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.
"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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Community Reviews
I really loved the writing and overall setup of this story. Just felt that some of the plot lines were a bit odd, like the way Lydia died and the fact that the little sister was just completely ignored 95% of the book like what
I found the book pretty bland. The emotions weren’t there. You’re grieving the loss of your child and the way the parents acted, made their grieving emotions really reserved. The brother was seemingly the only one who was truly grieving. The little sister is what was actually heart breaking. “Her room was the attic, where all things were put to be forgotten” and how the parents constantly dismissed her.
This was not that good at all couldn’t really get into the book the first page literally tells you what the book will be about and that’s it. An easy read because it’s not the long but no suspense or plot twist.
Everything I Never Told You is bleak and helpless. Following the story of a family coping with the loss of their eldest daughter, readers are shown their lives before her tragic death and just what lead to it occuring.
This book was promised to be an eye opening thrilling book, exploring the complex relationships between a family unable to communicate with one another. From a mother who lives vicariously through her daughter, to the son who is overlooked in each thing he does, it is clear the dynamic between the family is tense. The plot itself was alright, although given that it was sold on the premise of a mystery, it didn't quite live up to expectations.
Most of the characters are quite unlikable, although that is arguably the point, it does mean there is little room for readers to care about them. Obviously, their is a major death within the first page of the book, but it does leave very little room for hope once you close the book.
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