I was so excited for this book but was let down. It's a DNF for me.

I'm not a fan of the writing style, it seems written in a way that is for younger readers but the language would make me hesitate to hand it off to a younger reader so it doesn't quite fit into middle grade or young adult for me. I think I may just not mesh well with this author's writting which makes me sad because as a diabetic myself I was hoping to find some relatable feelings in these words but I'm not having a good time with the way the story is written unfortunately.

Books like this give YA genre more diversity and people can see that YA is more than cute romcom stories, they're real stories, important ones. Loved this book and I'm glad I could read, maybe I'll really buy one day because we need such books in this world.

This is one of those gorgeous, angry books that sucks you into the protagonist’s head, where you get caught in the middle of their frustration, depression, and personality quirks without being able to look away for 350 pages. Sugar is a heavy read, but it’s a super, super interesting one, exploring a messy family and a cluster of messy characters but ending on a tentatively positive note. The characterisation of the kids and teenagers all being obsessed with illness and apocalypses because they’re sick of living in suspense that Something Is About To Go Wrong and just want everything to crash and burn already, is so goddamn interesting.

Sugar from Carly Nugent was a book that felt like it could have been flushed out more. Persephone is a likeable character who has diabetes. Her disease and how people treat her because of it is very illuminating, especially as it is one of the "silent diseases" that many people don't understand. Persephone and Steven are interesting and Alexander is horrible but I don't feel like I was too invested in any of their stories.

I enjoyed what I read! It was more juvenile than I thought it would be so I was a little disappointed and DNF’d it. I would still recommend it! Just to people I know read more YA themed books.

Sugar by Carly Nugent was an interesting read! I don't think I've ever read something in a similar style or storyline. The protagonist in this book is Persephone and after losing her dad in a car crash and being diagnosed with diabetes, she's trying to figure out what she did so terrible wrong to be punished in such a way.

Sugar is an explorative story full of confusion and anger. It truly feels like Persephone is going through the various stages of grief and tries very hard to make sense of her world. The family dynamics in this book are also very unexpected as Persephone's mom is neglectful and seems to care more about her best friend who is in an abusive relationship.

Not sure if I liked this book or just disliked the characters, but there was a lot going on here.

A story about grief and confusion. A young girl who lost her dad and then she found out she has diabetes. She tries to have to find balance, to understand the world, what happens and why. The book talks about the hardships that a bunch of different people face through its characters. One of my favourite and realistic (for me) coming of age books.

Sugar was a really intriguing read. I loved the whole suspense created through the disagreement between the protagonist and another character and the reasons given for this at the end. A good overall message about being kind as you never know what other people are experiencing.
I also think this book should be read by young readers due to its portrayal of living with diabetes. It’s so important for young readers to have people represent them in books/films etc.
There are quite a few mature themes and language choices in this book so I would recommend it to older teens.

I am drawn to books about angry girls. Girls who are hurting. Girls who feel like they deserve bad things. And also anything with chronic illness rep. And this is what drew me to Sugar.

Persephone (I love the name!) is angry. Her father died a year ago, and she feels partly responsible. She’s angry that her body doesn’t work—she has diabetes—and she’s angry at the people around her. Her mother is a complex character, clearly hurting, clearly grieving, and not really being there for Persephone.

And then Persephone discovers a body. It’s a woman, and she feels she knows her. Feels there’s a connection to her. She becomes obsessed with finding out who this woman is and she gains access to her Facebook account—and pretends to be her. She replies to messages as the dead woman and then gets close to the woman’s best friend, who’s also grieving, and was in love with her.

Normally, if I read about a character taking on a dead person’s identity, I wouldn’t feel sympathetic toward them. But with Persephone, you know she’s not doing it maliciously. She’s doing it to try and understand things better. She’s doing it as an outlet for her anger, as a coping mechanism. Her actions make sense.

While Persephone is struggling with identity—her own, her family’s, and that of the dead woman—we also see her struggle with diabetes. She feels she got this illness because of what she did that led to her dad’s death. She sees it as a punishment, and we see her spiral deeper and deeper, refusing to take care of herself.

Other storylines focus around bush fire in Australia that forces her and her family to temporarily leave their home, her cousin’s obsession with wanting a chronic illness of his own (likely due to the trauma he has from being abused by his step dad), Persephone’s ‘relationship’ with a boy and having sex for the first time, and her anger issues at school.

This book was emotionally heavy at times. But it is exactly the type of book I love.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

The word that comes to mind immediately about this book is angry. Persephone is angry. At her mom, at her dad, at the world, at her diabetes. Mostly, though, she's angry with herself. When she finds the body of a young woman in the bush, she's determined to find out what she did to deserve her death.

My heart breaks for this kid. Throughout much of this book, she is so angry and lost. She's brittle to the o]point of shattering and needs help. Her mother is distant, leaving her alone in her grief. Persephone sees her diabetes as punishment for her father's death, which she feels she caused. She is deeply depressed and so very angry that it hurts the reader. There were times that tears filled my eyes because she was self-destructive, and no one seems to see or care until it was almost too late.

I will say the first few chapters I wasn't sure how I felt about this book, but the more I read, the more I saw that Persephone wasn't just a stuck-up teenager with a chip on her shoulder. She was in such deep pain with no outlet, needing answers about things that don't have answers, and punishing herself for something that she didn't cause. It's beautifully written and I'd say it's haunting because this book keeps popping up in my mind at random moments.

The book was archived before I could read it. The star rating is a placeholder as it was not possible for me to read the book.

I love so much about this book, but I think I may struggle to sell it to some of our schools.

The story is great, not only does it have a main characters who has been recently diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, and is struggling to cope with all that this new normal entails. This diagnosis also coincides with the death of her father, and the guilt she feels surrounding hos death... this part of the story slowly unravels as we read.

The writing is very atmospheric. The story takes place during an extreme heatwave, it feels ominous, and as a reader this adds to the sense of despair, and also the anticipation of waiting for the weather to break....we're kind of waiting for the something big to happen.

The book also deals with the very serious issue of domestic violence, and how, in this case a woman, can be drawn back into a relationship that is dangerous, but keeps going back because this person has such emotional power over you.

The one thing that schools may have an issue with is the language. On page 6, we have the 'c' word, F-ing C in fact. I don't have a problem with it, in fact I actually like that Persephone starts to question what this word means. Why is a word, a word used to describe a female body part, considered so offensive, and what would make someone use it. It may just mean this book is bumped up into senior fiction on secondary schools as opposed to the general collection. I look forward to some discussions with schools about this one.

4 / tw: death, abuse, suicide discussed, cancer, bullying, needles, car accident, fire, monitoring of food etc.

The beginning of the book isn’t at all representative for what it ended up being. It started off slow, of course, introductory chapters but more than a quarter in, our main character still felt so far away. You get that she is grieving and that she feels guilty for the death of her father, you get her frustration and where her attitude comes from and you are made well aware of her condition but it is only halfway or so through the book that Nugent finally proves how much more this story is about.

The story is, in truth, an accurate depiction of the unpredictability that life implies. It’s not just about Persephone’s diabetes, her dad’s death or the bush fires that felt so immediate and of such actuality you felt immersed in every aspect of those late chapters, but about family, friendship and finding your true self.

There is a little mystery involved too, that wouldn’t exactly fit in a Poirot novel but one that made *Sugar* even more interesting. That being said, it is a solid 4 from me and I would absolutely love reading a young adult novel from the author in the future.

Thank you NetGalley and Text Publishing for an early arc of this in exchange for an honest review.

Persephone, the protagonist, is full of grief and anger and does not know how to control it in a healthy way. However, her biggest emotion is guilt due to blaming herself for her Dad's death. The night of his funeral she receives a diabetes diagnosis and immediately takes it as a sign she's being punished. Persephone is written in a way that made me want to root for her to feel better throughout. It is not until she finds the body of a young woman and delves into her life, that she hits rock bottom and unknowingly begins the healing process. Overall I love that she's a flawed, but loveable and relatable character. I also love the inclusion of information about diabetes and how well it integrated into the story.

Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not exactly sure how to put this review into words, this book was not what I was expecting. It was a real in a sense, and sometimes that feeling is hard to put to words.

characters- I feel like I didn't really get to know the main character, Persephone at the beginning, she was closed off, and hard to understand, at least in my viewpoint of the book. Later on though, she became more understandable.

I had a really hard time with the spacing, and the dynamic of the novel, it took my awhile to read, and honestly I am glad that it did, because it was real, but I wasn't expecting it and that's probably why. I just don't think it was for me, and that's sad, but it happens

A really tough read as a YA book, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. There's a lot of pain, grief, and trauma in this book and can be triggering to some. I feel like I learned a lot from looking at this believable character's life. Great read!

This was an intense read. But it does have beautiful prose. I'm not sure this should be a book for teens as there is a lot of language and it deals with grief, death, and abuse. I know that Persephone is a teen dealing with these things but it is a very dark underlying book.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC.

This book had a few comments toward the beginning that made me uncomfortable, and while I think it’s wonderful to see books with diabetes rep, this one just wasn’t it for me. I think others would enjoy though!!

DNF at 30%.
This is just not my kind of book. That’s just my preference, there was nothing to dislike about the book up to where I read to.

It was well written, the words flowed nicely, I just wasn’t sucked into the story.

This was such a great surprise of a book.

The story is about Persephone and how she lives with diabetes and grief throughout her adolescence.

This book was beautifully written which made me want to turn the page every time I finished one.

5/5 would recommend:)

(Got the arc from NetGalley)