Reviews with content warning for Bullying - Everything I Never Told You

This book made me emotional. 😭 I struggled to read it quickly because it just made me really sad. It's very introspective and painful and Ng does a really good job of showing how every little aspect of this family from the get-go was set up to cause problems down the line. It's the pressures parents put on their children and how generationally damaging that is. It's the pressures we put on ourselves to please our parents. It's the desire to hold on tight to constancy and how we struggle in the face of change. It's the emotional turmoil of feeling alone in a group of people, of not feeling seen or known by your family, of anger and hurt colouring the way you interact with everyone. It's your racial identity shaping your world. It's what we keep hidden from the ones we love. It's a strained relationship with a daughter who bears the brunt of all these expectations and it's her death without resolution. It makes me so sad to think Lydia died feeling all of these things and it makes me sad for her family left behind to not know she felt all of these things. And it especially makes me sad that her death could have been avoided if every one of the above didn't happen, but the irony is that would mean a fundamental change in literally everyone's lives and the experiences they had that shaped them into this. The dynamics of family are tough and the one's in this book are so painfully layered.

THIS LINE ?? "And, after a while, the biggest fear of all: of losing Nath, the only one who understood the strange and brittle balance in their family. Who knew all that had happened. Who had always kept her afloat." or this one??? "How hard it would be to inherit their parents’ dreams. How suffocating to be so loved." hnnnnng I just felt it. I FELT it. And it hurt me!!!!

Basically tl;dr this family felt doomed and I cried!!!!

Content Warnings

ivana's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

rosieposie_5_'s review against another edition

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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

4.75

Content Warnings

writtenbyfai's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful 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

4.75

Content Warnings

ohkmurr's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

4.0

Absolutely heartbreaking, but beautifully written. It reads a lot like a poem. The metaphors are vivid yet often unexpected, which adds freshness to the "family in grief" story. Plus, I always admire authors who can write in third-person omniscient and still tell a cohesive story without slowing the pace. Definitely one of the saddest books I've read. (It took me a bit longer to get through than I thought it would because the subject matter is so heavy.)

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