Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

70 reviews

im_just_vidu's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

Here I am grieving for the life that Lydia could never lived up to. Here I am loss of words because of how heart wrenching this was.
The first line of the book is "Lydia is dead. They don't know this yet" & you would think it's such an obvious thing, so you wouldn't cry over this book. Bold of me to assume the same cuz I did not expect THAT at all. I thought this would be end up being a murder mystery, but instead it just pulled all the heart strings of mine & made me feel so heartbroken. Maybe being relatable to the characters & their situations made things way worse. At the end, I didn't get the ending I wanted. I didn't get the answers for the questions I had. Most of the things I expected didn't end up happening. But that was the beautiful thing about this. Because life is like that. Life doesn't gives you the perfect ending & the closure to everything. Most of the time we just end up with bunch of questions we don't even know what to do with. I love that. It makes this story feel so close to the heart. I didn't cry yet but my heart feels so heavy so I might end up crying after finish writing this. Who knows? However read the trigger warnings & be prepared with a tissue box beforehand.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Xenophobia, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Bullying, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Death of parent

Novel

mbattiest's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Child death, Xenophobia, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death and Racial slurs

mangofraiche's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Death, Grief, Xenophobia, Child death, and Infidelity

vaekay's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Racism, Abandonment, Child death, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Domestic abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

Minor: Rape, Outing, Murder, and Suicide

katyadaniela's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved this book from beginning to end, Celeste Ng really knows how to put words on a page and paint a picture of a small town family with real struggles. Even if you can't personally relate to the characters, they are written in such a way that makes you love and hate them at the same time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Xenophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Suicide, Abandonment, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts

svtephreads's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I cried unexpectedly many times

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Suicide, Xenophobia, Child death, and Death of parent

jenniferbbookdragon's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.5

Celeste Ng does an amazing job writing about trauma,  racism,  misogyny,  and dysfunctional families.  This gut-wrenching story of a teen girl's disappearance and death moves back and forth between before and after the tragedy and demonstrates how experiences from childhood can create generations of pain. The main story takes place in 1977 Ohio, but reaches back to China, California,  Virginia,  and Boston. 
I found it a painful reading experience, especially the scenes with parents lashing out at their children, and the amount of secrets every single family member is carrying will break your heart. I am glad I read it for a book club because I need to discuss and process it with others.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexism, Grief, Racism, Xenophobia, Bullying, Child death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Physical abuse and Alcohol

owl_eerie's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Traumatizing the whole way through; it was excellent. Lesson on having empathy for the things people do to try and make their family happy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Abandonment, Child abuse, and Xenophobia

angelicaro's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Grief, Child death, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Sexism, and Xenophobia

rachelc315's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book puts a voice to the crushing weight of the pressure that often comes with love. You don’t walk away with feeling like you need to blame anyone, but more if just a feeling of understanding and being seen. 

Pros: beautifully written, complex characters, intriguing 

Cons: you have to be in the right mood; the subplot with Jack and Nath added nothing. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Xenophobia and Suicide