Jaclyn’s Review: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Everything I Never Told You
written by Celeste Ng
published by Penguin Books, 2015

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Apple Books, Target, Kobo, Book Depository, Goodreads

Did I enjoy this book? I’ve been staring at my keyboard for five minutes now, trying to figure out if I liked this book or not. I guess that’s my answer! I’m honestly not sure whether or not I liked this book. I can say with absolute certainty that I liked this book better than Little Fires Everywhere. In Little Fires Everywhere, the author was working very hard to prove a point and establish her desired theme, but it just didn’t come across as organic. This book came across as much more subtle and polished. I appreciated the air of mystery and the slowly revealed timeline; however, I just don’t think I care for this style of writing. I found it easy to sympathize with each of the characters, and I was genuinely interested to find out what actually happened.

Would I recommend it? I could take or leave this book. I found it easy to read, and I didn’t hate any of the characters. Once I started it, I genuinely wanted to finish reading it. I guess this would be a great book for someone who wants to read a suspenseful book but cannot handle true “suspense” or “thrillers.”
 

 

About the book – from 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.

 

 

 

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** This post first appeared on Every Free Chance Books (everyfreechance.com) on May 26, 2021.