BOOK REVIEW | Sugar and Spite by Gail D. Villanueva

Death of a pet, bullying, colorism

Filipino

Hello mersquad! I am back with another review, and hopefully I will eventually catch up with all of my reviews at some point. I decided that this book deserved its own review rather than being part of the rapid review round up, and I would recommend this to y’all for sure. Let’s get started, shall we?

This book mostly focuses on Jolina since it’s told from her point of view. While we also interact with Claudine, we don’t always get her side of the story, which is fine. Nothing really wrong with Claudine… maybe except for the fact that she is constantly bullying Jolina. It’s odd isn’t it? We find out why she does it, and it’s an interesting reasoning, that when you think about it, seems to happen a lot. It also makes me wonder what would have happened if Jolina actually confronted Claudine in a private setting, just the two of them, so that neither of them had to save face in front of the other kids. Maybe there would have been a different outcome?

Wishful thinking maybe.

I liked Claudine as a main character, especially because she was anything but perfect. She’s young, and she has room to make mistakes and learn from them, which is what ends up happening in this book. It would be interesting to see how a book would be from Claudine’s point of view, maybe an unofficial prequel or something? I would love to know what’s in her mind in the earlier stages of the story.

I also think it was important to show that Jolina wasn’t perfect, and that she had to understand that what she was doing to Claudine wasn’t right or ethical. The message certainly got across the way it needed to.

This book takes place in the Philippines, in a smaller village compared to the metropolis Manila. I mention Manila because that becomes an argument point between Jolina and Claudine. Jolina and her family moved from Manila because of financial issues, and Jolina is always comparing where they live now with what she is missing from there. It gets to the point that Claudine gets tired of it. Maybe this is part of what made them “enemies” in the first place. The place where they are – and I’m so sorry for forgetting the name. I don’t have the book in front of me anymore and I listened to it, oh I found it! Isla Pag-ibig – is not a real place, but it’s reminiscent of other islands in the country. It’s also good to know that these financial issues have Jolina comparing her life to Claudine’s, since she is part of one of the island’s wealthiest families. So the girls have differences that are a point of contention for each other, but maybe they actually have some similarities as well.

Villanueva did an amazing job with the atmosphere, allowing the readers to feel immersed in the story without being bogged down by flowery depictions. I think it was just perfect for what this story was, and the age group that this book was geared toward.

This was my first book from Villanueva and I enjoyed her writing. I’m sure that her writing may slightly change depending on the age of the book – meaning her MG novels may not exactly sound like her adult novels, which is actually more appealing to me – so I’m also sure that I will enjoy her other novels. I liked the voice I felt through the story. It was really great to experience.

I am glad that this story took place in our world with magic included. It felt almost believable and I think that’s what would help connect to other readers when they read this story. I obviously wish that magic was real – or maybe I just haven’t found it yet – so seeing it in a book is always great to see. I also appreciated the plot and seeing all of the consequences that take place from misusing magic. If anything, I was just really sad with one of the consequences because I felt like it shouldn’t have happened. I get why it did and how it led back to the author and her life experience, but man it broke my heart. All the tears at that part if I’m honest.

This MG novel had some medium to high stakes involved and it was very intriguing. I think things really got serious towards the end, and that’s where the high stakes are. Seeing what ends up happening between Jolina and Claudine, seeing what is supposed to be a friendship building between them but in a way that has less than honest beginnings. I’m trying to sound vague so that I don’t spoil things but the book summary does give insight into what Jolina does to Claudine. Either way, I don’t want to spoil it for anyone so I’m staying as vague as I can be while still trying to make sense. Long story short, I was intrigued for the entire story.

Considering the fact that our main character is a pre-teen, I want to say she has her twelfth birthday at the end of the book or something like that… well basically it makes sense for someone her age. How do you get someone to stop bullying you and actually be nice to you? Dose them with magic of course. That’s the easiest route for sure. I truly felt like every character that I encountered in this story acted in a way that was logic to them, and it made sense to me. So there.

Besides something that happened towards the end, I enjoyed this book. It was fun. I like having magic in the real world. Someone make this a reality already because I’m tired of the mundane life. Ya hear me? Very enjoyable and I’m glad I got to read it.