Blood Sugar by Sascha Rothchild is a thriller worth your time and this is because it asks, what makes a killer? Told from the perspective of a murderer accused of a murder they actually did not commit, you will be on the edge of your seat wondering how and why it happened and where you lie within the scales of judgment. The intertwining of the past and present is a touch choppy and sometimes may throw you off the pacing but in the grand scheme of things, it is a small distraction from a well written thriller, one worth your time.

The plot interweaves the past and present until the past becomes the present and it converges into one story. A story I think is worth your time because of how enjoyable the protagonist is and the moral dilemmas you face whilst reading this. The story starts with a bang and the foot never leaves the gas pedal.

Throughout this read, you will ping pong between what side you stand on and will question what you truly believe. Blood Sugar is worth reading especially if you enjoy being bamboozled by your own thoughts and what the right decision truly is - or if there is even one at all.

Ruby is a murderer. Blood Sugar presents an unusual protagonist and you may struggle to find where your opinion lies on Ruby - do you root for her innocence or her guilt to prevail? You know she murdered but, she didn't kill her husband, so should she be committed for that crime because of her other crimes or freed?

I find that Ruby in particular is written in a way that surpasses moral greyness into villainous territory whilst retaining humanistic and personable elements. This conjunction is why she is a good protagonist to drive the story and again, make you think - what makes a killer? The rest of the characters are fine, nothing flash, but as it is mainly about Ruby and told from Ruby's point of view, so their averageness is a-okay. Ruby shines in this story and is a recommended protagonist to read about.

Blood Sugar provides an ending up to interpretation. This is not a book you will close and move on from immediately; you will need a few minutes to figure out how you want to conclude the story. I am personally still up in the air on how I want this to end and I like it that way. This is an ending up to you and overall, a thriller worth your time.

What a manipulative book. Kudos to it but my goodness, it toyed the line constantly and I barely could keep up - I don't think I did. I think I am still missing some of the more subtle moments that expanded on the deeper aspects of the novel. First thing first, Ruby is a phenomenal protagonist. One moment you sympathise with her, the next you hope she's found guilty. Ruby played jump rope with your emotions and after a few hours of retrospection, I do believe she is an excellent sociopath.

It was towards the end where I realised something didn't sit right with me about Ruby and that was how she felt no remorse. Her rationale at the end was she could kill someone once a decade and get away with it. Absolutely not okay. I feel she perceived herself as a justice killer and the death on her hands was vindicated because she killed bad people. But the kid she drowned was seven. He was bad in that moment but he had time to grow and change to be better. She killed him because he hurt her sister and this is a child murdering another child.

This leads me to my second point, did she only kill to protect those around her? It momentarily seems that way and then doesn't; these were the thoughts I struggled with throughout Blood Sugar - where the lines blurred and right and wrong was difficult to point out. It really messed me up. I am still contemplating if Ruby killed her husband. I don't think so but that doubt claws at my brain. This novel is a thinker and I still don't know if she did it or not. What do you think?

I don't want to think about Ruby. At first she was portrayed as a murderous victim and towards the end, I viewed her as passive about life, only affected by it when it was directly happening to her. Sometimes her family, but mainly to herself or Ellie. Ugh - I don't know! This novel was somehow still fun to read despite it giving me anxiety and I will definitely be on the lookout for Rothchild's other works and this debut was stomach-pain inducingly good.