Everything I’ve Never Told You by Celeste Ng– 336 pages
Book Blurb:
Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet . . . So begins this debut novel about a mixed-race family living in 1970s Ohio and the tragedy that will either be their undoing or their salvation. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee; their middle daughter, a girl who inherited her mother’s bright blue eyes and her father’s jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue—in Marilyn’s case that her daughter become a doctor rather than a homemaker, in James’s case that Lydia be popular at school, a girl with a busy social life and the center of every party. When Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together tumbles into chaos, forcing them to confront the long-kept secrets that have been slowly pulling them apart.
My Review: 4.5 stars
Thank you to all my followers who suggested this book. It may be one of the only books I’ve read in just one sitting! This is an impeccably written story in which each character is developed so beautifully that I feel like I could pick them all out of a lineup. There is an immense amount of love in this family but it’s tinged with a heaping dose of sadness as well. The parental pressure, mixed races, looking different, popularity, guilt, birth order and dreams both granted and broken are all consuming for these five main characters. Two of the siblings often communicated with each other with out having to speak which gives them a remarkable bond. However had they communicated their feelings aloud, as with the rest of the characters, the outcome of this story would be very different. The moral here is to talk: sibling to sibling, parent to child, spouse to spouse all of which is encapsulated perfectly in the title. I look forward to reading more from Ms. Ng.
Quotes I liked:
What made something precious? Losing it and finding it.”
-“You loved so hard and hoped so much and then you ended up with nothing. Children who no longer needed you. A husband who no longer wanted you. Nothing left but you, alone, and empty space.”
-“Before that she hadn’t realized how fragile happiness was, how if you were careless, you could knock it over and shatter it.”
-“Dreaming of his future, he no longer heard all the things she did not say.”
-“He pushed her in. And then he pulled her out. All her life, Lydia would remember one thing. All his life, Nath would remember another.”
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I, too, read this recently. Half-way through the book, I thought that I had the ending all figured out. Boy, was I wrong. Highly recommend if you are looking for loving, yet seriously flawed, characters and surprising angles that you were not expecting.
I agree to all your commentary. This book was wonderfully written! Glad you liked it!