Everything I Never Told You

I wanted to discuss a book that I read this summer. It's called Everything I Never Told You by Christine Ng. It was published in 2014. I know I am a little behind on this book, but I have been meaning to read it since I bought it about 4 years ago. This summer I finally got to it and it is a great book. It is Christine Ng's debut novel and it is a beautiful novel that I can't get out of my head.

Blackfriars cover of Everything I Never Told You

The story is about the Lee family, an Asian-American mixed race family in a small college town in 70's Ohio. The family consists of James, the father, Marilyn, the mother and their three children, Nath, who is the oldest, Lydia, the favourite and Hannah, the youngest. James is Chinese and has always felt like he isn't accepted in America and he didn't really have any friends due to this. Marilyn is Caucasian and always wanted to be a doctor but her mother wanted her to get married and become a housewife. They meet when Marilyn is in college and James is teaching. She becomes pregnant and her dreams die. There is opposition to their relationship from Marilyn's mother and society.

Their children grow up not having friends either. Nath and Lydia are closer than the others. Both James and Marilyn chose Lydia as the child to focus on, the child that would make their dreams come true. James wants nothing more than for Lydia to be popular. Marilyn pushes Lydia to become a doctor. The other two children get little to no attention from their parents. The book starts with Lydia going missing and the family collapsing.

The Original Cover

The story is told both in their present, the 70's and flashbacks to before Lydia disappears. The story is a family drama. It shows us a family that loses it's centre and seemingly purpose. When Lydia disappears their lives spin out of control. With Nath on his way to Harvard and the parent's dreams being broken, the family doesn't know how to be any longer. Secrets come out and realisations are made.

Some of the topics in this book are race, fitting in, dreams and gender roles. The race and fitting in are both done passively with people not interacting with the Lee's unless they have to, apart from Jack. Jack lives next door with his mother. She is a doctor. Marilyn is jealous of her because she gets to live the life Marilyn wanted to live. This pressure is then put on Lydia along with the pressure from her father to have friends.

I love the way this book is written. I like the set up and the way it is told. The book gives you just enough to know where it is going and what is happening for it to be exiting. It is a book about secrets, untold truths and holding on to something to keep you going. It is about loneliness and misunderstandings. I had heard a lot of good things about this book before I read it and it did not disappoint.

When I read a book I don't need to identify with the stories, the characters or the circumstances for me to like it, I rarely read something that I relate to or identify with. With this book I did identify and understand how these characters handled some of their problems. That is to say, I identified with the kids, mostly Nath or Lydia, but also Hannah, but not so much the parents.

After finishing this book I wanted more. I wanted to know where these characters would end up and in what situation. The book gives you tiny glimpses into the future but I wanted to read more, mostly so I had something left to read of this book. It got me exited for her second book, Little Fires Everywhere. I gave it a 5 star rating on goodreads. The funny thing is that I have to read this book for class this winter and I have to write an essay about it. I seem to have read it at a perfect time.