Book Description
From the author of A Good Happy Girl, a lesbian screwball comedy following two exes who turn to online dating after their dramatic split—only to end up seeing the same woman
In Sweetener, recently separated wives, both named Rebecca, can’t seem to disentangle their lives. Lonely and depressed, Rebecca is scraping by as a part-time cashier at an organic grocery store. Despite having less than ten dollars in her bank account, she lists herself as a sugar mama on a lesbian hookup app. Enter Charlotte, a charismatic artist who, unbeknownst to Rebecca, is also dating her wife.
Meanwhile, the other Rebecca, a newly sober doctoral student, has renewed her efforts to foster a child. The catch? Because the Rebeccas are still legally married, she needs her wife to attend parenting classes with her as part of the approval process.
Neither of them asks whether this means they’re getting back together, but the idea alone sends Charlotte into a tailspin. As Charlotte navigates her desire for each Rebecca—or her desire for attention—her world becomes more and more Gumby-like and surreal. It doesn’t help that she’s been wearing a fake pregnancy belly to all of her dates, and only one of the Rebeccas knows it isn’t real.
Sumptuous, sticky, and slightly absurd, Sweetener brings together three women fixated on the fantasy of motherhood, and trying to figure out what kind of mother, partner, or sugar mama they want to be.
Praise For This Book
Our Culture Magazine, A Most Anticipated Book of the SummerLiterary Hub, A Most Anticipated Book of the Year
"A fun sapphic romp brimming with identity confusion . . . [A] sexy, poignant second sapphic novel . . . Sweetener, the novel, is a fun romp through one version of lesbo-land circa 2025. Higgins’ Sweetener celebrates and accelerates the long, rough ride to lasting queer equality." —Meredith Maran, Los Angeles Times
"Marissa Higgins’s Sweetener is proof that the Sapphic novel has never been messier—or more compelling . . . Delightfully freaky." —Emma Specter, Vogue
"Though the focus is in some ways on romantic relationships, Sweetener is really about community—how we show up and meet each other's needs because we can, and we want to, not because the strictures of a relationship dictate that we must. It's an odd but charming story of kindness and care." —Lisa Butts, BookBrowse
"There’s a very near future where I’m probably bookclubbing this one with my partner and our friends. I feel very seen by stories about messy lesbians, to the point where I think most stories would be better if they were about messy lesbians. Even better when they balance the absurdity of being alive with the nuances of partnership and queer parenthood." —Oliver Scialdone, Literary Hub
"Sweetener is absurd, twisted, and deliriously messy, a queer novel that will stay spinning in your mind long after you devour it." —Language Arts
"Higgins (A Good Happy Girl) shines in this sharp-witted novel of women behaving badly . . . The question of parenthood haunts the three women, like a destination without a map, and the final reveal is a knockout. Readers will have a blast." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[F]unny, absurd, and utterly unique. Higgins has a distinct voice that captures a particular brand of queerness and will captivate readers looking for something unexpected." —Booklist
"Queerness is joyful and beautiful, but it's also unspeakably annoying and absurd. Higgins understands this dichotomy perfectly and in her sophomore novel, she playfully and painfully paints her characters dancing and wallowing through the demon hellscape that is lesbian existence in the 2020s. Hilarious, provocative, surprisingly moving." —Jean Kyoung Frazier, author of Pizza Girl
"Sweetener is bleak and twisted, horny and brutal, intimate and freaky. Few things are worthy of sharing a title with an Ariana Grande album, but this novel absolutely is." —Anna Dorn, author of Perfume & Pain
"Slick, filthy, and unhinged in her signature Higginsian way, Sweetener is the messy queer read whose taste lingers long after you’ve swallowed it whole.” —Ruth Madievsky, author of All-Night Pharmacy
