BLOOD SUGAR by Daniel Kraus

 

Blood Sugar by Daniel Kraus
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I bought this book last year but didn't read it then, so I thought Halloween 2020 would be a great time to get stuck into it.

Jody, Dag and Midge are three very different kids with their own set of problems, but they all hang out at Robbie's shitty house on Yellow Street.

Robbie is much older and has plenty of problems of his own. And this Halloween he wants to get some revenge on the town that hates him so much by doing something awful to the candy...

Yikes. This is one strange and dirty book! Trust me, you'll feel like taking a shower many times during this very unclean story.

The writing style is so unique that even though it shocked me at first, it didn't take long for me to get lost in Jody's narration. I was totally hooked on the problematic and downright awful lives of these kids and couldn't remember when/how it happened.

When that happens, you know the writing and story are totally working.

Although Jody is the primary storyteller, there are also letters written from the POV of some of the other characters. And together, these different angles quickly start to make sense of everything that's going on.

I thought this story was bizarre in the way that it managed to be both fun and disturbing. It's also sad in spots and features a group of characters that I couldn't help but feel sorry for. Even though a lot of what Jody says is quite wrong and often made me cringe because he doesn't have a PC filter, I was still intrigued and was utterly compelled to keep reading.

I think this is a very clever story wrapped up in the simplistic voice of a boy who's trying to find his way in the world. Not to mention the other characters. Dag was the one who surprised me the most. Yikes.

And that ending was really something!

Oh, and I LOVE this cover. So it was really cool when I found out exactly why there's a pretty witch featured front and centre. 😁 

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