Everything I Never Told You

Was completely ready to put this book down after the first chapter. James Lee is the same age as I am, in a bi-racial marriage with a treasured 16 year old daughter Lydia who is struggling to find her place among her brother and sister - it's all very familiar. But then the book opens with “Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet.”

It's structured like a mystery as we try and unravel the events that led to her death but really it's an examination of parents foisting their dreams on their kids, the pressures of children trying to live up to those expectations or thwart them entirely. Of being other, an outsider and the trials of trying to fit in or the need to stand out. It nails it on so many levels and there is so much that is familiar without veering into cliche.

There are a couple minor missteps but it's one of those books I'll be thinking about for a long time. If I'm still thinking about it in a month it'll probably get boosted to a 5.