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Sep 10, 2017TEENREVIEWCREW rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng is a compelling story of a Chinese-American family grieving over the death of their daughter, Lydia Lee, who held all the dreams that her parents dropped on her shoulders. This book switches between the past and present lives of the Lee family, as if showing what they are now versus what they were before Lydia’s death. If I had to be honest, I didn’t find this book to be particularly interesting in the beginning or near the middle, and found that the author’s style of writing wasn’t strong enough to write the tragedies that the family was going through. But later, I realized that Ng’s writing actually supported the idea of the story, which was to show the simplicity of life and reality; Lydia was Marilyn and James’s most beloved child, and was expected to be the person that they could never be, and Lydia went along with it. Ng’s writing style didn’t over-dramatize Lydia’s thoughts or the situations in the book, but simply described everything to show that reality isn’t really this complicated; we make it complicated. I rate this 3/5 stars. I recommend this book for ages 13 and up. - @ilovefood of The Hamilton Public Library's Teen Review Board A no-name American town faces the death of a young Asian girl, the book is mainly how the immigrant family copes with the loss. And how their carefully built facade crumbles away in the wake of mourning, this book focuses on each individual of the family's personal life. The oldest brother always feeling inadequate when his parents compare him to his seemingly perfect younger sister. The youngest sibling is practically invisible, the dad just wants the perfect world he never got when he was younger, and the mother regrets that she never got to pursue her dreams because she got pregnant. And the world is full of fake smiles for the murdered middle perfect child. - @Florence of the Teen Review Board of the Hamilton Public Library