Sweet Like Sugarcane

In Williams’ YA novel, a teenage girl in St. Kitts finds first love while struggling to cope with her mother’s declining health.

Gwendolyn Richards bickers with her mother on a regular morning as the family is preparing to begin another day. With roosters crowing in the yard and Gwen’s dad getting ready for a humdrum shift at the nearby sugar factory, mother and daughter share local news until Gwen’s best friend, Sharon, arrives to walk with Gwen to school. Along the way, Sharon teases Gwen about Lenwell Turnbull, a classmate who’s clearly smitten with Gwen (“Even Ms. Bridgewater probably see how all you looking at each other on de landing when you tink nobody watching”). As the story unfolds, readers are treated to flirtatious high school moments between Gwen and Lenwell, complete with note-passing and meaningful glances across classrooms. Gwen grows closer to Lenwell just as her mother begins to fall ill with a disease; the deeper her feelings grow for Lenwell, the sicker her mother becomes, and the correlation is confusing for Gwen. Everything comes to a head when Gwen’s father hatches an unexpected plan to secure Gwen’s future, one that seems to leave no room for Lenwell. Told from Gwen’s perspective throughout, the narrative follows her daily life, which consists primarily of days at school and at home. While the scenes can begin to feel repetitive—the pacing lags as each day bleeds slowly into the next—the author does an admirable job of showing how a teenage crush can grow into a deeper and more meaningful relationship. The story also thoughtfully explores the ways in which adolescents continue to look to their parents for guidance, alternately mirroring, resisting, and ultimately growing through those relationships. While the book would have benefitted from additional setting details to help ground the reader in time and place, the Caribbean-English dialogue adds a rich, authentic voice to this unhurried tale. What the story lacks in suspense it makes up for with emotional nuance and thematic depth, tackling issues such as caregiving, young love, and finding happiness in the shadow of loss.

An evocative (if predictable) coming-of-age story set in the heart of the Caribbean.