As someone who stood on the sidelines of a couple different music scenes — the hippie jam band scene, New York’s avant-garde jazz scene… — I can tell you that every music-related scene has it share of colorful characters.
Which brings me to author Taslim Burkowicz’s coming-of-age / coming-out novel Sugar Kids (paperback, Kindle), which is set in the ’90s raver scene, a precursor to today’s EDM scene.
In the following email interview, Burkowicz talks about her own involvement in that same scene, as well as how stories about other scenes inspired and influenced what she calls “contemporary fiction on the racy end.”
Photo Credit: Michell Koebke
To begin, what is Sugar Kids about, and when and where does it take place?
Sugar Kids is set in the ’90s, in Vancouver. It centers on an Indo-Canadian teenager named Baby who is grappling with the recent death of her mother. Baby has a twin brother named Ravi who died many years ago but continues to visit Baby in the form of ghost. A bit lost in life, Baby is a member of misfit skater crew in high school. She also has a secret love for Victorian gothic fiction.
On the way home from her mother’s one year death anniversary, she meets an eccentric raver girl named Delilah in a rundown Burger King. Delilah shows Baby the hidden underground rave scene of Vancouver. Almost overnight Baby become immersed in warehouse parties and using Ecstasy and finds it increasingly difficult to relate to her original crew of skaters.
Sugar Kids is essentially about a girl on a quest to find her sexual identity and her place of belonging. But it also is a book that pays homage to the rave scene of the ’90s down to the music and vibe.
Where did you get the idea for Sugar Kids?
I got the idea from my own raver days. I thought writing a piece of fiction that captured that particular time would crystalize it for others to come pay it a visit as well. My objective was to pay tribute to the DJs of the day, the music of the ’90s, and the general lifestyle of the warehouse raver.
I also hoped it would speak to people who have a difficult time fitting in places in life, and who question where they belong.
You kind of just answered this, but is there a reason why you set it in the ’90s rave scene as opposed to the current EDM scene, or the ’90s grunge scene or the ’70s punk scene or some other music-related scene? Or some scene that isn’t connected to music, like, say, modern day gamer culture?
I chose the ’90s rave scene especially because of its eclectic crowd. All kinds of people were drawn to rave culture in that time period that were not accepted in mainstream society, ranging from drag queens to gay and queer folk.
But as accepting as the crowd was, what Baby noticed was that she was never fully able to shake her Indian identity in what was, for all its openness, a very white scene. In the novel, I have Baby question whether she is allowed to like white subcultures such as skateboarding or Victorian gothic fiction. She finds it difficult then to fully blend, for even in the middle of a rave people see her as Indian. She spends parts of the novel wondering what space she belongs in and what identity she wants to adopt.
The scenes that you mention, however, might be fun for a next novel concept.
Sugar Kids has been called a “coming-of-age” novel. Do you agree with that, or do you think it’s something else, genre-wise?
I agree with it; Baby is essentially finding herself in the novel.
It can also be described as a “coming-out” novel as well. As cliché as the term coming-of-age is, it also serves the purpose of exactifying what the novel is about. While it features teens in the book, it still needs a mature reader. I think adults will enjoy the novel purely for the nostalgia factor.
Genre wise, I would say it is contemporary fiction on the racy end, because it features drug use and experimentation.
Speaking of genre, in coming up with these questions, and thinking about how this story has Baby exploring both her cultural and sexual identity, it occurred to me that, to some people – i.e., people on the extreme right – Sugar Kids would probably sound like a horror novel. But if someone on the right read this book, and they’re not so closed minded that nothing could ever change their way of thinking, what do you think they might get out of reading this story? Or, more importantly, what do you hope they might get out of it?
Interesting take. Sugar Kids might not appeal to a far-right reader just for the reason that the some of the characters — Kwasi, a Ghanian medical student, and Raz a pot smoking spoken word rapper — discuss left-wing politics heavily.
The title Sugar Kids is actually a bit of a drug reference. In the ’90s rave scene, we referred to a certain type of raver as a Candy Kid. This was the raver that had a certain stylish aesthetic and was always flush in drugs. Candy also refers to Ecstasy. Kid is a term we used for all ravers (think of also the 1995 movie directed by Larry Clark named Kids). As for Sugar Kids, I made up this particular term, but in the novel, it refers to ravers that always knew where the best parties were at and enjoyed sporting the best fashion.
What any reader would get out of this novel is a bird’s eye look at a drug culture, where I also explore the not so glamorous side of using drugs; there are overdoses in the novel, and drug related deaths. The novel would also help people draw a connection between today’s fentanyl connection and vulnerable street youth. It would show people why some people are drawn to drugs, and what kind of homelives make people susceptible to living life on the streets. It would also show people what growing up as a minority is like in Canada, and how difficult life can be for people who are not born straight.
Now, Sugar Kids is your fourth novel after Chocolate Cherry Chai, The Desirable Sister, and Ruby Red Skies. Are there any writers, or specific stories, that had a big influence on Sugar Kids but not on anything else you’ve written?
Yes!!! Irvine Welsh was a huge influence for me for Sugar Kids. While I am huge Irvine Welsh fan, it was Trainspotting that really made me want to write this book. Instead of Scotland, here I showcase the nitty gritty dark side of Vancouver, and with very different characters. Baby’s friends in the novel are one anemic, dyslexic skater kid and another Japanese skateboarder who are fun sidekicks. Both Trainspotting and Sugar Kids look at the dark underbelly of the heroin scene. This was an unfortunate reality of where some of us ended up as ravers in the ’90s, so I thought it was important not to solely glamorize rave culture.
I was also influenced by the book Anatomy Of A Girl Gang. Ashley Little does an excellent job of portraying the Vancouver’s Lower East Side.
What about non-literary influences? Was Sugar Kids influenced by any movies or TV shows?
I’d say Kids, the movie I mentioned earlier, was something that influenced me. It was quintessential ’90s and portrayed lost youth which I really wanted to do myself in this book.
Trainspotting, the movie, was different than the book in that it captured dream like sequences of being high, and featured a killer soundtrack, both things I wanted my book to have. This is why I have a link leading to a playlist at the back of my book.
But really, walking around downtown as much as I have, I was inundated by past memories of the rave scene that I once belonged to. Seeing the homeless out there, I really wanted to honor their stories, and this is why it was important for me to talk about Baby’s fractured home life in detail.
And then, to flip things around, do you think Sugar Kids could work as a movie or a TV show?
I could see Sugar Kids made into either a film or a series. There hasn’t been a film that features the ’90s rave scene on the West Coast, and this book encapsulates both the music and fashion of the era. It would be great to visually see the bright colors of the ’90s up on screen, but also to hear the distinct house music of the era.
Additionally, Baby makes for a great protagonist on screen, with her skater girl image, her blue hair, and her troubled persona. The cast of characters are perfect for a series or film. We have rogue skater boys, larger than life DJs, socialist rappers, and more. Baby’s story, about a broken girl forgotten by her family who is searching for her identity, would be relatable even today. The book explores queer identity and belonging and features a minority main character. In addition, Victorian Gothic tropes are woven into the story, and it has a Jane Eyre feeling to it, even with all the Ecstasy thrown in.
So, if someone wanted to make a movie or TV show based on Sugar Kids, who would you want them to cast as Baby, Delilah, and the other main characters?
I would cast Maitreyi Ramakrishnan from Never Have I Ever to play Baby. Maitreyi was witty and fun on that show, where she toggled navigating her brown identity with fitting into white subculture. Like Baby, the main character on her show was academic and well read. Playing Baby would be a darker role for her, Baby is tomboyish and more serious than her previous onscreen character, but I think Maitreyi has the acting chops to play a more intense character.
I would cast [A Star Is Born‘s] Lady Gaga to play DJ Li’l Miss Thang. Li’l Miss Thang is a 6-foot-tall diva with amazing fashion sense, pairing a ’20s burgundy bob with pink faux fur jackets and silver ’90s dresses. Hawking homemade CDs featuring her iconic music (house peppered with swing jazz) from her handbag, she eventually rises to the top of her game years later by performing in Ibiza. Lady Gaga would be an incredible Li’l Miss Thang with her artistry and edgy fashion.
Conversely, I also think hiring a brand-new cast of (unknown) actors would be a brilliant idea if Sugar Kids were ever turned into a movie or series. Because the book features young and multicultural characters (Indo-Canadian, Japanese-Canadian, biracial characters, etc.) there are not a lot of famous or well known people for me to imagine for the parts. A movie version of this book would allow for a fresh and diverse casting.
So, is there anything else you think people need to know about Sugar Kids?
Reviewer Jessica Poon compared the main character of Sugar Kids with Pony Boy from The Outsiders. While that book is set in the ’50s and mine is set in ’90s, the theme of having young children fend for themselves in a foreign and dangerous environment remains. Baby is thrown into a world of warehouse raves and drugs, and while this is very intoxicating it also sends a young girl into turmoil during a time where she is vulnerable and lost. I would want readers to know that this book should resonate with teens and adults alike, because I made it a point to discuss drugs, sexual identity, and cultural identity.
These themes can also be talking points for people wanting to further discuss the fentanyl crisis, and the idea of what it is to be brown in a Western society that favors white ideals. Baby’s life isn’t perfect; she loses many people she loves in the novel, and her twin brother visiting her as a ghost throughout the novel helps her cope with alienation in her own family. The fantasy of having a perfect home life for her dies very early in her life, and I think people will resonate with separating what we grow up with as ideals for a perfect homelife to what end up being one’s realities. Baby goes through a lot of turmoil not blending into this society as readily as she thought she might, from questioning whether it is okay for her to gravitate towards skateboarding and Victorian Gothic fiction when in fact, she is brown.
Above all, I feel the book would appeal to people who want to know what the ’90s rave culture was all about.
Finally, if someone enjoys Sugar Kids, which of your other novels would you suggest they check out next?
I’d suggest The Desirable Sister, just because there is drug experimentation and a small rave scene in Goa. This book is about colorism and features two sisters with two different skin colors (one is born fair while the other is born dark skinned). The book takes a look at how life goes differently for the two sisters because of this. Like Sugar Kids, the book starts off with teenage characters, and ventures into many tales involving doing mushrooms by a campfire to a bumpy transition into adulthood.
