Everything I Never Told You

“Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet. 1977, May 3, six thirty in the morning, no one knows anything but this innocuous fact: Lydia is late for breakfast.”

Following the lives of the Lee family before and after the death of middle-child Lydia, Everything I Never Told You is a story of family expectations, of the judgmental gaze of society, of a family doomed by circumstance. It is the story of Lydia, favored by both her mother and father, who saw in her the lives they wanted for themselves. It's the story of Nath, her older brother who helped her shoulder the burden of favoritism, while he resented this neglect. It's the story of Hannah, forgotten youngest child who saw and understood more than anyone could know. It's the story of the stories that made up the lives of Marilyn and James before and after they got married, and became parents to these children who bear the brunt of their love and their decisions.

This is not normally the type of book I go for, but several glowing reviews convinced me I should read it, and I'm glad I did. At times I felt the characters and their wants were a little contrived, a little one-note, but the writing was evocative and beautiful enough that I can overlook that, especially since it works so well in the context of the plot. And I grew to love the characters regardless, so maybe they weren't so one-note after all. I especially adored Hannah, and wanted to give her so many hugs throughout the entire story:

“Hannah, as if she understood her place in the cosmos, grew from quiet infant to watchful child: a child fond of nooks and corners, who curled up in closets, behind sofas, under dangling tablecloths, staying out of sight as well as out of mind, to ensure the terrain of the family did not change.”

She was truly great. I also grew to love Jack, and wanted to give him all the hugs as well.

This book is short and keeps you turning the pages, despite no real overarching mystery element: you know Lydia is dead, and you are fairly certain as to the how, and even the why is fairly obvious from early on, but unspooling the thread of everything the family thought they knew about one another kept me gripped. 4/5