Review:
I purchased Everything I Never Told You on a whim. When I walked into Barnes & Nobel I only had eyes for Little Fires Everywhere. However, I am usually hesitant to splurge on a hardcover by an author I've never read before. Therefore, I reached for Celeste Ng's début novel.
The plot of Everything I Never Told You is very reminiscent of The Lovely Bones. Both books center around the death of a teenage girl which leaves their family grappling with their new reality. Like Sebold's novel, Ng has created a whodunit of sorts. The reader is left wading through havoc with the hopes of discovering what happened the night Lydia died.
Overall, I liked the pacing. I think the author gives her readers a good overview of the pressure Lydia was under. Even though the main plot point is Lydia's death I think the idea of how far a child would go to please their parents is also an interesting one.
Even though I read the novel in almost one sitting Everything I Never Told You was not without its faults. At the beginning of the novel, Lydia's father James is introduced to a student who would become his teacher's assistant. I had a very bad feeling on how it would end i.e. falling into bed together. Sadly, my prediction was correct. I was disappointed by this as it did nothing to further the story and felt that James' despair could have taken another direction.
Secondly, I found the ending to be a little anticlimactic. With all the build-up surrounding Lydia's death, it felt fragmented and unfinished. Perhaps that is what the author was going for as Lydia's life was also left unfinished. However, I found it a tad disappointing for an otherwise enthralling book.
Overall, Everything I Never Told You is definitely worth the read and is an excellent first novel by Celeste Ng.
This review was originally posted on First Impressions Reviews