Book Review: Chelsea Bolan’s The Good Sister is an intricately crafted and immensely captivating debut

UBC MFA graduate Chelsea Bolan’s debut novel The Good Sister is both a gripping mystery and a masterfully executed morality tale. Winner of the HarperCollins/UBC Prize for Best New Fiction, Bolan proves that the award was well-earned. Starting with the perfect opening line — “Papá wanted no sign of Gabriela. She wasn’t his daughter, he said, never was” Bolan paints an authentic and engrossing picture of contemporary Mexico and captures the complexities of family bonds expertly.

Set in the fictional tourist town of Santo Niño, Baja California Sur, México, The Good Sister follows the Amador family after 14 year-old Gabriela is sent away by the family patriarch, Raúl. The novel is primarily told in first-person from 19 year-old Lucy’s point of view, but is also peppered with third-person vignettes from the perspectives of other Amador family members. 

Several of these family members are worthy of the reader’s hatred. In many of the third-person chapters, the more reprehensible characters are seen justifying their actions and involvement in the suffering of their family. While Bolan’s writing is mostly objective and she leaves the moral judgments up to the reader, the book’s commentary on the dangers of double standards and deeply entrenched patriarchal values is both subtle and clear. By offering a few characters some form of redemption and repentance yet still allowing the reader to make the final morality judgments, Bolan tackles the question of what it really means to be “good."

Much of The Good Sister revolves around the question of why Gabriela was sent away, and how the rest of the Amador family is grappling with her absence. But the book is predominantly centred around Lucy, the titular good sister. The only remaining daughter of the Amador family, Lucy was named after the Virgen Guadalupe at her father’s insistence. Lucy is made to bare the brunt of her hypocritical father’s steadfast adherence to tradition after Gabriela’s departure: working in her father’s bar and taking care of her ailing mother. In her quest to find Gabriela and development of her own hobbies and interests (photography), Lucy gradually reclaims her agency. Her narration and role as an engaging and very likeable heroine give the book heft.

Bolan’s delicate and understated writing is one of the book’s best features. Her past as a poet is evident throughout The Good Sister. Instead of relying on overblown prose, Bolan’s writing is clear, simple and very vivid. She draws the reader in immediately. While the book may not seem like a typical suspense novel, the anticipation and emotional pull is there. Lucy’s quest to find Gabriela is enthralling, as is the desire to discover exactly why Gabriela was kicked out the Amador house, and what has happened to her since she left.

The Good Sister is ultimately a layered, believable portrayal of life in México. The tension between the traditional and the modern is adeptly depicted via the juxtaposition of Lucy’s first-person narration and the third-person chapters narrated by other Amador family members. Both a heartwarming tale of sisterly love and devotion and a cautionary tale about intolerance and double standards, The Good Sister is a suspenseful, insightful and overall very enjoyable read.

The Good Sister by Chelsea Bolan is published by HarperCollins Canada and is available from Amazon, Indigo and local retailers.