SUGAR, BABY

British author Saintclare’s addictive debut novel follows Agnes, a 21-year-old mixed-race woman who moves from housecleaning to sex work.

Working alongside her deeply religious, Caribbean-born mother, Constance, Agnes polishes the homes of wealthy suburbanites during the week and spends her weekends at dive bars, obsessing over men who show little interest. When she meets Emily, the daughter of one of her clients, she’s introduced to an entirely different way of living. Emily dresses Agnes in designer clothes, paints her lips a femme-fatale red, and whisks her away to the London flat she shares with a group of hedonistic models. Emily undertakes the project of imparting all she’s learned about “sugaring” to Agnes, so she can transform herself into a sugar baby and support herself without relying on Constance. Agnes accompanies Emily and her friends on their dates, where rich, older (often married) men pay them to go to lunch, drink champagne in clubs, and engage in various types of sex work. Agnes soon learns how to identify suitable prospective clients (shoes, watch, jacket) and starts to build up her own roster—and a collection of designer handbags. But the drinking, drugs, and sex work begin to spiral out of control when Agnes struggles to separate her emotions from each transaction. The night she meets Russian billionaire Sergei, she’s confronted with a new dynamic entirely—she’s asked to engage in sex with both Sergei and his wife. She’s flown to Miami and attends a drug-fueled party, making the power imbalance—and danger—of her situation starkly clear. This is a propulsive read that tackles myriad attitudes toward sex work, from condemnation to celebration, through a distinctly feminist lens. Accompanying the partying with perceptive social commentary, Saintclare refuses to romanticize the gritty details of sugaring—inviting the reader into a whirlwind of champagne, sex, and money that is at times claustrophobic, scary, and toxic.

Saintclare modernizes outdated sex-work narratives, honoring the bonds formed between women instead.