Published by Penguin Books on May 12, 2015
Pages: 292
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.
This is one of those books that may seem “anti-climatic” at the moment but serves a much deeper message once you look back. Honestly, I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, while I was reading, it wasn’t drawing me in, and many of the characters were frustrating to read about. But once I took a step back and reflected on what the author was truly trying to say, the flawed characters and fractured storyline began to make sense.
This book follows a Chinese-American family centered around their favorite daughter, Lydia. The parents have both suffered from deep hardship in their lives, and instead of delving through that, they decide that they want Lydia to follow the dreams they never could.
However, while their daughter may have seemed perfect on the outside, what was truly going on was a life of lying and secrecy to carry out her “parents’ dreams.” Many of these secrets begin to unravel after Lydia is found dead within a lake near their house.
As I mentioned earlier, the family in this book is deeply flawed, and most of the story follows the perspectives of these people and their everyday lives. There’s no large present plot, just the everyday life of the family while the past following Lydia’s death is unveiled.
Since the story doesn’t move chronologically forward and instead jumps back and forth between times with flashbacks, it can be confusing to understand what exactly the author is trying to tell you. For me, this gave me a less pleasant experience while reading the book.
Here’s where it gets tricky… I think the book truly needed that uncomfortableness and tension to make sense. The book is SUPPOSED to feel a little bit off, it’s the way the author chose to stylistically write the book, and it actually kind of reminded me a little bit like the book, We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.
The characters become comfortable with their past, they are forced to accept Lydia’s shortcomings and grieve over her death. They are no longer able to live a life on the edge of their seat, barely staying together, and they are finally faced with the reality of the truth.
When I first finished reading, I was quite honestly confused. I didn’t really understand what the ending meant and it seemed a little bit unfinished. When I went back over some of the chapters I realized that the ending isn’t the most revealing part of the book, it’s the story, the family dynamic, and the changes the family is supposed to make after the death of their daughter.
I can’t go into too much detail without spoiling anything, but if you have read this book you probably would agree. Every choice, every decision, and every change the characters or family makes is representative of how the death of their daughter uncovered the truth of their family.
That may seem broad, and it is, but when you read the book, I promise, it will make more sense!
I know this is a shorter review than usual, but this book continues to make me question everything. I would definitely recommend reading it and sticking with it, even if you don’t have faith at the moment. It’ll all make sense in the end.
Overall, I would rate this book a 3.5/5 for the experience while reading, but would definitely recommend it to anyone that hasn’t read it already. Happy reading!
“The things that go unsaid are often the things that eat at you—whether because you didn’t get to have your say, or because the other person never got to hear you and really wanted to.” – Celeste Ng (“Everything I Never Told You”)
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