I don’t know how it was accomplished, but I managed to squeeze in enough time this month to read SIX books January. Even for me, that’s a bit aggressive, but hey, I’ll take it. Out of the six books crossed off my reading list this January, one book in particular really struck a chord with me…
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng was an absolutely incredible read. It left chills on my arms and the story has been lodged in my brain ever since I finished it. I wanted to share with you this absolute must-read.
Mainly, because this story is perfect, it is so poetically and beautifully written. It is late 1970’s and Lydia Lee, the golden child of Marilyn and James, a Chinese-American family, is dead. Was it murder? Was it suicide? What happened?
As the story progresses, we are delicately woven through each characters (James, Marilyn, older brother Nathan, and younger sister Hannah) perspective on what could have possibly happened. We are made to understand how one’s best intentions and kindness can become awfully skewed and misperceived.
We watch, as James and Marilyn put an enormous amount of pressure onto Lydia to fulfill their broken dreams. James, who is Chinese, has felt defined and held back by racial stereotypes throughout the course of his life, professionally and socially. Marilyn, who is Caucasian and frustrated in what society expects from a women. Marilyn gave up her pursuance of going to medical school and becoming doctor to start her family. Something she swore she would never do…
We see the devastating grief that overtakes each member of the family as he or she tries to see why Lydia died and what he or she may have done to prevent it. We are taken back to the childhood of both James and Marilyn, we watch them through high school, and into college — where they met. We overlook their marriage, and the cracks that start to form.
We understand where and why this pressure to live through Lydia comes into fruition. Extremely moving story.
Lydia is heavily burdened with frustrated dreams from both parents. Tremendous academic pressure coming from Marilyn, and unrealistic social pressure from James to be popular and accepted the way he never was. Things start to unravel. And now, sixteen year old Lydia is dead.
One thing is guaranteed, you will be very surprised at the end.
I devoured the book cover to cover in less than 4 days. I could not put it down. Two words sum up this book: Haunting and Moving
Verdict: READ!