Sugar, Baby
Books | Fiction / Women
3.5
Celine Saintclare
From a dazzling new voice, a bold, intoxicating novel that shows "the grit alongside the glamor" (Vogue) of high-paid sex work in the age of the internet. Sugar, Baby follows Agnes, a mixed-race 21-year-old whose life seems to be heading nowhere. Still living at home, she works as a cleaner and spends all her money in clubs on the weekends searching for distractions from her mundane life. That is until she meets Emily, daughter of one of her cleaning clients, who lives in London and works as a model . . . and a sugar baby, dating rich older men for money. Emily's life is the escape Agnes has been longing for-extravagant tasting menus, champagne on tap, glamorous hotels with unlimited room service, designer gifts from dates who call her beautiful. But this new lifestyle is the last straw for her religious mother Constance. Kicked out of her family home, Agnes moves in with Emily and the other sugar babies in their fancy London flat and is drawn deeper and deeper into their world. But these women come from money: they possess a safety net Agnes does not. And as she is thrown from one precarious relationship to the next-a married man who wants to show off the glamourous, exotic girl on his arm; a Russian billionaire's wife who makes Agnes central to a sex party in Miami-she finds herself searching for fulfillment just as desperately as she was before. A compelling journey of self-discovery that offers sharp commentary on race, beauty, and class, Sugar, Baby is an electric, original, spellbinding novel that will keep readers turning the pages until the very end.
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Author
Celine Saintclare
Pages
304
Publisher
Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Published Date
2024-01-09
ISBN
1639732527 9781639732524
Community ReviewsSee all
"I thought this book was brilliant. It tackled a lot of really complex themes and messages like religious shame, class, race, exploitation and the impossible standards placed on women by society. The whole thing was very message and character driven so it just felt like a snapshot of a girl’s summer where she got a little over her head when entering the world of sugaring. I really enjoyed Agnes as a character. She’s complex and she doesn’t really understand why she does the things she does. It felt real and nuanced. The whole book was about how you can’t truly have an identity if you are constantly seeking external validation, and Agnes’s journey of finding her own morals and beliefs through breaking herself down for others really showcased that. The whole book isn’t black or white; it never tells you how you should feel about sugaring as a whole. It’s left for you to decide. Which I liked that Saintclare played within the shades of gray; life isn’t cut and dry, so her narrative wasn’t either.The character dynamics were also really interesting, especially with the other sugar babies, and I wish we got more time with each one to see their developments. My chief complaints with the book was that it may have been a bit too self-aware and I wish the ending wasn’t so abrupt, but its ambiguity fit the overall vibe of the book so I can’t be too mad at it. A really good debut novel that makes you think in my opinion."
Madeline Glanton
"This book is beautiful, dark, deep and hopeful…all at the same time. It’s a coming-of-age story that dives into the deep end of the dark parts of society and shines a light on race, class, beauty, sexual commerce, self-exploitation and power. Agnes is a mixed race twenty-one-year-old whose life is heading nowhere. She lives in the suburbs outside of London with her super religious mom, working as a cleaner and spending her weekends at the clubs to escape. When Agnes befriends her client’s daughter Emily, she is sucked into the glamorous life of influencers, models and sugar babying (dating rich men for money). Emily’s life is everything Agnes ever dreamed of, but will it end up costing her everything? There are times you want to tell Agnes to turn back and run, but you also know she won’t listen to you. I was sucked into Agnes’ life and had to keep going just to find out how things would work out for her, it’s easy to see how she would get caught up in the sugar baby world but it’s also like watching a slow-motion train wreck. It’s hard to believe that this was a debut novel. The characters are rich and nuanced, and the setting almost makes you believe that you would fall for it all too. This book is perfect for people who enjoy Luster and My Dark Vanessa."
Nicole Falche
