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A review by michaelion
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
fast-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
4.5
Heartbreaking in a way that makes you smile? Or maybe I'm just a little skewed. It's so real. The beauty of the writing style alone hooked me but the story? Too real. There's a paragraph where mom is thinking about Lydia and how she can mold her future and everything her daughter is going to be that she couldn't and in the middle Hannah is mentioned, as mom is pregnant, and so quickly is she forgotten. She is sandwiched between Marilyn and Lydia, in story and in sentence, just barely acknowledged, but nothing more. That's only ONE example of the writing that had me hooked much earlier than that scene. So painful. And despite everything that happens the family loves each other so much, in a bad, terrible, abusive and abused way, but as the title shows, none of them know how to tell each other that. None of them know how to be better to each other, but they all want to. I fucking love it.
Graphic: Child death, Abandonment, Racism, Racial slurs, Sexism, Xenophobia, Death, Bullying, Child abuse, Grief, and Infidelity
Moderate: Misogyny, Blood, Physical abuse, Body horror, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Outing, Alcohol, Suicide, and Vomit