Sugar Rush

When Kim’s father makes her move from her posh girls school to the school fool of trouble makers. Sure she’s not going to fit in for being thought a snob, she’s surprised when Sugar, the most popular girl at school, befriends her. As Sugar leads Kim down the road of alcohol and drugs, Kim experiences things she never has before, including feelings for Sugar. Is she falling for her new best friend?

I’m so glad I never really saw the TV programme before I read this. From what I know of the programme, some of it is different from the book, like Sugar’s race for instance, which is a small but important part of the book. I’m not too sure if I liked this book. It was good, but I got annoyed Kim some of the time when she wasn’t show more treated too well. I suppose heterosexual or homosexual, though, we all get a little blinded when we really like some, and make mistakes, so I can’t really fault her too much.

It was sad seeing that Kim’s home life wasn’t too great, with her mum leaving home, but I got annoyed with how a lot of the book was of Kim and Sugar doing practically the same things over and over, and Kim agonizing over whether or not her and Sugar were an item. It was just all a little bit samey.

I don’t really know what I expected, but the only thing that makes this lesbian fiction is the two girls, but it’s a story all girls know too well, the only difference was that Sugar wasn’t male. There isn’t really anything on the hardships of being homosexual; there’s no coming out to parents, no having to deal with homophobia, no being worried about what people will think. There is however a few occasions when guys like that the girls are kissing, which Sugar uses to her advantage.

The front cover warns that the book contains explicit content, but I don’t know what was explicit about it. The sex was mentioned, some sexual acts were hinted at, but we never actually got to “see” anything, and there wasn’t any detail. Compared to some other books, this novel is quite tame.

I don’t think Sugar Rush was especially amazing; there wasn’t anything all that special about it. However, it has spiked my interest enough for me to want to pick up the sequel, Sweet, to find out what happens later on to the main characters. Overall, and ok book. show less

Okay I re-read this (10/12) because I'd forgotten I'd read it (in 10/9/10) and it was actually quite gripping, like an episode of Skins. There's some weird race stuff which I need to think more about, that sort of Sarah Silverman-y "edgy" humor which I actually kind of hate most of the time but there's something real going on in this book so I just went with it. I don't know. I also couldn't parse the class stuff, but I think the narrator is meant to be from a more posh background, or middle-class? The various schoolgirl romances were well done, so that's something.

How tough can one teenage girl's life be? Her mom, always her "friend" and never her mom, has walked out and left her family a shell of what it once was. As she struggles through, she is moved from one posh school to the roughest in the neighborhood.

As if all of that isn't hard enough - she then falls in love with the IT girl at her school - her new best friend. A girl who's always in the spot light, always wild and free and carefree - Sugar gets her into a world she's never dreamed of.

A roller coaster ride of one girl finding love and then.....fumbling around and finding herself. A good story even with its graphic and gory ways.

So I just finished Sugar Rush. And I must say, I liked it a lot. The writing was a bit difficult to get used to at first. Go to any of the popular online journals (90% of which are written by honest-to-god teenagers) and that is how the book is written. Sure, it is sometimes confusing, overly dramatic, and full of slang that makes me want to go wtf? But that's part of what makes it convincing.

The kids in the story drink, smoke, do various party drugs, stay out late, have teenage crises, and generally do just what teenagers do. It doesn't trip lightly over these subjects nor does it try to drive home a "message". It just takes us into the realm of our high school heroine and let's her tell her story.

Kim is discovering that she is gay, show more but that doesn't even really become the number one concern in her life. Well, it does, but not in the way that most teens-learning-they-are-gay books do. Most of the time, teen books can only deal with one thing, let's say the gay thing, without getting too muddled. But in this case, gay is just one hurdle for our fifteen year old. There is also general girl-teenness to deal with... which is often a book topic on its own, an absent parent, discovery of drugs and alcohol as coping mechanisms, lack of enthusiasm for school when it used to be the big priority, and all sorts of other teenage stuff that makes you happy that you're not a teenager anymore. Yet there is plenty that could make you yearn for those days as well. Sure, there was heartache... but you were also young, fit, and (you thought) indestructible. show less

My copy of Sugar Rush boasts shockingly pink covers that hurt my eyes, a warning for explicit content and a note about the book being turned into a "Major Channel 4 TV series".

It was a surprise to me how much they had changed things for the Channel 4 series (which I saw on DVD last autumn); they had taken the Brighton setting and the characters but ditched the school stuff, changed the dynamics of Kim and Sugar's friendship, given Stella a significantly bigger role shagging young hunky interior decorators, having Kim sleeping with a lad (if only once), etc. so it seems to me the series inhabits its own, somewhat different fictional world.

The writing at times was over-the-top and felt like something a thirty-something would write when show more desperately trying to imitate the authenticity of teenage language. At times it was funny, but still OTT. show less

I absolutely loved this book, although it is a while since i read it. This book creates an excellent picture of all the issues surrounding a teenage girl moving to a new school and being confused about her sexuality. She becomes best friends with Sugar and the relationship grows and grows and eventually Kim realises she has fallen in love with Sugar. This book shows excellently all the ins and outs of growing up in a not so perfect world. Absolutely loved this book, it is completely different to the channel 4 series, Once i started reading it i couldnt put it down!

Whoever at Channel 4 read this mediocre (at best!) book and then turned it into the brilliant TV series was genius. As much as I enjoyed the series, the book is atrocious. It's badly written, incoherent and just really not terribly engaging.