The only thing that took me so long to finish reading this book was its divisions. Looking back at the notes that I made, I asked myself if I could sum up everything that I felt while reading this book. But it’s the youngest of the family-Hannah-who observes far more than anyone realizes and who may be the only one who knows the truth about what happened.Ī profoundly moving story of family, history, and the meaning of home, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, exploring the divisions between cultures and the rifts within a family, and uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another. Lydia’s older brother, Nathan, is certain that the neighborhood bad boy Jack is somehow involved. Marilyn, devastated and vengeful, is determined to find a responsible party, no matter what the cost. James, consumed by guilt, sets out on a reckless path that may destroy his marriage.

When Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together tumbles into chaos, forcing them to confront the long-kept secrets that have been slowly pulling them apart. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue-in Marilyn’s case that her daughter become a doctor rather than a homemaker, in James’s case that Lydia be popular at school, a girl with a busy social life and the center of every party. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee their middle daughter, a girl who inherited her mother’s bright blue eyes and her father’s jet-black hair. So begins the story of this exquisite debut novel, about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Everything i never told you genre