Everything I Never Told You
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year • A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice • Winner of the Alex Award and the Massachusetts Book Award • Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, Entertainment Weekly, The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Grantland Booklist, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Shelf Awareness, Book Riot, School Library Journal, Bustle, and Time Our New York
The acclaimed debut novel by the author of Little Fires Everywhere and Our Missing Hearts
“A taut tale of ever deepening and quickening suspense.” —O, the Oprah Magazine
“Explosive . . . Both a propulsive mystery and a profound examination of a mixed-race family.” —Entertainment Weekly
“Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.
The acclaimed debut novel by the author of Little Fires Everywhere and Our Missing Hearts
“A taut tale of ever deepening and quickening suspense.” —O, the Oprah Magazine
“Explosive . . . Both a propulsive mystery and a profound examination of a mixed-race family.” —Entertainment Weekly
“Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.
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✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI
Readers say *Everything I Never Told You* is a moving, character-driven story about family, identity, and racial tensions, praised for Celeste Ng’s ev...
Heartbreaking story about family, loss, missed opportunities, and misunderstandings. We never really know each other.
I enjoyed this story, but I think that there were way too many topics that intersect in it. Racial, generational, LGBT, and feminist issues all pop up, but, then again, they do in everyday life. Each person isn't just one thing, and this family certainly isn't, either.
I would recommend the book. It is definitely worth reading.
I would recommend the book. It is definitely worth reading.
Almost a DNF at 50% but powered through by increasing the speed to x1.5.
*spoilers ahead*
Deep family drama (and generational trauma I suppose) seems to not be my genre since I also felt a little bored with this authors other book, Little Fires Everywhere. I think there were 2 big issues for me. First, I went in completely blind and the beginning chapter
set me up to think this was gonna be a murder mystery, possibly thriller. My mistake.
The first half of the book has almost nothing to do with the death of Lydia and instead focuses on the parents upbringing. All the bullshit they went through as kids etc. This is a generational family drama revoling around the issues of interracial marriage and racism in a small town during the 1960s and 70s, which in itself is actually very interesting and well done. It does a beautiful job of setting up why the parents act as they do and then why they proceed to emotionally scar their children.
However, this brings me to my second issue and that is the characters don't talk to each other. I suppose the title of the book really does nail home the point. They do not tell each other *anything.* One of the biggest plot points is Marilyn choosing to abandon her family without saying a single word. She literally calls them and doesn't say anything while on the phone. The narration doesn't even let you know if she ever even tells them where she went? Everyone just chooses to leave a lot of things unsaid. This may be be realistic I suppose, and again very on point for the title, but as a reader I was just left frustrated.
*spoilers ahead*
Deep family drama (and generational trauma I suppose) seems to not be my genre since I also felt a little bored with this authors other book, Little Fires Everywhere. I think there were 2 big issues for me. First, I went in completely blind and the beginning chapter
set me up to think this was gonna be a murder mystery, possibly thriller. My mistake.
The first half of the book has almost nothing to do with the death of Lydia and instead focuses on the parents upbringing. All the bullshit they went through as kids etc. This is a generational family drama revoling around the issues of interracial marriage and racism in a small town during the 1960s and 70s, which in itself is actually very interesting and well done. It does a beautiful job of setting up why the parents act as they do and then why they proceed to emotionally scar their children.
However, this brings me to my second issue and that is the characters don't talk to each other. I suppose the title of the book really does nail home the point. They do not tell each other *anything.* One of the biggest plot points is Marilyn choosing to abandon her family without saying a single word. She literally calls them and doesn't say anything while on the phone. The narration doesn't even let you know if she ever even tells them where she went? Everyone just chooses to leave a lot of things unsaid. This may be be realistic I suppose, and again very on point for the title, but as a reader I was just left frustrated.
I liked this book. A lot. There is so much more going on than just a teenage daughter who died. Great title for this book. So many things unsaid between Marilyn & James, Marilyn & Lydia, James & Nath & Lydia & Nath. Very well written, good character development. I liked that the story was told in 3rd person-you get to see each character's perspective. It was a moving story, at times sad, about family, family history, racial tensions & how we all struggle to understand each other.
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