“Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.”
A small town is rocked after a teenager is found dead in the town’s lake. She was a good student and a good daughter who had a bright future ahead of her, so everyone is mystified as to why she is dead. Her mother is convinced a stranger took her. Her brother is convinced the teenage boy in the neighborhood did something to her. The police, after finding out she didn’t really have any friends, think it was suicide. The truth is more complicated than anyone can imagine in Everything I Never Told You.
I was searching for an audiobook to listen to while driving and saw Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. I had it on my list of books to read because I have enjoyed her book Little Fires Everywhere. I had seen some good reviews of the book, too.
Lydia’s parents stand out in their town – her mother is a smart, white woman who is smart and wanted to be a doctor and her father is an American-born Chinese professor. Biracial families are not the norm during the 1970s and Lydia and her siblings stand out in their school because they look Chinese. Their mother puts pressure on Lydia to do well in school so she can have the opportunities her mother didn’t take. Her father wants her to have friends and fit in. Her older brother understands what Lydia is facing, but he is ready to leave for college. Her younger sister is always an afterthought for the entire family. As the story of their family unfolds, they all learn that everyone has a complex inner life that they know nothing about.
Everything I Never Told You is a great story about family life and how dreams never die. It deals with the hard topics of death, affairs and bullying. The book will leave you being more careful to remember that people don’t always show what is going on inside their heads and hearts. Readers who love good fiction will enjoy this book.
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