too much for me. I had a hard time buying in to everything that happens, and I think that's why it left me with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

 I didn't record any of my thoughts when I originally finished this (which was about a month ago) so I know this review is going to read a little vague. I think the ultimate problem was I disliked the main character, Josey Cirrini. She's so weak and so meek when the novel begins, and although the novel is about her stepping out of her shell and breaking free from that weakness, the idea of a grown woman being so cowed by her elderly mother that she has to eat sweets in secret in her closet was off putting to me. I felt sorry for her, and I wanted her to have a happy ending, but I just couldn't get behind her character. 

I also had problems with the friend that Josey finds as the novel progresses. Josey slowly befriends Chloe Finley, a woman close to her age, who runs a sandwich shop and has just ended a relationship with her boyfriend who cheated on her. Chloe is followed by books. They show up wherever she is and they are books that are relevant to things she needs. For example after breaking up with her boyfriend, a book titled Finding Forgiveness begins to follow her around her shop and apartment. Although I was wicked jealous of the fact that all of these books show up for Chloe to read, I thought that they send kind of the wrong message. Finding Forgiveness and other similarly titled books begin to follow Chloe immediately after breaking up with her boyfriend. This would be cute, but since he cheated on her I feel that she deserves to be angry and she deserves to think about leaving him permanently, but I think the books seem to push the message that cheating is acceptable and she should get over it and get back with Jake. It does take them the length of the novel to reconcile, but the message from the books consistently bothered me.

I liked this novel, it was a fun read for the summer, but I won't pick it up again, and I'll be left with the thought that it could have been so much better.