My journey with Sugar Lacey has come to an end. Bernice McFadden is a great writer.When I finished Sugar almost a year ago, I wanted to know how she was, and what happened to her after she left Arkansas and where she would end up, if she would be okay. Although it took me forever to get This Bitter Earth to find out, and even longer to finish the story, I'm so glad I did. The characters in these books are so interesting. And the story is sprinkled with ghosts and prophetic dreams and signs and natural symbols (river running blood red, rain for days on end, ravens) all foreshadowing future events and explaining past occurrences. In the end, I was pleased with knowing how Sugar and the other people of Bigelow ended up. There were so many secrets and so much pain and loss and turmoil, and it was cool to have it all end in a way that is not necessarily happy, but not sad either. There was closure. I think since so much time passed between my reading of parts 1 and 2, that I should probably read them again back to back for the full effect...the way I should have in the first place...sounds like a good book on tape deal.
What do You think about This Bitter Earth (2002)?
I didn't really connect with this book as much as I did with "Sugar." The story line felt rushed in a way. I also found the style of the book to feel different than the first book. I read these books consecutively, and was bothered at how much more I connected with the first book than with the second. I hope that, if there are more books to come in the Sugar series, McFadden is able to bring back the voice of Sugar that I felt was just missing in the second book. I also thought that This Bitter Earth was so much darker. The characters lacked any real sense of hope. I don't know what else to say. I was just disappointed.
—Jennifer Stangel
