Reviews with content warning for Racism - Olisi jotain kerrottavaa

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Olisi jotain kerrottavaa by Celeste Ng

377 reviews

tyreadsbooks_'s review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

⟡Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng⟡

★★★★ 4/5 stars

(Thanks to @prhaudio for the free audiobook!)

⟡ Read if you like :

•Contemporary fiction

•very character driven stories

•Asian American representation

•sibling relationships

•family dramas

•thought provoking reads

⟡ My Thoughts

This book has been on my TBR shelf forever. I have loved her other books Little Fires Everywhere & Our Missing Hearts, so I was excited to complete Ng’s backlist.

We see a father who’s spent his life desperately trying to fit in, a mother whose only wish was to break from the mold. Both holding their middle daughter to the highest standards. James wishes for his daughter is to be popular & accepted, meanwhile Marilyn wants Lydia to fulfil her own lost dream of becoming a doctor. Her 2 other siblings feel lost inside their family & in their sister’s shadow. Unbeknownst to them all, Lydia feels crushed under the weight of all these expectations. Unfulfilled ambitions, alienation, & seeming small disappointments.

Ultimately, Everything I Never Told You is an empathetically-told story of a struggling family trying to make sense of a tragedy. I'm not even sure how to describe how this book made me feel. It’s a quiet story, soft but powerful. It's real & raw & emotional. It’s a reminder of just how important it is to feel like you belong somewhere & that someone out there hears you. I know from personal experience that losing someone suddenly comes with so many complicated feelings.

This is a short but heavy read, a story that I know will stay with me. I hesitate to say I recommend it, but I definitely appreciated its message.

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mpbookreviews's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book made me cry the storytelling was so heartbreaking and emotional. 5 stars.

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sundayfever's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Reflective read that could only have been written by an Asian person, because it captures so well the intense pressure parents put on their children lol. Lots to digest on mixed race marriages, feels of inferiority, family trauma, and gender. Felt like the queer part of the story wasn't developed enough and was just included as a throwaway.

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mle11's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad

4.75

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shaleen64's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A beautiful, but saddening, portrayal of family life and dynamics. This book covers issues relating to racism, parental expectations, societal expectations and the harm that can come from everything we fail to communicate. A beautifully written book, well suited to readers who like fully developed and relatable characters.

Content Warnings

lue_moon's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is a beautiful portrait of family relationships and grief. I really enjoyed the back and forth in time and the way things were slowly revealed. I found myself resonating with aspects of each of the siblings' experiences in particular: the way Nath felt overshadowed and overlooked; the pressure to try to hold a family together placed on Lydia; the quite, unseen, observation of Hannah.

And oof, this book is the kind of sad that is so so beautiful.

To know that Lydia was trying to start things anew, believing that all she needed to do was kick and try. To know all they was trying to do was trust in herself and prove that she can exist on her own terms, and then to be met with the void. And for none of the family to ever really know how much she was trying to start over. And how much she, in the end, allowed space for her family to start anew, to break out of the patterns they were stuck in. She accomplished what she had been hoping for her family, in the most tragic of ways.

Be prepared for tears if you are someone who often cries at books.

Content Warnings