The front cover of The Sugar Queen features giant swirling peppermints and both covers are sprinkled with words such as "dessert", "bewitching", "irresistible", "sprinkling of magic", and "magical characters and mystical adventures." It would seem this book would be a delightful confection to devour.I'm not entirely sure where all these words (from sources such as Entertainment Weekly and Publishers Weekly, no less) came from. The Sugar Queen isn't bad. It's a charming little story of a twenty-something friendless girl living in her successful father's shadow and under her overbearing, ailing mother's thumb, her only pleasure in life a hidden space in her closet stacked with sweets. When a mysterious woman appears in her closet, Josey's life begins to change. She slowly begins branching out and finding herself, making friends, pursuing her long-time crush, and creating a life for herself.
I enjoyed the story. It was a very pleasant, easy read, full of likable characters. It's just not very well written. There are sentences that remind me of stories I wrote in middle school, obvious, simplistic. The candy motif doesn't really hold up as a metaphor. And the magical realism elements (books that just appear, begging to be read, for example) feel out of place and random. The ending is predictable, though satisfying. An enjoyable book; I'm just not clear on where the rave reviews come from. Curious to hear anyone else's thoughts?
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