English / Australia
Sugar
Nugent, Carly
(text)
Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2022. – 350 p.
ISBN 978-1-922-33074-1
Daughter | Father | Death | Guilt | Grief | Diabetes
Reading age: 14+
White Ravens issue: 2022
Last year, everything was ok, but now, Persephone’s life is a string of numbers: From 15.9 to 2.7, from 3.8 to 22.4 – her blood glucose level is on a rollercoaster ride, and she has to be alert to always monitor it, calculate, and inject the right amount of insulin. Her diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes means: »A constant stream of digits and decimal points. An impossible equation.« The sixteen-year-old teen is furious – with her grieving mother, her classmates and former friends, with the world in general; but most of all with herself for deserving such a shitty illness by causing her father’s death. Carly Nugent’s first book for teens tackles several challenging issues including grief and domestic violence. The headstrong protagonist and the wonderful cast of idiosyncratic supporting characters come alive through the author’s raw and moving first-person-narrative. Readers will feel Persephone’s grief and guilt, her fury and fear, as well as her obsession with discovering meaning in this chaotic world. [CS]