Reviews with content warning for Physical abuse - Everything I Never Told You

Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

22 reviews

megmccreery's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This story opens with Lydia Lee, a 16 year old, in a small Ohio town, being found dead in a lake. The story explores everything that got Lydia and her family to this point, and how their whole family unit implodes with Lydia's death. There's generational trauma with the Lee parents projecting their wants, dreams, and desires that were never realized onto their favorite child, Lydia. There's two other kids in the Lee family, Nath and Hannah, and they have always been backburner children to Lydia. They have to find where they fit in in the family now that the star is gone.

I loved the discussion of not fitting in and being "different." James Lee was born from Chinese immigrants and has been the butt of racist jokes in all the Midwest towns he has lived in throughout his life. He dreams to fit in and have his kids fit in. Marilyn Lee is a woman who has always wanted to be different. She never wanted to have the husband, family, and white-picket home that her mother force-fed her her whole life. She wanted to become a rare female doctor in the 1960s.

The big question is: What happens when you just can't do it anymore? "It" meaning anything, a culmination of things, something you can't describe but only feel. The feeling of something suffocating you, holding you back, or maybe even the absence of feeling or feelings.

It did take me a minute to get into this book because Celeste Ng's writing is more complex and deeper than I'm used to reading, but it was such a heartbreaking, thought-provoking story. My heart hurt so much for all of the characters; I didn't think anyone's feelings or actions in reaction to their feelings were invalid. In conclusion, ouch my heart. Read this book.

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juby_uwu's review

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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

4.75

How had it begun? Like everything: with mothers and fathers. Because of Lydia's mother and father, because of her mother's and father's mothers and fathers.

TLDR; a broken world makes broken parents who produce broken children, but it is never too late to pick up the pieces and bond them back together

This book is not just that overused trope of "girl commits suicide, how does her family come to terms with it?" it is so much more. Celeste Ng's work of intertwining well-developed and ongoing themes of racism, the 70s Asian American experience, the nuances of generational trauma, dynamics of a broken family in her DEBUT novel is truly commendable. Her effortless use of such relatable and vivid metaphors to explain the thoughts and nuances of her dimensional characters, whilst also building up such tangible tension is the only reason I devoured this book in 2 days. Her characters are flawed and real, the perfect balance between ugly yet human. How she explores coping mechanisms and provides a new perspective to the trope of miscommunication--Everything I Never Told You, it is not just Lydia's story, honestly she is barely mentioned at all, it is instead each family member's sentiment towards each other. They all failed to tell each other things, therefore never healed, until they were forced to sit and face it after Lydia's death.

I need a Jack and Nath prologue asap

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melissathejan's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad 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

Second time reading this and I forgot how much I loved it. I feel such sadness for the characters as they grieve and long for things they will never have, and feel close to them as they make mistakes and eventually try to learn from them and forgive one another.

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kelchisradz's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful 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

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anij020's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-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

Content Warnings

clarebear2218's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective 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

4.0

Really intense read that dives into grief, complicated family dynamics, and generational trauma. Felt extremely realistic. Don't think I could re-read this one

Content Warnings

erikalv97's review against another edition

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challenging 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

4.0

I can’t hardly find the words to say how I felt about this book.

It’s well-written, and though I found it hard to like the story at the beginning, by the final chapters I couldn’t put the book down.

(Please, please, PLEASE check the cw, I didn’t and I feel shaken up)

Content Warnings