What do you think?
Rate this book
Sugar
Love, betrayal, murder, and witchcraft.
When 35-year-old Satara Stratton discovers her husband Dean’s treacherous affair with her best friend, Lilah, she plunges into familiar deceit and death. Having disposed of men before without a hitch, she finds a new thrill in this betrayal. But with Lilah on a crusade to expose her guilt, Satara must outpace everyone to keep her secrets safe. Her fate intertwines with a Love Witch whose tempting spells seem a perfect solution to Satara’s woes. With newfound power at her fingertips, she gleefully manipulates the affections of those around her. Yet, Satara's lust for love proves her ultimate vulnerability. She soon learns that while it’s easy to bend others to her will, controlling her own heart is a perilous art indeed. Prepare for a darkly compelling journey where the boundaries of desire and devastation blur, and the quest for love becomes Satara's most lethal game.
A mix between Big Little Lies and YOU; step into the twisted, psychedelic world of SUGAR, a story about a femme fatale hooked on love and acid in this gripping tale of 1970's suburban chaos where nothing is as it seems.
When 35-year-old Satara Stratton discovers her husband Dean’s treacherous affair with her best friend, Lilah, she plunges into familiar deceit and death. Having disposed of men before without a hitch, she finds a new thrill in this betrayal. But with Lilah on a crusade to expose her guilt, Satara must outpace everyone to keep her secrets safe. Her fate intertwines with a Love Witch whose tempting spells seem a perfect solution to Satara’s woes. With newfound power at her fingertips, she gleefully manipulates the affections of those around her. Yet, Satara's lust for love proves her ultimate vulnerability. She soon learns that while it’s easy to bend others to her will, controlling her own heart is a perilous art indeed. Prepare for a darkly compelling journey where the boundaries of desire and devastation blur, and the quest for love becomes Satara's most lethal game.
A mix between Big Little Lies and YOU; step into the twisted, psychedelic world of SUGAR, a story about a femme fatale hooked on love and acid in this gripping tale of 1970's suburban chaos where nothing is as it seems.
259 pages, Paperback
Published October 14, 2024
443 people are currently reading
9878 people want to read
About the author
Mia Ballard
5 books390 followersMia Ballard is an American poet and fiction writer. She loves all things horror and is passionate about writing stories focused on feminine rage. She lives with her partner and dog in Northern California.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 662 reviews
Want to read
October 18, 2024 This could actually be a great thriller, but damn this cover sends me in the other direction lol. 🤸♀️🏃♀️💨🤢😬
October 12, 2024
⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑
~
Okay this had me HOOKED 🤩
This was a fun psychological read (great for this time of year!) This book was compelling, immersing, twisted and captivating! The delusion, the rage, the revenge UGH!! This was such a good read highly recommend!!
~
Thanks to Netgalley and the author, Mia Ballard, for the ARC.
Publication date 29th October 2024 🫶🏼
~
Okay this had me HOOKED 🤩
This was a fun psychological read (great for this time of year!) This book was compelling, immersing, twisted and captivating! The delusion, the rage, the revenge UGH!! This was such a good read highly recommend!!
~
Thanks to Netgalley and the author, Mia Ballard, for the ARC.
Publication date 29th October 2024 🫶🏼
July 7, 2025
unhinged from page one and never let up all the way through. I enjoyed every single twist and reveal. I gasped and swore out loud several times until the very end. I love a revenge story. I love women. I love horror. I love female horror authors. I love Mia fucking Ballard. she is 3 for 3 with 5 star books for me now, so I cannot wait to see what she does next!
December 19, 2025
Unhinged, fun, and deadly. I’m definitely easy to please with serial killer books
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTrGpwfQf/
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTrGpwfQf/
September 21, 2024
I’m going to make this book my whole personality. Be prepared to be sick of me.
September 20, 2024
˗ˏˋ꒰ 🍒 ꒱ 𝟓-𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝
An enthralling and gripping tale of a woman’s empowerment, Sugar weaves together themes of love, despair, female empowerment, murder, betrayal, and witchcraft. Set in the 1970s—a time when systemic sexism was rampant and women faced significant challenges—this story unfolds in a world where men were often seen as superior, both professionally and in day-to-day life. This is where Satara, the protagonist, steps in. She rises with fierce feminine energy, defying societal norms to demonstrate her power and autonomy. The book is an exotic and enticing page-turner, as we journey with Satara through the hardships of her teenage years, presented as memories scattered throughout the chapters, to her current life as a 35-year-old woman. We are invited inside her mind, exploring her darkest thoughts and her passionate search for belonging—a deep yearning for a relationship and family, for someone who values her not just for her beauty but for the real connection she seeks.
The experience of reading this book was compelling, immersing me in its twisted, captivating world. I especially enjoyed the setting in the 70s, one of my favorite eras for its music and fashion, though not for the difficulties women endured—an issue the book thoughtfully addresses. Sensitive readers should note the trigger warnings, as some scenes are described with a rawness that grips your heart and mind. Overall, this was a blast to read, especially as I was looking for something to kickstart the spooky season. Mia Ballard’s use of dark, compelling prose, along with her skillful use of figures of speech, kept me glued to my seat, constantly craving more as the story unfolded.
This is definitely a 5-star read for me. I devoured it in just a few hours and can’t wait to dive into more of Mia Ballard’s works, which I’ll be following religiously from now on!
Thanks to Netgalley and the author for trusting me with the ARC for an honest review, I really do appreciate it! Looking forward to more of Mia Ballard’s works, that, as I said, I will be religiously paying attention to, from now on!
An enthralling and gripping tale of a woman’s empowerment, Sugar weaves together themes of love, despair, female empowerment, murder, betrayal, and witchcraft. Set in the 1970s—a time when systemic sexism was rampant and women faced significant challenges—this story unfolds in a world where men were often seen as superior, both professionally and in day-to-day life. This is where Satara, the protagonist, steps in. She rises with fierce feminine energy, defying societal norms to demonstrate her power and autonomy. The book is an exotic and enticing page-turner, as we journey with Satara through the hardships of her teenage years, presented as memories scattered throughout the chapters, to her current life as a 35-year-old woman. We are invited inside her mind, exploring her darkest thoughts and her passionate search for belonging—a deep yearning for a relationship and family, for someone who values her not just for her beauty but for the real connection she seeks.
The experience of reading this book was compelling, immersing me in its twisted, captivating world. I especially enjoyed the setting in the 70s, one of my favorite eras for its music and fashion, though not for the difficulties women endured—an issue the book thoughtfully addresses. Sensitive readers should note the trigger warnings, as some scenes are described with a rawness that grips your heart and mind. Overall, this was a blast to read, especially as I was looking for something to kickstart the spooky season. Mia Ballard’s use of dark, compelling prose, along with her skillful use of figures of speech, kept me glued to my seat, constantly craving more as the story unfolded.
This is definitely a 5-star read for me. I devoured it in just a few hours and can’t wait to dive into more of Mia Ballard’s works, which I’ll be following religiously from now on!
Thanks to Netgalley and the author for trusting me with the ARC for an honest review, I really do appreciate it! Looking forward to more of Mia Ballard’s works, that, as I said, I will be religiously paying attention to, from now on!
March 16, 2025
“There’s a perverse desire that grips me, a longing so visceral it feels like a wild animal trapped within my chest. I wanted to unhinge my jaw like a snake and swallow him whole.”
After discovering her husband is having an affair with her best friend, the unhinged desire and rage of Satara Stratton is unleashed. Once she has murdered her husband and buried him in the backyard, readers get a past and present look into her very turbulent life–yearning to be truly loved and wanted, getting tangled in various lusty affairs, leaving a trail of men’s bodies in her foot path, and occasionally filling her void with drugs and stalking. Satara is a beautiful mess. But the consequences of her actions are slowly catching up with her…and bodies can’t stay buried forever.
This book–while all over the place as far as the plot is concerned–was entertaining as hell for me personally. There’s no question author Mia Ballard is a talented writer on the rise. While race was not the focal point of this story at all, SUGAR scratched an itch that I’ve had for awhile—unhinged women of color doing stabby white women shenanigans. Yes, I want, I crave Black/WOC female anti-heroines acting on their rage and going on a murder spree. Satara as a protagonist is not likeable, but she’s manipulative, wrathful, seductive, lovesick, teetering on the edge of psychotic, practically a monster in human skin. I ate it up. My only other hang up was the twist at the end. It was a very bizarre twist that sort of made me just go “…huh???”
So while this wasn’t a perfect novel debut, I had a fun time and am actually looking forward to Ballard’s upcoming book Shy Girl ! Gimme me more please!
After discovering her husband is having an affair with her best friend, the unhinged desire and rage of Satara Stratton is unleashed. Once she has murdered her husband and buried him in the backyard, readers get a past and present look into her very turbulent life–yearning to be truly loved and wanted, getting tangled in various lusty affairs, leaving a trail of men’s bodies in her foot path, and occasionally filling her void with drugs and stalking. Satara is a beautiful mess. But the consequences of her actions are slowly catching up with her…and bodies can’t stay buried forever.
This book–while all over the place as far as the plot is concerned–was entertaining as hell for me personally. There’s no question author Mia Ballard is a talented writer on the rise. While race was not the focal point of this story at all, SUGAR scratched an itch that I’ve had for awhile—unhinged women of color doing stabby white women shenanigans. Yes, I want, I crave Black/WOC female anti-heroines acting on their rage and going on a murder spree. Satara as a protagonist is not likeable, but she’s manipulative, wrathful, seductive, lovesick, teetering on the edge of psychotic, practically a monster in human skin. I ate it up. My only other hang up was the twist at the end. It was a very bizarre twist that sort of made me just go “…huh???”
So while this wasn’t a perfect novel debut, I had a fun time and am actually looking forward to Ballard’s upcoming book Shy Girl ! Gimme me more please!
August 6, 2025
“I wasn’t a murderer - I was just a woman wronged.”
Now this book captures unhinged female rage beautifully. This was such a wild ride and every plot twist had me shook.
Two 5 star books by Mia Ballard in a row - she’s going to be one of my favorite authors real quick if she keeps blowing my mind.
Now this book captures unhinged female rage beautifully. This was such a wild ride and every plot twist had me shook.
Two 5 star books by Mia Ballard in a row - she’s going to be one of my favorite authors real quick if she keeps blowing my mind.
May 14, 2025
quite a painful read, because ballard's writing deserves a proficient editor, and it's clear that she didn't have one here. all the misused words and missing commas were killing me. not to mention the flip flopping tenses, sometimes even using both the past and present tense within the same sentence - i even found myself questioning whether the tense inconsistencies could be intentional. these are small things, but so distracting!
also distracting is the 1970s setting, with flashbacks into the 1950s and 1960s. i don't understand why ballard chose to set the story in the past, yet didn't bother to explore any gender or race implications or add any 20th century cultural resonance. the 70s vibes are hardly there, and the modern slang and other anachronisms took me out of the story again and again. please, voicemail wasn't a thing in the 70s!
HOWEVER, i love when a book can make me side-eye, cringe, gasp! if it provokes physical responses, it's a good read. i love a good delusional narrator, and stories about rage and revenge. excellent execution of subjugation and disempowerment transforming to unconventional (and very bloody) empowerment!
the is absolutely unreal, something i never intended to imagine in detail, but par for the course.
my attention started to flag around the midway point, but the wildly chaotic ending makes the whole book worthwhile. i love the way i can see why a lot of readers feel the ending is disappointing, but i think the trippy, unbelievable mess of it fits the book perfectly.
i'm unsure about the
so excited to read ballard's other works, but i sincerely hope she was able to secure an editor since this debut!
also distracting is the 1970s setting, with flashbacks into the 1950s and 1960s. i don't understand why ballard chose to set the story in the past, yet didn't bother to explore any gender or race implications or add any 20th century cultural resonance. the 70s vibes are hardly there, and the modern slang and other anachronisms took me out of the story again and again. please, voicemail wasn't a thing in the 70s!
HOWEVER, i love when a book can make me side-eye, cringe, gasp! if it provokes physical responses, it's a good read. i love a good delusional narrator, and stories about rage and revenge. excellent execution of subjugation and disempowerment transforming to unconventional (and very bloody) empowerment!
the is absolutely unreal, something i never intended to imagine in detail, but par for the course.
my attention started to flag around the midway point, but the wildly chaotic ending makes the whole book worthwhile. i love the way i can see why a lot of readers feel the ending is disappointing, but i think the trippy, unbelievable mess of it fits the book perfectly.
i'm unsure about the
so excited to read ballard's other works, but i sincerely hope she was able to secure an editor since this debut!
October 4, 2024
The craziest feminine rage book of 2024.
November 10, 2024
Well that was a fun, twisty ride! An unhinged, unreliable narrator so desperate for love and female rage at its finest. 🍒🍒🍒
October 3, 2024
"Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
This started as a 5-star read, and then it just kept getting worse and worse. I'm giving it 2.5 stars. If you're looking for a book that feels like Sabrina Carpenter's Taste, Sugar is the way to go.
Let me start by saying this is a fun book about female rage. In this story, Satara finds out her husband Dean is cheating on her with her best friend, so she gets him in bed... and stabs him. Her life continues as usual: baking, going to the office along with her crush Chris, and her book club (with Chris' wife). The book follows Satara's life through different timelines, and we see her become the woman she is today.
I find this book will work for those of you who support women's rights and wrongs. I recently read two other books on female rage, The Trunk and Grey Dog. The Trunk intertwines female rage with sorority - women supporting each other. Sugar aligns with Grey Dog in the way they have a female main character who progressively gets angrier and more frustrated, and that leads the character to violence against everyone around them. I find my taste/moral compass aligns more with the 'women supporting women' side of female rage, and Sugar went the 'everyone gets a piece of the rage cake' direction which I personally don't enjoy.
While I get where this came from, it didn't work for me. I found Satara unlikable and I couldn't empathize with her, and the characters surrounding her were petty, stereotypical, and depthless. The story flows nicely for the first 40% of the book, and then it just drags and drags in what looks like the petty/office drama Olympics but in a way that I didn't find particularly exciting. And then, in the last 10% of the book, we're bombarded with twists that in my opinion were unnecessary (I'm calling it The Twist Fest). One or two twists are fine, but it was all very sudden and uncalled for (you know the thing 'too little, too late'? This was 'way too much, too late'). I wish some of the things (i.e., ) had been uncovered earlier rather than having it all come out in such a short time.
Besides the dragging in the middle and the twists, I empathize with some other reviews that mention confusing stuff/plotholes. I could follow the book perfectly fine, but some things just didn't make sense to me after The Twist Fest at the end (for example, ).
I am definitely going to read Mia Ballard's next books. This didn't work for me, but I did love the writing, it was a beautiful balance of exquisite and spicy, I highlighted half the book. I particularly loved this sentence:
"The promise of sex is a currency devalued by his infidelity, each dalliance a withdrawal from the bank of my patience, until now, when I'm overdrawn and bankrupt of fucks to give."
*ARC provided for free. This has not impacted my rating.
This started as a 5-star read, and then it just kept getting worse and worse. I'm giving it 2.5 stars. If you're looking for a book that feels like Sabrina Carpenter's Taste, Sugar is the way to go.
Let me start by saying this is a fun book about female rage. In this story, Satara finds out her husband Dean is cheating on her with her best friend, so she gets him in bed... and stabs him. Her life continues as usual: baking, going to the office along with her crush Chris, and her book club (with Chris' wife). The book follows Satara's life through different timelines, and we see her become the woman she is today.
I find this book will work for those of you who support women's rights and wrongs. I recently read two other books on female rage, The Trunk and Grey Dog. The Trunk intertwines female rage with sorority - women supporting each other. Sugar aligns with Grey Dog in the way they have a female main character who progressively gets angrier and more frustrated, and that leads the character to violence against everyone around them. I find my taste/moral compass aligns more with the 'women supporting women' side of female rage, and Sugar went the 'everyone gets a piece of the rage cake' direction which I personally don't enjoy.
While I get where this came from, it didn't work for me. I found Satara unlikable and I couldn't empathize with her, and the characters surrounding her were petty, stereotypical, and depthless. The story flows nicely for the first 40% of the book, and then it just drags and drags in what looks like the petty/office drama Olympics but in a way that I didn't find particularly exciting. And then, in the last 10% of the book, we're bombarded with twists that in my opinion were unnecessary (I'm calling it The Twist Fest). One or two twists are fine, but it was all very sudden and uncalled for (you know the thing 'too little, too late'? This was 'way too much, too late'). I wish some of the things (i.e., ) had been uncovered earlier rather than having it all come out in such a short time.
Besides the dragging in the middle and the twists, I empathize with some other reviews that mention confusing stuff/plotholes. I could follow the book perfectly fine, but some things just didn't make sense to me after The Twist Fest at the end (for example, ).
I am definitely going to read Mia Ballard's next books. This didn't work for me, but I did love the writing, it was a beautiful balance of exquisite and spicy, I highlighted half the book. I particularly loved this sentence:
"The promise of sex is a currency devalued by his infidelity, each dalliance a withdrawal from the bank of my patience, until now, when I'm overdrawn and bankrupt of fucks to give."
*ARC provided for free. This has not impacted my rating.
February 1, 2025
the perfect feminine rage book exists!!!
October 9, 2024
OH MY DAYS!! The delusion, the revenge, the rage ... it's giving Pearl? A little American Psycho? I tore through this book in one evening, it was that engrossing. The twists! *chefs kiss* Thank you to Galaxy Press & NetGalley for the ARC. Give this a read when in publishes October 29, 2024!
May 17, 2025
Well, this was a complete mess.
If you're the author, you might want to skip this review.
My friends, how to even start this? I'll just say, I was really looking forward to reading this book. If there was a stereotype for a reader who loves stories of female rage, horror, and revenge, with unreliable narrators, that's me, which is why I shelled out $4.99 to The Evil Everything Website to read it. I quickly realized that this book...is not it.
I wish I could just put it down and move on (sunk cost and all), but I cannot. For one, I've been cursed with the eyes of a copyeditor. For another, my profession is data science and I work with AI (LLMs) every day. I know about context windows, prompt engineering, and model hyperparameters. But, most importantly, I know how to detect AI-generated outputs. AI is not art. There's no soul to it. And this book is a husk of a body without a soul.
So, I'll split my review into two parts: the human writer, and the AI writer.
The human writer:
There are parts of this book clearly written by a person. AI doesn't make grammatical errors, but humans do. Fortunately for us, editors and publishers fix these before they ever reach our eyes. Unfortunately for those of us reading self-published work, we get a front row seat to everything with a red squiggly underlining it. Things like: sentences without subject-verb agreement ("Cynthia meeting and marrying Jeff Bailey were the stuff of fairy tales"), tenses changing every other sentence or sometimes in the same sentence ("I like Cheryl, but there is an arrogance to her that rubbed me the wrong way."), misspellings, etc.
Besides the grammar, we are missing important mechanics that make up a story—character motivations, natural-sounding dialogue, an overarching plot. To name a few.
To you, Mia, if you are reading against my previous advisement, you need formal writing courses. Start there and when you're ready, go to a publisher to take you the rest of the way.
The AI writer:
Obviously, these chapters flowed much more fluidly. Unlike the human-written pieces, my brain wasn't stumbling over every word, which was an improvement, but I had to ask myself, 'why would there be such a huge shift in the writing from one chapter to the next?' We're going from basic grammatical errors to semicolons and em dashes? Please. The problem is, it doesn't matter that this was easier to read than the drivel from before, if it's AI-generated, I don't want to read it. There's no value for me to art that a human didn't create. And there's no need to review the outputs from a model. But for readers, here are some things to look out for when you're reading books written after 2023 (big sigh that we have to even talk about this).
✅ Shifts in authorial voice / tone from chapter to chapter
✅ Repetition or redundancy, especially in longer texts
✅ Lacking depth to characters, plot, scene
✅ Chunks of text of approximately equal character count (7k-8k—yes, I counted)
✅ Accelerated publishing schedule (Sugar Oct 2024, We All Rot Eventually Dec 2024, Shy Girl Mar 2025)
✅ Overly polished or robotic prose
If you're still unsure, trying throwing some of the book into https://gptzero.me/. I tried the first chapter and, let's just say, there was little doubt as to the origin of the text.
If you're the author, you might want to skip this review.
My friends, how to even start this? I'll just say, I was really looking forward to reading this book. If there was a stereotype for a reader who loves stories of female rage, horror, and revenge, with unreliable narrators, that's me, which is why I shelled out $4.99 to The Evil Everything Website to read it. I quickly realized that this book...is not it.
I wish I could just put it down and move on (sunk cost and all), but I cannot. For one, I've been cursed with the eyes of a copyeditor. For another, my profession is data science and I work with AI (LLMs) every day. I know about context windows, prompt engineering, and model hyperparameters. But, most importantly, I know how to detect AI-generated outputs. AI is not art. There's no soul to it. And this book is a husk of a body without a soul.
So, I'll split my review into two parts: the human writer, and the AI writer.
The human writer:
There are parts of this book clearly written by a person. AI doesn't make grammatical errors, but humans do. Fortunately for us, editors and publishers fix these before they ever reach our eyes. Unfortunately for those of us reading self-published work, we get a front row seat to everything with a red squiggly underlining it. Things like: sentences without subject-verb agreement ("Cynthia meeting and marrying Jeff Bailey were the stuff of fairy tales"), tenses changing every other sentence or sometimes in the same sentence ("I like Cheryl, but there is an arrogance to her that rubbed me the wrong way."), misspellings, etc.
Besides the grammar, we are missing important mechanics that make up a story—character motivations, natural-sounding dialogue, an overarching plot. To name a few.
To you, Mia, if you are reading against my previous advisement, you need formal writing courses. Start there and when you're ready, go to a publisher to take you the rest of the way.
The AI writer:
Obviously, these chapters flowed much more fluidly. Unlike the human-written pieces, my brain wasn't stumbling over every word, which was an improvement, but I had to ask myself, 'why would there be such a huge shift in the writing from one chapter to the next?' We're going from basic grammatical errors to semicolons and em dashes? Please. The problem is, it doesn't matter that this was easier to read than the drivel from before, if it's AI-generated, I don't want to read it. There's no value for me to art that a human didn't create. And there's no need to review the outputs from a model. But for readers, here are some things to look out for when you're reading books written after 2023 (big sigh that we have to even talk about this).
✅ Shifts in authorial voice / tone from chapter to chapter
✅ Repetition or redundancy, especially in longer texts
✅ Lacking depth to characters, plot, scene
✅ Chunks of text of approximately equal character count (7k-8k—yes, I counted)
✅ Accelerated publishing schedule (Sugar Oct 2024, We All Rot Eventually Dec 2024, Shy Girl Mar 2025)
✅ Overly polished or robotic prose
If you're still unsure, trying throwing some of the book into https://gptzero.me/. I tried the first chapter and, let's just say, there was little doubt as to the origin of the text.
January 6, 2025
This book is grossly under-edited. There are so many errors that it got to a point where I was genuinely irritated and couldn’t focus well on the plot. The pages are littered with adjectives and metaphors attempting to be gorgeous and profound - this had me, often enough, twisting my face up in confusion at what the author was trying to say. Towards the end everything went from bad to absolutely terrible. All the twists that the author was trying to tie in fell absolutely flat, and were very forced/rushed. Despite my complaints, I did finish it and I did have fun at a few points.
September 26, 2024
THE SECOND HALF OF THIS HAD ME HOOTING AND HOLLERING AND RIPPING MY HAIR OUT. MIA BESTIE BABE.....YOUR MIND!!!!
Insanely wordy and flowery prose, pretty much only at the beginning. By the time it hit past the first present day it finds it's groove and what the story wants to be. Then it sucks you in and I swear to God this is one of the best books I've read in awhile. And that's honestly my only complaint. The writing aside from that is wonderful and immersive. The cover?? gorgeous.
Sometimes weird woman horror books find themselves into two categories where it works, or it doesn't. They try too hard to make them crazy for no reason. This one doesn't fall into that. Satara fully believes in what she's doing. She even realizes she's not fully sane, but I don’t think she even realizes the extent to HOW insane she is. She's compelling in how awful and crazy she is. Almost relatable in her desperate need for love. I think when a fictional female character is horrid or less than perfect, you find yourself rooting for them in a weird way. Finding a connection with them.
This was like a wild mix of Go Ask Alice if Alice could somewhat handle her drugs mixed with You, The Love Witch and Killing Eve. I absolutely LOVED it. It wasn't overly gory either, which is a nice pace from some of the other stuff I've read lately. I can't wait to see what else Mia Ballard comes out.
A short and fast paced read. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea but for me - It was delicious.
MORE MOVIE PAPA!!!
Insanely wordy and flowery prose, pretty much only at the beginning. By the time it hit past the first present day it finds it's groove and what the story wants to be. Then it sucks you in and I swear to God this is one of the best books I've read in awhile. And that's honestly my only complaint. The writing aside from that is wonderful and immersive. The cover?? gorgeous.
Sometimes weird woman horror books find themselves into two categories where it works, or it doesn't. They try too hard to make them crazy for no reason. This one doesn't fall into that. Satara fully believes in what she's doing. She even realizes she's not fully sane, but I don’t think she even realizes the extent to HOW insane she is. She's compelling in how awful and crazy she is. Almost relatable in her desperate need for love. I think when a fictional female character is horrid or less than perfect, you find yourself rooting for them in a weird way. Finding a connection with them.
This was like a wild mix of Go Ask Alice if Alice could somewhat handle her drugs mixed with You, The Love Witch and Killing Eve. I absolutely LOVED it. It wasn't overly gory either, which is a nice pace from some of the other stuff I've read lately. I can't wait to see what else Mia Ballard comes out.
A short and fast paced read. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea but for me - It was delicious.
MORE MOVIE PAPA!!!
October 15, 2024
Sugar is a full throttled novel about a female serial killer. But she kills for "love".
I love a book that starts out with a bloody bang, and in the very first chapter, Satara kills her husband of six years when she discovers he's cheating on her with her best friend. This is going to lead to more brutal deaths. But as we get glimpses into her past, there's a pattern evident. A pattern of love, rejection, and ultimately, murder.
Told mainly from her perspective, Satara is a truly functioning psychopath. Her crimes are never discovered and she plays the part of grieving widow and innocent bystander perfectly.
But this book is so much more. It was a horrific pleasure getting to know this character and seeing her life unfold as things begin to weave together with her crush on her boss, book club members, and several romantic/sexual encounters which lead mostly to bloodshed.
But the ending.... chef's kiss. No spoilers but there are two huge twists at the end which are mind blowing and cements this novel as a must read in my opinion.
This author writes about Satara's compulsive need for affection and acknowledgement so well. You almost feel sorry for her. In fact, something which happened to her at the age of fifteen will maybe have you siding with her decision to gain retribution.
The story is compelling, engaging, and leaves a gory mark. I highly recommend it.
I love a book that starts out with a bloody bang, and in the very first chapter, Satara kills her husband of six years when she discovers he's cheating on her with her best friend. This is going to lead to more brutal deaths. But as we get glimpses into her past, there's a pattern evident. A pattern of love, rejection, and ultimately, murder.
Told mainly from her perspective, Satara is a truly functioning psychopath. Her crimes are never discovered and she plays the part of grieving widow and innocent bystander perfectly.
But this book is so much more. It was a horrific pleasure getting to know this character and seeing her life unfold as things begin to weave together with her crush on her boss, book club members, and several romantic/sexual encounters which lead mostly to bloodshed.
But the ending.... chef's kiss. No spoilers but there are two huge twists at the end which are mind blowing and cements this novel as a must read in my opinion.
This author writes about Satara's compulsive need for affection and acknowledgement so well. You almost feel sorry for her. In fact, something which happened to her at the age of fifteen will maybe have you siding with her decision to gain retribution.
The story is compelling, engaging, and leaves a gory mark. I highly recommend it.
October 22, 2024
Hi there! This is the author of SUGAR. I want to give a big thank you to all of you who have read and enjoyed my story so far. Just want to clear up something-if you received a copy through NetGalley VERY early on it’s possible you read the unfinished unpolished version of the book. If there are any misspelled words or discrepancies with the tense changing, rest assured that it has all been fixed for the final copy. Oh and I know you all do not follow me on Social media so you might not know that I released it early on Oct 17th! So SUGAR is available now on paperback, hardcover, and kindle right now! (Also Barnes and noble.com) thank you so much and I cannot wait to show you guys what I come out with next! 🥲🍭🔪❤️🔥
January 12, 2025
This story was pure chaos and I loved it! It didn't take long for me to get swept into Satara's batshit delusions and (oddly enough) find myself rooting for her. Not sure what that says about me, but here we are 😅
4.25 ⭐ There was a slight overuse of metaphors and imagery, which sometimes resulted in wordiness. But this was Ballard's debut and the story kept me entertained from start to finish, so it's easily overlooked!
4.25 ⭐ There was a slight overuse of metaphors and imagery, which sometimes resulted in wordiness. But this was Ballard's debut and the story kept me entertained from start to finish, so it's easily overlooked!
January 2, 2025
3.75 ⭐️ This was a rollercoaster, I did not see that ending coming. Satara is a housewife in the late 60s early 70s with an acid addiction and a penchant for murder. Her delusions and self-righteousness end up being her downfall. You will hate satara, I do not think she was written to be liked.
August 23, 2025
I really liked this one. Part psychological thriller, part horror, I literally had no idea what was happening for the entire ride. Any book that can keep me guessing is a book for me.
I loved Satara! I know we are supposed to hate her but I was a fan. They all deserved it. 😅 I felt like I was descending into madness right along with her.
I usually don’t like a an unreliable narrator but this one was done really well.
I loved Satara! I know we are supposed to hate her but I was a fan. They all deserved it. 😅 I felt like I was descending into madness right along with her.
I usually don’t like a an unreliable narrator but this one was done really well.
October 30, 2025
Mia Ballard's definitely in my top 5 fav horror authors. I did prefer shy girl as it was more extreme, but this was still a very enjoyable read. The last 10% completely changes the entire book lol
September 21, 2024
⚠️
TW: sexual assault, grooming, graphic violence, domestic abuse
Sugar. Sweet. Hard to resist.
Sweet but Psycho ang peg.
"I thought killing him would bring relief, but it only unearthed a ravenous hunger I couldn't seem to quell."
"Love, for me, was an endless cycle of rebirth and death, each man a phoenix rising from the ashes of the last, burning brightly before succumbing to the inevitable. And I, ever the devoted keeper of these flames, continued to mark my life with their passage, a perennial witness to both conflagration and smoldering ruin."
Serial Killer? Love witch?
This was a fun read about one psycho broad (or two? 🤔), with a lust for love and eventually labelled as the LOVESICK KILLER. Scandalous, Twisty, unhinged without being overtly extreme. I find myself having a love/hate relationship with the MC. I find her insufferable most of the time yet I admire her temerity and tenacity. I gobbled this up!
4.5 🍫🍬🍭
Thanks to Netgalley for the Arc 🖤
TW: sexual assault, grooming, graphic violence, domestic abuse
Sugar. Sweet. Hard to resist.
Sweet but Psycho ang peg.
"I thought killing him would bring relief, but it only unearthed a ravenous hunger I couldn't seem to quell."
"Love, for me, was an endless cycle of rebirth and death, each man a phoenix rising from the ashes of the last, burning brightly before succumbing to the inevitable. And I, ever the devoted keeper of these flames, continued to mark my life with their passage, a perennial witness to both conflagration and smoldering ruin."
Serial Killer? Love witch?
This was a fun read about one psycho broad (or two? 🤔), with a lust for love and eventually labelled as the LOVESICK KILLER. Scandalous, Twisty, unhinged without being overtly extreme. I find myself having a love/hate relationship with the MC. I find her insufferable most of the time yet I admire her temerity and tenacity. I gobbled this up!
4.5 🍫🍬🍭
Thanks to Netgalley for the Arc 🖤
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 26, 2024
Though this book was a page turner I felt that a lot of plot points were jammed in there for shock value that took no root in anything. While it was set in the late 70s there seemed to be a lot of anachronisms and the 70s setting was purely there for the vibe. Characters' motivations were super unclear and unbelievable. The writing was gorgeous and gripping but overall couldn't get over the issues presented within the plot.
March 30, 2025
3.5 - my first ever arc !!!!! but um
what in the serial killer hell did i just read !!!! HELLO MA’AM
that… was the most twisted, fcked up thing i have ever read ?? truly a rollercoaster i don’t even know how to feel i mean truly ???
what in the serial killer hell did i just read !!!! HELLO MA’AM
that… was the most twisted, fcked up thing i have ever read ?? truly a rollercoaster i don’t even know how to feel i mean truly ???
December 27, 2024
i’m a sucker for a horror story about an unhinged woman. this had me HOOKED!! i couldn’t put it down. it was unique, interesting, and fast paced. it even had a witchcraft subplot and the ending genuinely took me by surprise! plus the epilogue, i was shook
April 16, 2025
When I picked this up, I expected a psychological thriller. What I got instead was something way more chaotic, and I mean that in the best possible way! We follow Satara, a woman navigating a world full of men who constantly underestimate or mistreat her. The story unravels through her sharp, often unsettling lens, and I found myself rooting for her in ways I didn’t expect. Ballard’s writing is tense, dark, and addictive. Not for the faint of heart, but perfect if you’re craving something bold, twisted, and unapologetically raw. Can’t wait to read more from this author!
November 19, 2024
Sugar
by Mia Ballard wasn’t a book I expected to enjoy as much as I did. Stories centered around unhinged female protagonists and raw depictions of feminine rage aren’t usually my go-to trope. Sure, I’ve dabbled with tales like American Psycho, but let’s be honest, Patrick Bateman’s chaotic charisma is in a league of its own. That said,
Sugar
surprised me in the best possible way. Mia Ballard weaves a story that is as subtle and simmering as it is explosive, much like Satara, her main character, whose anger slowly morphs into something unstoppable.
Satara’s journey starts with a cheating husband and best friend, as well as the quiet resentment towards the females around her. But as her story unfolds, that betrayal and resentment builds into a crescendo of vengeance. What begins as a simmer becomes an all-out inferno, a killing spree that, in her mind, feels like justice, even though it lands her in a psych ward. Reading this was a wild, emotional rollercoaster. Satara had me torn: did I love her? Did I despise her? Could I see fragments of myself in her? The truth is, there’s a little bit of Satara in all of us. Maybe it’s envy. Maybe it’s jealousy. Maybe it’s those fleeting, frustrated thoughts about the people — particularly men — who’ve wronged us in the past. Whatever it is, Sugar taps into something raw and undeniably real. Feminine rage is a force, and this book is its unflinching ode.
But as dark and vengeful as Satara is, her reflection of her mother's death shattered me. According to Satara, it wasn’t a death borne out of malice but an act of twisted mercy and desperation. Satara’s justification that it was a release from suffering was horrifying, but it also made her heartbreakingly human. Her mother's death was the only death she ever truly mourned, and that grief lingered with me long after I finished the book. This chapter alone is a testament to Ballard’s writing that even in the most monstrous moments, Satara’s pain feels painfully real. I can honestly say that that chapter broke me into a million pieces, forcing me to grapple with the blurred lines between love, desperation, and cruelty.
Reading Satara’s story also made me reflect on my own experiences with desperation. Years ago, after a breakup, I found myself doing something I never thought I would: calling a psychic to find out if my ex and I would get back together. I laugh about it now, but at the moment, it felt like an act of desperation that was not so different from the things Satara does, especially with the Love Witch. We’ve all been there, haven’t we? Reaching for straws, seeking closure, or clinging to hope. Sometimes we do things that seem ridiculous in hindsight, and in Satara’s case, those moments of desperation spiral into something far darker.
What really hooked me about this book was its depth and direction. Satara’s story wasn’t just rage for the sake of rage. There’s a clear progression: a beginning, middle, and end that gives weight to her transformation into something monstrous. Exploring why Satara becomes who she is made the narrative so much more compelling. I’ve read other books about feminine rage, but few deliver with this level of intent and nuance. It’s not about her waking up one day and randomly seeking vengeance, it’s about understanding what drives her, what breaks her, and ultimately, what destroys her.
And let’s talk about that cover, absolutely stunning! I’ll admit, it’s what initially drew me to the book, but the story inside is every bit as captivating. If you’re looking for a gripping exploration of the thin line between love and madness, Sugar should absolutely be on your TBR. I’m so glad I gave it a chance, and I can’t wait to see what Mia Ballard writes next.
Satara’s journey starts with a cheating husband and best friend, as well as the quiet resentment towards the females around her. But as her story unfolds, that betrayal and resentment builds into a crescendo of vengeance. What begins as a simmer becomes an all-out inferno, a killing spree that, in her mind, feels like justice, even though it lands her in a psych ward. Reading this was a wild, emotional rollercoaster. Satara had me torn: did I love her? Did I despise her? Could I see fragments of myself in her? The truth is, there’s a little bit of Satara in all of us. Maybe it’s envy. Maybe it’s jealousy. Maybe it’s those fleeting, frustrated thoughts about the people — particularly men — who’ve wronged us in the past. Whatever it is, Sugar taps into something raw and undeniably real. Feminine rage is a force, and this book is its unflinching ode.
But as dark and vengeful as Satara is, her reflection of her mother's death shattered me. According to Satara, it wasn’t a death borne out of malice but an act of twisted mercy and desperation. Satara’s justification that it was a release from suffering was horrifying, but it also made her heartbreakingly human. Her mother's death was the only death she ever truly mourned, and that grief lingered with me long after I finished the book. This chapter alone is a testament to Ballard’s writing that even in the most monstrous moments, Satara’s pain feels painfully real. I can honestly say that that chapter broke me into a million pieces, forcing me to grapple with the blurred lines between love, desperation, and cruelty.
Reading Satara’s story also made me reflect on my own experiences with desperation. Years ago, after a breakup, I found myself doing something I never thought I would: calling a psychic to find out if my ex and I would get back together. I laugh about it now, but at the moment, it felt like an act of desperation that was not so different from the things Satara does, especially with the Love Witch. We’ve all been there, haven’t we? Reaching for straws, seeking closure, or clinging to hope. Sometimes we do things that seem ridiculous in hindsight, and in Satara’s case, those moments of desperation spiral into something far darker.
What really hooked me about this book was its depth and direction. Satara’s story wasn’t just rage for the sake of rage. There’s a clear progression: a beginning, middle, and end that gives weight to her transformation into something monstrous. Exploring why Satara becomes who she is made the narrative so much more compelling. I’ve read other books about feminine rage, but few deliver with this level of intent and nuance. It’s not about her waking up one day and randomly seeking vengeance, it’s about understanding what drives her, what breaks her, and ultimately, what destroys her.
And let’s talk about that cover, absolutely stunning! I’ll admit, it’s what initially drew me to the book, but the story inside is every bit as captivating. If you’re looking for a gripping exploration of the thin line between love and madness, Sugar should absolutely be on your TBR. I’m so glad I gave it a chance, and I can’t wait to see what Mia Ballard writes next.
September 6, 2025
this was fun if a little all over the place. some plot lines needed more fleshing out and the writing style was a little juvenile even if the mfc was in her 30s. still a fun enough read
Displaying 1 - 30 of 662 reviews