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A review by jensreadinglife
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
4.0
4-1/2 Stars
From the very first line, you know Lydia is dead. What you learn throughout the remainder of the novel is how this came to be and how it affects each of the members of her family. Lydia is the favored middle child of a white mother and Chinese father. Though this is inherently a family drama, Ng tackles issues of racism and how it drives cracks through the family and their dealings with the small town they live in in 1970's America.
While Ng tackles heavy and seemingly dark topics, she does it with such a deft hand. She is skilled at delving into all the cracks of a family's life and yet, at the end, she shows you that there is hope. That something better may come from all this. Ng keeps you turning the pages and then, when you finally reach the conclusion, sad that there is no more left to read in this tender, heart-aching, beautiful novel.
From the very first line, you know Lydia is dead. What you learn throughout the remainder of the novel is how this came to be and how it affects each of the members of her family. Lydia is the favored middle child of a white mother and Chinese father. Though this is inherently a family drama, Ng tackles issues of racism and how it drives cracks through the family and their dealings with the small town they live in in 1970's America.
While Ng tackles heavy and seemingly dark topics, she does it with such a deft hand. She is skilled at delving into all the cracks of a family's life and yet, at the end, she shows you that there is hope. That something better may come from all this. Ng keeps you turning the pages and then, when you finally reach the conclusion, sad that there is no more left to read in this tender, heart-aching, beautiful novel.