Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi- Review

Sometimes I read something and I feel deep in my bones that other people need to read it to. This is one of these books. It's dark and unflinching, a look at childhood neglect and how it affects our main character into adulthood. In short it is unmissable.

The plot of this book is as sad as it is simple. Antara was subjected to years of neglect from her Mother and hideous behaviour. Now Antara's mother has dementia and is falling apart in front of her.

It's a book full of flashbacks and melancholy that just haunts you as you read it. For the first 50 or so pages I was interested but not compelled to keep reading and then suddenly I couldn't put it down. I was completely hooked by Antara's voice and how slowly she starts to fall apart while her world gets smaller and smaller.

In fact that was something mirrored throughout both Antara and her mother's experiences their worlds shrink around them. Antara fights it while her mother is unable to. It's a fascinating touch and all the side characters seem to get stranger and stranger around them, crowding them into even smaller bubbles. 

The descriptions are quite spare but you can see everything. The words are near haunting with this amazing ability to paint Antara's life and everything around it in technicolour.

This book is honestly one of my favourites I've read this year. It's a tough but rewarding read.