About this book
(via Exclusive Books)
She’s accused of four murders. She’s only guilty of three… When Ruby was a child growing up in Miami, she saw a boy from her school struggling against the ocean waves while his parents were preoccupied. Instead of helping him, Ruby dove under the water and held his ankle down until he drowned. She waited to feel guilty for it, but she never did. And, as Ruby will argue in her senior thesis while studying psychology at Yale, guilt is sort of like eating ice cream while on a diet – if you’re already feeling bad, why not eat the whole carton? And so, the bodies start to stack up. Twenty-five years later, Ruby’s in an interrogation room under suspicion of murder, being shown four photographs. Each is a person she once knew, now deceased. The line-up includes her husband Jason. She is responsible for three of the four deaths… but it might be the crime that she didn’t commit that will finally ensnare her.
My thoughts:
My thoughts:“Blood Sugar” plays off in sultry, humid Miami. My point of view is that the location fits in perfectly with the look and feel of the story itself – matching the underlying discomfort and almost tense anticipation of where this would lead to. Am I over-analyzing? Perhaps! Maybe because I do not do well in humid locations!
When it comes to Ruby, our protagonist, my thoughts are that you will either love her or hate her. Yes, feeling empathy towards a serial killer isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. This book very much reminded me of Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian. Since I can have quite a morbid fascination with people’s ‘dark side’, I found her quite likeable and intriguing. These quotes will give you a peek into her character:
“And so I grew up. As normal as one can in a city as insane as Miami, in an era as schizophrenic as the 1990s, with parents as emotionally invested as landlords. I had killed one boy, one time. It wasn’t like I was an out-of-control homicidal maniac.”
“People were always exclaiming, “I could kill you right now”…or the classic joke, “If I tell you I’d have to kill you,” and on and on and on. I heard something like that said at least once a week, and I nodded and smiled and understood, like a well-adjusted nonhomicidal person.”
She is witty, complex, clever and dare I say, very relatable?
This is very much a character study of a serial killer. It is a slow burn, slowly unravelling the loose ends and putting the puzzle pieces together. It is quite interesting to get an insight into her progression as to become a psychologist as well. How many serial killers do you know out there who has got a successful job, fall in love, have healthy relationships, lead a seemingly normal life, go for therapy, etc.? A lot more than you may think.
The chapters jump between past and present – to give us an incredibly detailed back-story of where Ruby’s coming from as well. Also, I always enjoy books with short chapters! Very descriptive and engrossing writing from this debut author!
The ending did leave me wanting a bit more though. Maybe it is because I was so invested in Ruby and the ‘what now’ that it did feel a little flat and rushed.
A solid 4/5 stars.
And a note to check the trigger warnings as well.
Thanks to Exclusive Books for the gifted copy.
“Blood Sugar” features on the #EBRecommends Fiction list for June 2022 as recommended read! More here: Exclusive Books Recommends: Fiction to Look out for in June
