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A review by lindick
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
4.0
Ok, I might've spoken too soon; I still wouldn't call it "depressing" exactly, but this book made me cry SO MUCH.
I don't know that it quite deserves five stars -- in some moments the characters seemed really one-dimensional, but on the other hand I think that was part of Ng winnowing them down to their essentials, to the emotional core of each of them. She says in an interview that's reproduced in the back of the edition I read: "any act of writing is an act of empathy," and I think that's generous, and certainly not true for a lot of writers. But it's SO true for Ng, it comes across on every page of this book. Which makes the book painful to read at times -- it's almost untenable, to feel the depths of empathy for each flawed character that she's pushing you towards, but you also can't not feel it. (Hence all the crying.) But I think it's also the book's greatest strength, and why I already know it'll stick with me so much.
I don't know that it quite deserves five stars -- in some moments the characters seemed really one-dimensional, but on the other hand I think that was part of Ng winnowing them down to their essentials, to the emotional core of each of them. She says in an interview that's reproduced in the back of the edition I read: "any act of writing is an act of empathy," and I think that's generous, and certainly not true for a lot of writers. But it's SO true for Ng, it comes across on every page of this book. Which makes the book painful to read at times -- it's almost untenable, to feel the depths of empathy for each flawed character that she's pushing you towards, but you also can't not feel it. (Hence all the crying.) But I think it's also the book's greatest strength, and why I already know it'll stick with me so much.