Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

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Everything I Never Told You
My rating: ★★★★☆

“Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.”

This story is about a teenage girl, her family, all wrapped up in their childhood traumas, unable to talk about them, unable to think outside of them.

As the book unfolds we discover Lydia’s parents’ hopes for her to live the lives they couldn’t, or decided they wouldn’t. We discover siblings, always set aside, and the weight of parents’ expectations.

It reminded me of those sores and scratches inevitably etched in my mind by my own parents, and their parents before them, and their own.

All these unseen broken things inside are delicately and beautifully told in the book - not violent as such, yet deeply mournful.

Despite the sadness, I was impressed by Celeste Ng’s style and keen observation, and the detail with which human nature, grief, love, and denial are portrayed in this work.

View all my reviews7

I read this book as part of the UNO-2021 Challenge on GoodReads (team Mystic Pizza).

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