Recently long listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Dominion by Addie E. Citchens is a novel with an interesting and lovely sweet tooth. Details of sweetness appear in descriptions of both food and people, and a pattern of sweet foods popping up in the chapters stood out to me as I read.
I shared my sweet-themed annotations on Substack back in October 2025 and recently on Instagram. Below, I’ve republished those annotations, so you can take a look here on my blog.
If you’re curious about how sweetness takes shape in this novel, I recommend using this list to tab your book so you can take a closer look.
Sweetness in Food
Chapter 1
fruit cocktail p 15
chocolate cupcake p 24
Eve/apple p 25
Chapter 2
soda p 35
butter roll p 47
penny candy p 51
Chapter 3
devil’s food cake angel food cake p 60
ice cream p 64
Chapter 4-7
chocolate, candy, soda Ch 4, p 83
pancakes Ch 4, p 107
purple gum Ch 4, p 112
birthday cake Ch 6, p 144
sweet tea Ch 7, p 160
Chapter 8
pound cake p 171
cheesecake p 187
2 poundcake muffins p 202
Chapter 9
Twinkie p 209
Sweetness in People
Craig Carpenter p 18
Sabre p 159
Wonder p 38, 78, 165, 193, 196
Joker’s Mom p 88
Kathareen p 199
Yancey p 210
Diamond p 99, 166, 201
Maggie p 107, 201, 211
Mrs. Dell/Cupcake p 219
Annotate With Sara 