Everything I Never Told You in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Oct 02, 2014 Ashley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fun, fiction-novels-plays-stories

This book is everything I love in a novel: family saga, Midwestern desolation, university life, and a bit if mystery thrown into one. I found it through a list of books for people who liked "Gone Girl." It does have some of the same qualities but I found it much more reminiscent of "Ordinary Grace" it's an engrossing, short novel-- I read it in a day-- that asks lots if questions about race, feminism, family, and grief. It's excellent and well worth picking up. ...more

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Jul 24, 2015 Abby Johnson rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, diverse, historical_fiction, grownup_books

I really enjoyed this character-driven novel about all the things you don't know that you don't know about the ones you love the most. The pacing was spot on for me, changing viewpoints or revealing a twist that kept the plot moving forward. Cassandra Campbell is an experienced narrator who gave this story the quiet respect it deserves. ...more

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May 10, 2018 Dina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Took me a while to finish it but I did enjoy it.

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Aug 10, 2015 Renata rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, grownup

This book was very sad. (on purpose.)

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Jul 24, 2016 Jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, book-club

I really enjoyed Everything I Never Told You, a book about families and about letting ourselves get trapped in situations of our own devising.

The book opens by telling us that Lydia is dead. She's a teenage girl, half-white and half-Chinese, in 1970s Ohio, and she has drowned in a lake. The book moves backward from there, telling us about Lydia's childhood and her parents' childhoods and taking us up, finally, to the fateful moment at the lake.

Lydia's father, James, was born and raised in the Un I really enjoyed Everything I Never Told You, a book about families and about letting ourselves get trapped in situations of our own devising.

The book opens by telling us that Lydia is dead. She's a teenage girl, half-white and half-Chinese, in 1970s Ohio, and she has drowned in a lake. The book moves backward from there, telling us about Lydia's childhood and her parents' childhoods and taking us up, finally, to the fateful moment at the lake.

Lydia's father, James, was born and raised in the United States, but as the only Chinese child surrounded by white children, he always felt picked on and inferior for his race, and he has internalized a lot of that hatred. His wife, Marilyn, is a white woman who wanted to be a doctor but felt held back because of her gender; she sought out James because he was different from everyone else around her, and she hoped that they could make a life that was different and new and better than the stifling world she grew up in. They have three children, but Lydia is their golden child. James finds himself directing a lot of his self-loathing at their eldest son, Nath, who reminds him too much of himself, and Marilyn piles all her unfulfilled hopes and dreams on Lydia. Their youngest daughter, Hannah, is mostly left to fend for herself while mom and dad direct all their attention at Lydia. The children are extremely aware of this imbalance - Lydia is embarrassed and guilty about it, Nath resents it and dreams of escaping, and Hannah retreats into herself and just observes everyone around her while being largely unnoticed. Lydia tries to be the perfect child in hopes that she can keep her family together and happy, but she's having a harder and harder time holding everything together.

The book does an excellent job of keeping the actual situation of Lydia's death a mystery up till the very end while wrestling with a lot of issues about race and families and unrealistic expectations. It's fascinating to watch the family struggle to hold things together while Lydia is still alive, and then try to come to terms with the meaning of her death and how they can keep interacting with each other after she's gone. Everything I Never Told You is not a perfect book; Lydia's magical thinking gives the whole book a somewhat juvenile feeling. But there's a lot here that's done really well, and I'm glad I read the book. ...more

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Apr 15, 2016 Linda Parker rated it liked it

The writing is descriptive and I liked the parent's back stories and the challenges of an Asian/Caucasian interracial marriage in the 60's and 70's BUT the family's dysfunction seemed too extreme and the core mystery wasn't very interesting. A true case of not caring about any of the main characters and the tidy and rapid finish didn't make me care much about the ending. ...more

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Apr 23, 2016 Mary rated it really liked it

Lydia is an outsider who is also the bearer of her parents highest hopes and expectations. Her brother and sister are shunted aside as the parents spend everything on the favorite child. The intense pressure of living up to her parents high hopes and losing her brother to college is just too much.

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Oct 16, 2014 jenn rated it liked it

Shelves: fiftyfiftyme, 2014

This is a really skillfully told story about the problem of trying to be in a family when everyone in that family has a separate inner life. So, the problem of trying to be in a family.

There are some nods to A Death in the Family about which I feel deeply ambivalent. ...more

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Apr 27, 2016 Shayla rated it liked it

Shelves: library-book-club

The pacing of this novel is very good and I think she does a great job of capturing the things that were left unsaid in the Lee family. But I couldn't help but feel sad for most of these characters and so it wasn't necessarily pleasant for me to read.

...more

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Dec 21, 2014 Ally rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2016-challenge

Yikes. This is an extremely well-written book but the themes of a dysfunctional family, interracial marriage, and overall 70s malaise are not for the faint of heart. Proceed with caution.

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