Review: 'Everything I Never Told You' by Celeste Ng

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

'Everything I Never Told You' by Celeste Ng, 292 pages - Instagram @c_reads_books

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Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng tells the story of the Lees, a Chinese American family living in small-town Ohio in the 1970s. Lydia, the favorite child of her parents Marilyn and James, is found drowned in the town lake in the beginning of this story. Lydia’s death is just the first domino in the downfall of the Lee family, with her death meaning the death of her parents’ expectations of Lydia fulfilling all of the dreams they never could. After Lydia dies, the family realizes how little they truly knew about Lydia, and meanwhile the story jumps back and forth in time, eventually revealing all of the events leading up to Lydia’s death. In the present, however, Marilyn and James must figure out how to hold their family together, before they lose their two other children, Nath and Hannah, and it is too late.

I absolutely loved this book. From the very first line, I was hooked. This story twists and turns in the best ways possible. This book tackles so many issues, including grief, race, family expectations, loneliness, and the struggle to fit in, among other things. Although the first chapter begins on the day of Lydia’s death, centering around the mystery surrounding it, the story begins much earlier, and is a web of the entire Lee family. Each character was fully explored in a way that made each of them easy to understand and relate to, which is just part of what made this book so interesting and engaging. Everything I Never Told You paints a portrait of life and how family makes us who we are, in a way that anyone can relate to. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone (it’s just that good)!