Everything I Never Told You (Book review)

Everything I Never told you by Celeste Ng is a one of kind book written with the agenda to make you end up in tears after you have completed reading the 298 pages of this story. This debut Novel by Celeste Ng follows the Chinese-American Lee family coping with the loss of losing their middle child, Lydia Lee.

This heart-warming story heavily focuses on family and on how much of an important role each and every person in a family plays. The writing style although flowery manages to capture emotions in a raw and effortless manner. The characters are each written in an intricately where the reader can see themselves portrayed in some way or another in each of these characters. The story alternates between chapters written in the perspective of various characters before and after Lydia's death. Another consistent idea in the story is of one's roots and how they define us. Where we come from matters as much as where we go. As humans, we might choose to separate ourselves from our roots but somewhere at the end of the line where it all circles back to is where we originated, to what our initial experiences in life were. The writer urges us to ponder over every decision we make every day in our lives and how it affects us and those around us. She is asking us to question "Where does it begin?" "Where did it start to go wrong?" and then you realize there is no specific direction to point your finger at. There is no decision you can point out to and say "This, this is where I messed up." Because at every point in our life we are making a decision without knowing what will be the outcome. Our lives are shaped by hundreds and thousands of mistakes that we are never able to trace the origin of.

A lot of topics such as racism, suicide, depression is discussed in this novel and are fairly executed well. This is a character-driven story filled with realistic characters who make decisions that are flawed yet it is what makes them human. Our world cannot be seen simply as black and white. There exists the morally grey area which more often than not is a destination a lot of people end up visiting. Each of these characters may not be a part of your favorite characters list but they definitely have something to offer with their raw humanity. Humans are selfish beings often wrapped up in ourselves and again we make choices that we think are beneficial for all those around us but this may not be the truth. In the end, the only thing that remains true is that the only person we serve is yourself.

If you haven't read this story yet, I do highly recommend it. As I said in the beginning, it is a one of a kind novel that'll stay by you as the years pass by.

With that, I leave you to your devices.

Introvert Out.