The writing is quite funny throughout! Saucy, playful. Then Old Love, New Direction appears, and Chloe thinks, “Good Lord, had called in reinforcements.” You may think the magical realism sounds gimmicky, but it fit seamlessly into the lives of the characters. Chloe keeps throwing the book away, but it follows her around. Out of thin air appears Finding Forgiveness. We meet Chloe when she’s kicking her boyfriend out for admitting an instance of infidelity that happened months ago. They are meant to be the exact book she needs in that exact moment. Another main character named Chloe has books appear out of thin air. But does the item of clothing have power? Josey can also sense when the mail carrier is coming, a man named Adam whom Josey has loved (the book says loved, not crushed on) for three years.
Josey has a lucky red sweater, but at first it’s easy to think she has some lucky object like the rest of us. The Sugar Queen masterfully uses magical realism, and I love me some magical realism. Josey feels she must make up 9 years of bad behavior to her mother by being a companion/servant, one who must care for her mother until the mother’s death and experience no life of her own until then. As is, Josey is meek and obedient because when she was a child, she was the most horrible child in the whole town - that is, until her father died - and no one has forgotten. But when she opens her closet, there sits Della Lee, a waitress who is “rough and flashy and did whatever she wanted.” Della Lee becomes the pervading clairvoyant in Josey’s closet, guiding Josey into the arms of new relationships, causing the 27-year-old heiress to be braver. The Sugar Queen begins with Josey in her room, delighted that it’s getting frosty outside. It’s nice to see a book that shows different kinds of families. Side note: When I was in elementary school, I knew a girl whose father was in his 40s, and I figured he was so old he might as well be dust.
He was in his late 60s when Josey was born, and Josey’s mother was 47, making this an unconventional set of parents. Josey is a wealthy girl whose now-deceased father made their North Carolina town prosperous by setting up a ski resort. While The Sugar Queen is not focused on fat, it is a beautiful novel. Side note: why are those lists STILL full of erotica? Hooray, fat girls, but we’re not fantasy fodder. Apparently, Addison Allen is a beloved author, whom I’ve never heard of! The Sugar Queen was added to my Fat Reads challenge because, if I remember correctly, it is included on several Goodreads lists of “ plus-size protagonists” or other such lists. Many of my blog friends squeed when they heard I was going to read The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen. Content warning: brief fat shaming and a controlling parent who manipulates her child by belittling her.
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