Everything I Never Told You - Book Review
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary fiction, Mystery
Author: Celeste Ng
Year: 2015
Pages: 304
I’ve been itching for a five star read for a while. I have been reading plenty of light-hearted novels and longing for something with a bit more substance, a bit more depth. And then I came across Everything I Never Told You. Complex characters, family relationships, secrets and beautiful writing come together in this stunning debut novel.
“Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.”
It’s 1977 in small-town Ohio and sixteen-year-old Lydia has a bright future ahead of her. She’s the favourite child of James and Marilyn Lee, she’s popular in school, she’s smart and beautiful. Lydia’s parents want nothing more than her to fulfil their lost dreams, encouraging and guiding her to ensure she does not make the same mistakes they did. When Lydia’s body is discovered in the town lake, her family’s world comes crashing down. Everything her family did for her, all the sacrifices they made is now lost. So, what happened to Lydia?
Everything I Never Told You is a heart-wrenching story that focuses on Lydia and her family in the lead up to and aftermath of her death. I couldn’t recommend this novel enough. The book comes across as a gripping whodunnit, but it’s so much more than that. It details the lives of a Chinese-American family in the 1970’s, balancing their dreams, societal pressures, their expectations of themselves and each other, as well as their relationships. I don’t want to give too much away because I think it’s better to go into this book blind, like I did.
Ng writes a tender, heart-wrenching novel. You can clearly see the amount of work Ng put into this book; it took her six years to write! Her writing is beautiful. The book is so vividly descriptive that you lose yourself between its pages. I could not put it down. You truly emphasise with each and every character, all of whom long for different dreams, who struggle with isolation and are misunderstood.
Ng switches between past and present often, and it’s never jarring. It merely moves the plot along at a good pace. She also cleverly weaves one character’s perspective into another. The characters all have their own flaws and secrets, which is just another thing I love about this book. As someone who prefers a character-centric novel to drive the story, Everything I Never Told You is all the more appealing to me.
Everything I Never Told You is a brilliant book. It’s a poignant tale that really stays with you afterwards. If you couldn’t tell by this review, it has become one of my favourite books of all time. Nothing I write here could do it justice. You should just pick up a copy and read it for yourself.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★