Reviews
✨️Audiobook review✨️ Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng⭐️⭐️⭐️I've heard lots about this author, with mixed reviews. But I like to form my own opinions on books. So this for me was a pretty boring book to be honest. It's about a family who are an inter-race couple, American wife, Chinese husband. Who have kids and have the happily ever after...or so it would seem. 3 kids, Lydia is the favourite child but her body is found in a lake and it changes the entire foundation of the family. Many messages can be taken from this story, for me the most profound ones are; No..1 Life is short, very short. So make the most of it. And no. 2. Don't be afraid to be you. Parents, let your children grow up with their own dreams, don't push yours onto them because you wanted to do something and never managed it for whatever reason. Let them live their own dreams out.I would read more of Celeste's book but not a top priority for me.
I bought this following a book club recommendation, so didn't know anything about the plot beforehand. Oh, it's an emotional one! It's not a lengthy book, but a lot is certainly packed in. The story has FIVE main characters and they're all complex, flawed but (mostly) likeable people.
This is a book where 'all of the characters have their own suffering.'At first, I didn't expect it to be very emotional. I was kind of struggled to connect with the characters, perhaps because this book is told in the third person omniscient point of view, which is not my favorite. It's hard to picture the characters as real humans, and I'll say bluntly that I don't like how Celeste Ng uses a lot of 'telling instead of showing' techniques in her writing.I considered giving this book only three stars; that was before I decided to change my mind in the last few chapters. Suddenly, all the characters become solid, and I find myself attached to them. I feel like I can put myself in their shoes: a mother who lost her dream, a father gripped by his fear, children who are never enough for their parents. Their flaws, pain, and regrets feel so real that I was almost choking back tears by the end of this book.'Everything I Never Told You' is a story about dysfunctional family and how, finally, they try to understand each other.