Sugar People

Kestrel has a lot to be worried about. His best friend Tala has been struck by a severe mental illness, attempting suicide over the winter break. She has developed an obsession with making little sculptures she will not let anyone touch.

Meanwhile, Kestrel is struggling at university. His artwork has his teachers concerned, and he can't explain any of it. But it's not just him - all his friends are feeling strange this term, although none of them can place why.

After a chance meeting with the university's charismatic religious counsellor, Daran Bailey, Kestrel becomes drawn back in to a world he had once left behind. As the term marches on, his dreams grow more uncomfortable, and he feels like he's going crazy, until at long last, Tala lets Kestrel in on her secret...

A coming of age novel about the nature of trauma and the destruction of trust, and the lengths some people would go to right a cataclysmic wrong.

This book contains depictions of abuse. Read at your own discretion.