Shug

Shug is a 2006 work of young adult fiction by New York Times best-selling author Jenny Han. It follows twelve-year-old protagonist Annemarie Wilcox, who falls in love for the first time with her friend Mark. Annemarie’s adolescent naivety is tempered by her parents’ atrophying marriage and her own difficulties with self-esteem. Taking its title from the term of endearment her family uses for her, short for “Sugar,” Shug chronicles the early adolescence of a girl newly exposed to the process of reconciliation that always stretches between dreams and reality.

The novel opens in the town of Clementon, Georgia. It’s the summer before middle school, and Annemarie Wilcox anticipates entering a new stage of life. Meanwhile, her best friend Elaine is off in New York for the summer, and her sister Celia is preparing for college. Annemarie’s mom is an alcoholic who is rarely sober, and her dad frequently vanishes for work trips lasting up to a month. The only remaining friend Annemarie has is her best friend, Mark. They spend long summer days wandering around the suburbs, riding their bikes, and joking about events in their lives.

As the summer progresses, Annemarie develops a crush on Mark. She begins scheming how to make it known. One day, she dons her only dress and goes to his house to impress him. Mark’s mom gives her a cake to serve to Mark in the living room. When Annemarie approaches, she is mortified to find Mark is with her former crush, Kyle Montgomery; her least favorite boy, Jack Connell; and a group of others. No one notices her as she serves the cake; their attention is fixed on a video game. After idling for too long, Annemarie goes home.



A few days later, Mark comes over. They are interrupted by Celia, who sits down and listens to them tell jokes. Annemarie perceives that Mark is drooling over Celia. She relates that ever since second grade, Mark has had an indefatigable crush on her sister.

On the first day of junior high, Annemarie is wracked by anxiety. She is sad to see she has no classes with Mark, and believes that most of her teachers dislike her. Making matters worse, she shares only one class with her best friend Elaine. As the year proceeds, Annemarie decides to earn extra credit by tutoring a fellow student. When she receives her assignment, she is irritated that it’s Jack Connell. After asking every other tutor if they would be willing to trade partners, she gives up. She decides to suspend judgment and stick with him for the rest of the school year.

To Annemarie’s surprise, tutoring Jack is more pleasant than she ever expected. They argue frequently but get their work done, which gives both of them a sense of accomplishment. However, Annemarie’s friendship with Elaine grows weaker during this time, as her friend becomes one of the most popular girls in their class. Annemarie struggles to maintain their friendship as Elaine enters a separate sphere.



As the annual end-of-year dance approaches, rumors about date selections reverberate through the school. One of the rumors holds that the most popular boy in the class plans to pick Elaine. Annemarie is not jealous; rather, it emboldens her to ask Mark. Just before she asks him, she hears that Mark has already asked a girl named Hadley. Annemarie falls into a depression before the dance and nearly decides not to go, but her sister convinces her to attend. She wears her mom’s old dress, and Celia does her makeup.

At the school dance, most of the boys, including Mark, check Annemarie out. She gathers the courage to ask Mark for a dance; to her shock, he says yes. They dance in the spotlight until Hadley cuts it off abruptly, but Annemarie doesn’t care, having waited for that dance since before she can remember. When the DJ plays a final song, she goes to the coat rack. There she runs into Elaine’s boyfriend making fun of her and Mark. He loudly suggests that they should date. Mark lashes out, saying that he only likes Annemarie as a friend. Annemarie starts crying and runs from the building out the parking lot. She jumps into the car with her mother, refusing to explain herself.

The next day, she decides to skip school. Mark comes over to deliver the homework she missed. Annemarie notices he has a bruised face. He apologizes before he leaves, and Annemarie asks why he spoke about their relationship the way he did in front of everyone rather than with her personally. Mark doesn’t give an answer and goes home.



That night, Jack visits Annemarie and tells her that he beat up Mark for saying mean things about her. She is upset but happy to hear that someone acted in her defense. Jack and Annemarie kiss, ending the novel in a state of contentment.

A story about how personal imperfections can lead to such social ills as betrayal and alienation, Shug suggests that these imperfections are necessary and equally able to inspire acts of kindness. Han thus suspends moral judgment of people working through the confusion of adolescence, painting all of her characters in some way as forces of good.