Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Pages: 292
Published by Penguin Press
Publication Date June 26th 2014
Source: Bought
Genres: General Fiction
Goodreads
Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.
So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos.
A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.
Review:
I purchased Everything I Never Told You on a whim. When I walked into Barnes & Nobel I only had eyes for Little Fires Everywhere. However, I am usually hesitant to splurge on a hardcover by an author I’ve never read before. Therefore, I reached for Celeste Ng’s début novel.
The plot of Everything I Never Told You is very reminiscent of The Lovely Bones. Both books center around the death of a teenage girl which leaves their family grappling with their new reality. Like Sebold’s novel, Ng has created a whodunit of sorts. The reader is left wading through havoc with the hopes of discovering what happened the night Lydia died.
Overall, I liked the pacing. I think the author gives her readers a good overview of the pressure Lydia was under. Even though the main plot point is Lydia’s death I think the idea of how far a child would go to please their parents is also an interesting one.
Even though I read the novel in almost one sitting Everything I Never Told You was not without its faults. At the beginning of the novel, Lydia’s father James is introduced to a student who would become his teacher’s assistant. I had a very bad feeling on how it would end i.e. falling into bed together. Sadly, my prediction was correct. I was disappointed by this as it did nothing to further the story and felt that James’ despair could have taken another direction.
Secondly, I found the ending to be a little anticlimactic. With all the build-up surrounding Lydia’s death, it felt fragmented and unfinished. Perhaps that is what the author was going for as Lydia’s life was also left unfinished. However, I found it a tad disappointing for an otherwise enthralling book.
Overall, Everything I Never Told You is definitely worth the read and is an excellent first novel by Celeste Ng.
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