The Sweetest One

by Melanie Mah

Set in central-western Alberta, the book asks larger questions about growing up, and about life itself — particularly, how you would live if you knew your life would soon be ending. Would you live a circumscribed life if you thought it meant you would survive? What amount of sacrifice is worth it?

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Canada

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2016

Reviews

[Autumn Chrunik · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was quite enjoyable! It's cool for me since the author was born and raised in the same town I live in. Review to come!

Check out my full review on my blog: https://forthosewhoreadatnight.wordpr...

[Joanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

'My real feelings: travel, leaving, is a kind of betrayal. What about the people you leave behind? You go off and they miss you, or you go and they’re left to lead their boring lives and guess at what things you’re experiencing that they cannot, and worry about how you’re going to be crushed by an elephant or muskox, or how you’re going to go off and never come back or that you’ll replace the people who love you with others you could grow to love.'

Chrysler Wong's family used to be seven: her parents, Reggie, Stef, Gene, Trina, and her, as the youngest. One by one, like some curse, her older siblings have all died at eighteen years of age. She's learned to fear reaching the milestone herself, too anxious to leave the town limits or make any plans for the future - why bother? - hoping to spend the rest of her time with her only remaining sister, Trina. But on her seventeenth birthday, Trina leaves too. Not by death, but by a note, saying she's off to travel and see more. As the last child of the family, the unit of three has somehow been hanging on by the threads of a routine of a shop in a small town, unable to communicate or console each other in their grief.

'…it’s why he used to bring us to the cemetery - because he was born and raised into a culture where people pay their respects that way. There’s something really nice about that way of doing it. Even though we’ve never done it, I like the idea of the ritual. You go out of your way to the cemetery, find their grave, and sit by it, and the whole time you’re doing that, you’re probably thinking about the person who died. Love becomes duty, and as long as you keep going, you’ll keep remembering.

[…] There’s no way to know, but I need to think there’s something or at least be unsure about what happens, because the thought that there is nothing at the end of this - that some of the people I love most in the world are just gone, just like that, even though they were so alive and full and real when they were here, and that all this bad shit happened to us for absolutely no reason - is the saddest, most unbearable thought there is for me, even worse than all the bad shit that really did happen.'

I'm inevitably drawn to immigrant family narratives and the near invisible ways they love each other, underneath the silence and the brashness. Sometimes, the most wrenching and tender words are those unspoken. Chrysler's utterly alone and misunderstood, and worse, feels abandoned, by the one person she believes understands. Her parents have to keep going in the way they know how, which inevitably feels like moving on, a step too close to forgetting completely, which is a step closer to betrayal. How could they? But that's what life demands of you. Even though her siblings were only shown in flashbacks, mere glimpses compared to the time we got to spend with Chrysler, I felt the emptiness they left dearly: Reggie, the oldest of the family and the genius who felt out of place everywhere; Stef, the emotional glue and the outdoor explorer; Gene, the charming and confident jock who loved too stubbornly; and Trina, the unapologetic, loud voice and hungry traveller. I missed them all.

‘We were quiet the whole way home, gliding down the highway in my dad’s Oldsmobile, edging away from the mountains, the trees, the bighorn sheep and deer on the sides of roads that cut through rocks, the little waterfalls you pass on your way to wherever you’re going, the natural sounds and peace, the beavers, otters, weasels, whatever, the birds and the green lake, the river that had taken Stef, all the beautiful things that continue on when you leave, that don’t care if you’re gone, back to your town in the middle of nowhere of auto body shops and farmers and fast food joints and convenience stores and drugs, only it’s not nowhere because you stop there, you live there, you belong there, so it’s somewhere. Close to the mountains, not close enough.’

Chrysler's so unsure of herself sometimes, so quick to dismiss what she wants before she even realizes it to keep the family unit together, so unable to let go and take those steps on her own, that you're either frustrated as a reader or rooting extra hard for her to make it. I fall easily, gladly, into the latter camp. The various constraints in which she's trapped in this small town life felt all too real. The moments with her parents felt both precious and precarious in how fleeting joy and understanding could be, even though they were near drowning in their love for one another.

A wonderful discovery. I'd love to see where Melanie Mah's writing takes her. This was such a moving, intimate read.

[Jaclyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad, got better as the story went on. 2.5 stars

[Julia Cottrelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite book ever.

[Anne Logan · Rating 3 out of 5]

All my reviews can be found at ivereadthis.com

I’m torn about Melanie Mah’s The Sweetest One. The author has so much going for her book, that it’s hard for me not to love what she’s written. Firstly, she’s Albertan, so I’m excited to read any books written by a local author (she lives in Toronto now, but we won’t talk about that). Secondly, she’s published by Cormorant Books, which as I’ve said before, I am an unabashed fan of. They only publish people who are fantastic writers, period. This book is no different, Mah’s writing is precise, clever and direct, and gives purpose to an otherwise boring and common existence for the main character Chrysler (such a cool name too!). The narrative is well formed; it kept me turning the pages, even though the answers I was seeking were no doubt depressing (three different children die within the same family at the same age). Mah masterfully draws out the reasons for their death throughout the book, which added a little mystery to the plot, elevating it from a simple novel about life in a small town to an engrossing story that you don’t want to put down.

So what’s my problem? Is it a major one, or a minor quibble? I guess that depends on your perspective. As I mentioned before there were so many reasons for me to like this book, but the driver behind the character’s fear of her family curse didn’t make much sense to me. Personally, I find that when the motivation for a protagonist falls flat, it’s hard to get excited about a book. Essentially, Chrysler has four siblings, and three of them die on their way out (figuratively and literally) of their small town in rural Alberta. The fourth kid disappears at the very beginning of the book, thus beginning the year that Chrysler is home alone with her parents, essentially waiting for something dire to happen. Of course having three of your siblings die would affect you deeply, leaving your emotions in tatters to say the least. But, Chrysler is extremely scientific, excelling at these logic-based subjects at school. Therefore, it’s a stretch to believe that she is afraid to leave her town for an irrational fear of something bad happening to her. What’s even worse is she is constantly tallying up all the dangerous things that could happen to her in any situation, which stunts her spiritual growth and leaves her grasping at a depressing family life. While her sister Trina disappears looking for salvation somewhere else, Chrysler has the exact opposite reaction by refusing to leave her town, even though her parents can be verbally and physically abusive. It just didn’t add up for me.

So is this a reason to shun a book entirely, and say it isn’t worth reading at all? No, definitely not. This is Mah’s first book, and she’s obviously very talented, so I’ll be looking forward to what she writes next. Yes, she has some work to do on the mechanics of her characterization, but I realize this can be a very subjective aspect to storytelling, so judge for yourself and pick up her debut.

Oh, and one more thing. This book should also be considered a young adult book, simply because it deals with issues that many ‘youths’ think and care about. I think the YA lovers out there would really enjoy Chrysler, and the teenage dialogue is believable and authentic.

[Jovdb · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an Ontario Reads book for this month.

Not a book that I would have chosen to read. A, supposedly highly intelligent, perceptive young woman approaching her eighteenth birthday lives her life dreading having to leave her small home town in Alberta. Why does she have this irrational fear? Her three older siblings all died when they were eighteen: different causes, but all, supposedly, because the family is cursed.

Chrysler, the young teen, is the youngest of five children in the family of Chinese immigrants. Trina, the second youngest, leaves home one night and there is no trace of her or clue to her whereabouts. The parents do nothing to find her and just carry on as if it is normal. They don't talk about their other three dead children; the mother has hidden all the pictures of them. Actually, the family situation is abusive: the father shouts at everyone, hits them whenever he feels like it and the mother just sirs by and watches it all. They run a local clothing store.

After about six months, Chrysler, who has imagined Trina in dire situations, dead, hurt or doing the traveling they talked about, gets a letter from Trina. She tells Chrysler not to le her parents know she is alive and Chrysler complies.

Meanwhile, Chrysler starts a relationship with a young guy, Conrad, who lives in another small town, close by. He is also somewhat of an outcast. The two find comfort in their strangeness neediness, and intellectual interests.

Things come to a climax when Chrysler, having left home after an arguement with her father on her birthday, goes to stay with Conrad. His mother and step father have left him on his own while they go off to be missionaries. While there, Chrysler gets a phone call from her mother: her father has gone missing.

After some deductive reasoning, Chrysler surmises that he has seen a letter from Trina and has gone off to find her. So, having never left the town limits before, off she goes. and that's where the book ends.

Although the writing shows promise, I found the main characters, Chrysler and Conrad, annoying and unbelievable. Yes, her three older siblings died, but she is a logical person, into science and the scientific method, so why would she be so tortured by the "what ifs"?

Not my favourite book. I found it quite irritating, hinting at a curse but never divulging what that might be.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been having a hard time coming up with adjectives about this book. Nothing fits quite perfectly. It's sweet but not nice, it's heavy or maybe tragic but not melancholy, it's light and clear but so deep and nuanced, it's a small, focused story but somehow has an expansive perspective - the sky is bigger in the prairies, I guess. I want to say 'bittersweet' but that implies a wry chuckle, and there are no wry chuckles here. The characters are all extremely flawed and yet likable and lovable - even that dick Mike Brown. The prose is clean and beautiful and well-crafted. She perfectly captures the way a lot of people (especially teenagers) can be so self-absorbed that some things in their lives are hugely influencing beyond all reasonable proportion and yet other things are just blindly accepted like they're nothing even though they're really quite outside the norm of an average life. I'd definitely recommend this book. Plus it inspired me to mainline some New Order, and that's always welcome.

[Virginia Van · Rating 3 out of 5]

17 year old Chrysler Wong lives in a small Alberta town where her parents run a local clothing store.
Chrysler lives with the belief that her family is the victim of a curse, dooming all the children to die before they are 18. Her three older siblings have already died and her sister Trina has disappeared, run off to escape their claustrophobic life. Chrysler, on the other hand, believes she is only safe if she stays within the town limits. A first novel, this book brilliantly presents both small town and high school life and the push-pull of desire for the familiar and a longing for the new. The author has an excellent ear for dialogue and eye for detail. Although the book has some pacing issues - it drags a bit in the middle and ending seemed a bit abrupt - this is an strong first novel that kept me reading.

[Vanessa Shields · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mah's debut YA novel is a heart-tugger. 'The Sweetest One' is equal parts sweet and sour getting to the hearts of a Chinese-Canadian family in a way that shows her keen ability to understand family, friendship, and coming-of-age. The writing is excellent, the plot deep and moving, in the end, I was sorry to say goodbye to her characters. There should be award stickers on the cover - for the author who is most-deserved! This is a novel poignant and powerful - a story we can all relate to in both its pain and its hopefulness. Thank you Melanie!

[Aquila · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a bit of a slow start. I wish the first chapters would have eased us into introducing us to the characters a bit more, but it got better as I read on. My biggest gripe is that almost every characters' reactions seem so disconnected and lukewarm in regards to what Chrysler and her family experience, but that may be as a result of it entirely being told from Chrysler's perspective. Some people may not like the ending, but I found it quite fitting and it matched the tone of the rest of the book perfectly. 4.5 stars.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written with many lovely turns of phrase, for sure. One of my favourites was "a new family, made up of old parts". However, I never really came to understand any of the characters. Her reactions and her parents' reactions to events didn't always make sense to me, and that made me impatient with the story, especially the last 1/3.

[Deborah Sowery-Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good read set in a small Alberta town, about a family that seems to have a curse of sorts as several of their children do not survive past 18. The novel's protagonist is the youngest daughter who is in her late teens and struggling with family connections, what to do about her life, the opposite sex and so on.

[Carolyn Somerville · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this was a little difficult to get into, I found I got to a point where I could not put it down and had to know how Chris' story ends. Her writing about being an outcast in high school felt spot on.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

How do you hold a family together when its young people keep dying? Once there were 5, now only 2 are left. Reminds me of my uncle's family -- 2 boys lost to highway 401 within a year of each other. How do you surmount the sadness?

[Madeleine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and easy read. A little confusing at times, and there is no real conclusion to anything so that was a bit frustrating.

[Lenore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reached my goal of 50 books with this novel. It was a good piece of Canadian literature although it took a bit to catch my interest. Once it did, though, I couldn't put it down.

[Giuliana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read 1/2 way through and still didn’t like it. The writing nor the characters. So...on to the next.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took a little to get into it, then couldn’t put it down. Really wished there was closure at the end, though.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an amazing book with a very clear and complex narrative voice. Job well done.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Growing up in small town Alberta, the youngest daughter of Chinese immigrants - with the worst luck - 3 of their 5 children died at 18.

[Ele Pawelski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great read, super great writing. You can feel the angst of the main character, the ups and downs she is going through trying to find her way to adulthood.

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book and look forward to other books by this author. It was heart warming, genuine, sad, devastating all at the same time. Teachers and social workers need to read this book because the description of family dynamics are so important to interacting with families. Hats off to the author. It has been a few months since I read it and I am still thinking about it. That's a sign of an excellent book.