A review by allygator
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

This is an exceptional mystery-shrouded family drama. Celeste Ng, best known for Little Fires Everywhere, is an expert at writing characters so complex and realistic it feels like they could walk off the page and function perfectly normally in society. There are a lot of unlikeable characters, if only because they are making the mistakes that so many people do. They cheat on their partners, they force their problems onto other people, they start fights, they break promises. However, none of them are bad people, just people who make bad decisions and regret them and try their best to make things right. The tragedy of the story is that none of them will ever know exactly what happened to Lydia, despite how hard they try. They will grieve her for the rest of their lives. The fact that they all think they know what happened to her when she died just like they all thought they knew what she wanted in life was heartbreaking. I only wish that the narration was a little less convoluted -- I got lost a few times because I lost track of which characters were being followed when, and when in the timeline we were.
For a debut novel, this is beyond impressive. I can't believe it took me so long to read this and I can't wait to read more of Ng's work in the future.
(Very special shoutout to Jack Wolff because he reminds me of Steve Harrington and therefore he is very precious to me and I wish him nothing but the best.)
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