Everything I Never Told You

These people were not good people. It was like reading a story of two people who never should have gotten married and had children.

James is ashamed of his skin, ashamed of his parents and does everything in his power to distance himself from his heritage. His constant desire for his children (well, really just Lydia because he ignores the other two) to be popular and ‘like everyone else' is nauseating.

Marilyn is exactly the same except instead of popular she wants Lydia to become the doctor she never became.

So then you take these two people who have revolved their whole lives around the golden middle child and you kill that child and they fall apart even more. Of course, the death of a child is going to rip any family apart, but these people were awful parents before Lydia's death.

The only good character was Hannah, the invisible child. The oops baby. There is one scene where everyone loses their collective minds and the only one up is Hannah. Wandering the house alone because no one cared to make sure she was taken care of. Any sympathy I had for the Lees went away after reading how Hannah was treated.

I don't know. The book was beautifully written, but I just couldn't muster up any sympathy for really anyone except Hannah. At the end I didn't sigh in satisfaction. I just felt let down.

My chief beef with this book is that I thought it was going to be a thriller and it wasn't, really. As a novel about family life, it was quite good, especially regarding sibling relationships.

This book was very sad. (on purpose.)

Beautiful and heartbreaking. Every character was multi-layered and complex, and the story was intense in so many areas: relationships, ethnicity, gender roles, parent-child, siblings, etc.

One of the most quietly sad books I've ever read, about the inevitability of hurting those close to us with our pain.

Also it's short and well written, a tight and dense read that I recommend to you all.

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.

Another study in why NOT talking about important feelings with people you love is a bad thing.

Initially, I thought Everything I Never Told You was going to be just another one of those complicated family dramas that have become so popular lately. You know, some sort of tragedy occurs, usually involving the death, kidnapping, or disappearance of a child, and the family dissolves. I've read quite a few of these now, and I'm beginning to tire of them. There's nothing wrong with these stories, I'm just ready to move on.

Everything I Never Told You did end up being another one of these family tragedies, but it was different. Toward the middle of the story, I sensed this one wouldn't disappoint me. And as I reached the end, I was thoroughly surprised. The way the author handled the story and its characters was beautiful and unique. Despite the tragedy and the consequences, I felt hope for these people I'd grown to care for. It was all orchestrated so brilliantly—one character wants to be seen, another doesn't, one wants one path, another a very different path—and when it comes together what you have is a giant web which lacks empathy and listening. It's so true to life. Everything I Never Told You serves as an excellent reminder of not only what is important in life, but how what's important for each of us can be so different.

I think it's significant that the character who meant the most to me in the end was the one who was almost nonexistent: Hannah. I almost forgot she was there until I was reminded of her existence, and that was a brilliant play by Ng as well.

Everything I Never Told You is a heartfelt debut, but it is also very intelligently written. It is a tightly woven novel and clearly shows its author's knowledge of the craft and dedication to the story.

Gave up - this made a lot of best of 2014 lists but I just didn't get into it. Like many books that I just didn't get into, it is well written but I didn't care about the characters. The death of the older daughter (middle child) at the beginning starts a long chain of events that seems to be leading to a completely falling apart of a family. It is sad, tragic and I think completely believable, but just not enough for me to keep reading.