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Everything I Never Told You Celeste Ng

Everything I Never Told You By Celeste Ng

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng


Summary

Lydia is growing up in small-town Ohio during the 1970s. Her adoring parents, Marylin and James Lee, only want the best for her, but they think the best is pushing her to achieve the things they missed out on when they were young. Lydia's mother desperately wants her to do well at school and become a doctor, not a homemaker as she did. Her father desperately wants her to have fun, make friends, and be the life and soul of the party.

Everything I Never Told You Summary

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

However, when Lydia’s body is tragically found in a lake, the devastating effect of her death on both parents threatens to ruin their lives. Her father becomes reckless, her mother vengeful, her older brother suspicious of the town's local bad boy. Her younger sister, the quiet, thoughtful, and insightful Hannah, however, seems to best understand what has happened.
Everything I Never Told You is a hugely successful novel from critically acclaimed writer, Celeste Ng, and has received numerous awards. These include the Amazon Book of the Year Award in 2014, the 2015 Massachusetts Book Award, and the American Library Association's 2015 Alex Award, among others.
You should read this book if…
  • You love beautifully crafted stories with compelling characters
  • You enjoy stories about the complex relationships that people have with one another
  • You love moving and thought-provoking stories

Everything I Never Told You Reviews

This intriguing tale of unhappy families will have you gripped from the opening line . . . No wonder it beat Hilary Mantel and Stephen King to win Amazon's book of the year * Stylist *
An acute portrait of family psychopathology - this debut crime thriller is a surprise choice as Amazon's book of the year... There is much here that might impress Pulitzer and Man Booker judges...Ng brilliantly depicts the destruction that parents can inflict on their children and on each other * Mark Lawson, Guardian *
The mysterious circumstances of 16-year-old Lydia Lee's tragic death have her loved ones wondering how, exactly, she spent her free time. This ghostly debut novel calls to mind The Lovely Bones * Marie Claire *
If we know this story, we haven't seen it yet in American fiction, not until now... Ng has set two tasks in this novel's doubled heart-to be exciting, and to tell a story bigger than whatever is behind the crime. She does both by turning the nest of familial resentments into at least four smaller, prickly mysteries full of secrets the family members won't share... What emerges is a deep, heartfelt portrait of a family struggling with its place in history, and a young woman hoping to be the fulfillment of that struggle. This is, in the end, a novel about the burden of being the first of your kind-a burden you do not always survive * New York Times Book Review *
Ng constructs a mesmerizing narrative that shrinks enormous issues of race, prejudice, identity, and gender into the miniaturist dynamics of a single family. A breathtaking triumph, reminiscent of prophetic debuts by Ha Jin, Chang-rae Lee, and Chimamanda Adichie, whose first titles matured into spectacular, continuing literary legacies * Library Journal, starred review *
Excellent . . . an accomplished debut . . . heart-wrenching . . . Ng deftly pulls together the strands of this complex, multigenerational novel. Everything I Never Told You is an engaging work that casts a powerful light on the secrets that have kept an American family together-and that finally end up tearing it apart * Los Angeles Times *
A powerhouse of a debut novel, a literary mystery crafted out of shimmering prose and precise, painful observation about racial barriers, the burden of familial expectations, and the basic human thirst for belonging... Ng's novel grips readers from page one with the hope of unraveling the mystery behind Lydia's death-and boy does it deliver, on every front * Huffington Post *
Cleverly crafted, emotionally perceptive . . . Ng sensitively dramatizes issues of gender and race that lie at the heart of the story . . . Ng's themes of assimilation are themselves deftly interlaced into a taut tale of ever deepening and quickening suspense * O, The Oprah Magazine *
Ng is masterful in her use of the omniscient narrator, achieving both a historical distance and visceral intimacy with each character's struggles and failures . . . On the surface, Ng's storylines are nothing new. There is a mysterious death, a family pulled apart by misunderstanding and grief, a struggle to fit into the norms of society, yet in the weaving of these threads she creates a work of ambitious complexity. In the end, this novel movingly portrays the burden of difference at a time when difference had no cultural value . . . Compelling * Los Angeles Review of Books *
Wonderfully moving . . . Emotionally precise . . . A beautifully crafted study of dysfunction and grief...[This book] will resonate with anyone who has ever had a family drama * Boston Globe *
[A] moving tale . . . of daughters for whom cultural disconnect is but the first challenge * Vogue *
Ng expertly explores and exposes the Lee family's secrets... These long-hidden, quietly explosive truths, weighted by issues of race and gender, slowly bubble to the surface of Ng's sensitive, absorbing novel and reverberate long after its final page. Ng's emotionally complex debut novel sucks you in like a strong current and holds you fast until its final secrets surface * Kirkus *
I couldn't stop reading Everything I Never Told You . . . the writing is so smooth and keenly observed. The portrait of each member of the Lee family, the exploration of their mixed-race issues and the search for the killer of their sister and daughter, Lydia, pulled at my heartstrings to the very end -- Uwem Akpan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Say You're One of Them
This intriguing tale of unhappy families will have you gripped from the opening line . . . No wonder it beat Hilary Mantel and Stephen King to win Amazon's book of the year * Stylist *
The mysterious circumstances of 16-year-old Lydia Lee's tragic death have her loved ones wondering how, exactly, she spent her free time. This ghostly debut novel calls to mind The Lovely Bones * Marie Claire *
If we know this story, we haven't seen it yet in American fiction, not until now... Ng has set two tasks in this novel's doubled heart-to be exciting, and to tell a story bigger than whatever is behind the crime. She does both by turning the nest of familial resentments into at least four smaller, prickly mysteries full of secrets the family members won't share... What emerges is a deep, heartfelt portrait of a family struggling with its place in history, and a young woman hoping to be the fulfillment of that struggle. This is, in the end, a novel about the burden of being the first of your kind-a burden you do not always survive * New York Times Book Review *
Ng constructs a mesmerizing narrative that shrinks enormous issues of race, prejudice, identity, and gender into the miniaturist dynamics of a single family. A breathtaking triumph, reminiscent of prophetic debuts by Ha Jin, Chang-rae Lee, and Chimamanda Adichie, whose first titles matured into spectacular, continuing literary legacies * Library Journal, starred review *
Excellent . . . an accomplished debut . . . heart-wrenching . . . Ng deftly pulls together the strands of this complex, multigenerational novel. Everything I Never Told You is an engaging work that casts a powerful light on the secrets that have kept an American family together-and that finally end up tearing it apart * Los Angeles Times *
A powerhouse of a debut novel, a literary mystery crafted out of shimmering prose and precise, painful observation about racial barriers, the burden of familial expectations, and the basic human thirst for belonging... Ng's novel grips readers from page one with the hope of unraveling the mystery behind Lydia's death-and boy does it deliver, on every front * Huffington Post *
Cleverly crafted, emotionally perceptive . . . Ng sensitively dramatizes issues of gender and race that lie at the heart of the story . . . Ng's themes of assimilation are themselves deftly interlaced into a taut tale of ever deepening and quickening suspense * O, The Oprah Magazine *
[A] moving tale . . . of daughters for whom cultural disconnect is but the first challenge * Vogue *
Ng expertly explores and exposes the Lee family's secrets... These long-hidden, quietly explosive truths, weighted by issues of race and gender, slowly bubble to the surface of Ng's sensitive, absorbing novel and reverberate long after its final page. Ng's emotionally complex debut novel sucks you in like a strong current and holds you fast until its final secrets surface * Kirkus *
Wonderfully moving . . . Emotionally precise . . . A beautifully crafted study of dysfunction and grief...[This book] will resonate with anyone who has ever had a family drama * Boston Globe *
Ng moves gracefully back and forth in time, into the aftermath of the tragedy as well as the distant past, and into the consciousness of each member of the family, creating a series of mysteries and revelations that lead back to the original question: what happened to Lydia? . . . Ng is masterful in her use of the omniscient narrator, achieving both a historical distance and visceral intimacy with each character's struggles and failures . . . On the surface, Ng's storylines are nothing new. There is a mysterious death, a family pulled apart by misunderstanding and grief, a struggle to fit into the norms of society, yet in the weaving of these threads she creates a work of ambitious complexity. In the end, this novel movingly portrays the burden of difference at a time when difference had no cultural value . . . Compelling * Los Angeles Review of Books *
I couldn't stop reading Everything I Never Told You . . . the writing is so smooth and keenly observed. The portrait of each member of the Lee family, the exploration of their mixed-race issues and the search for the killer of their sister and daughter, Lydia, pulled at my heartstrings to the very end -- Uwem Akpan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Say You're One of Them
This intriguing tale of unhappy families will have you gripped from the opening line . . . No wonder it beat Hilary Mantel and Stephen King to win Amazon's book of the year * Stylist *
The mysterious circumstances of 16-year-old Lydia Lee's tragic death have her loved ones wondering how, exactly, she spent her free time. This ghostly debut novel calls to mind The Lovely Bones * Marie Claire *
If we know this story, we haven't seen it yet in American fiction, not until now... Ng has set two tasks in this novel's doubled heart-to be exciting, and to tell a story bigger than whatever is behind the crime. She does both by turning the nest of familial resentments into at least four smaller, prickly mysteries full of secrets the family members won't share... What emerges is a deep, heartfelt portrait of a family struggling with its place in history, and a young woman hoping to be the fulfillment of that struggle. This is, in the end, a novel about the burden of being the first of your kind-a burden you do not always survive * New York Times Book Review *
Ng constructs a mesmerizing narrative that shrinks enormous issues of race, prejudice, identity, and gender into the miniaturist dynamics of a single family. A breathtaking triumph, reminiscent of prophetic debuts by Ha Jin, Chang-rae Lee, and Chimamanda Adichie, whose first titles matured into spectacular, continuing literary legacies * Library Journal, starred review *
Excellent . . . an accomplished debut . . . heart-wrenching . . . Ng deftly pulls together the strands of this complex, multigenerational novel. Everything I Never Told You is an engaging work that casts a powerful light on the secrets that have kept an American family together-and that finally end up tearing it apart * Los Angeles Times *
A powerhouse of a debut novel, a literary mystery crafted out of shimmering prose and precise, painful observation about racial barriers, the burden of familial expectations, and the basic human thirst for belonging... Ng's novel grips readers from page one with the hope of unraveling the mystery behind Lydia's death-and boy does it deliver, on every front * Huffington Post *
Cleverly crafted, emotionally perceptive . . . Ng sensitively dramatizes issues of gender and race that lie at the heart of the story . . . Ng's themes of assimilation are themselves deftly interlaced into a taut tale of ever deepening and quickening suspense * O, The Oprah Magazine *
[A] moving tale . . . of daughters for whom cultural disconnect is but the first challenge * Vogue *
Ng expertly explores and exposes the Lee family's secrets... These long-hidden, quietly explosive truths, weighted by issues of race and gender, slowly bubble to the surface of Ng's sensitive, absorbing novel and reverberate long after its final page. Ng's emotionally complex debut novel sucks you in like a strong current and holds you fast until its final secrets surface * Kirkus *
Wonderfully moving . . . Emotionally precise . . . A beautifully crafted study of dysfunction and grief...[This book] will resonate with anyone who has ever had a family drama * Boston Globe *
Ng moves gracefully back and forth in time, into the aftermath of the tragedy as well as the distant past, and into the consciousness of each member of the family, creating a series of mysteries and revelations that lead back to the original question: what happened to Lydia? . . . Ng is masterful in her use of the omniscient narrator, achieving both a historical distance and visceral intimacy with each character's struggles and failures . . . On the surface, Ng's storylines are nothing new. There is a mysterious death, a family pulled apart by misunderstanding and grief, a struggle to fit into the norms of society, yet in the weaving of these threads she creates a work of ambitious complexity. In the end, this novel movingly portrays the burden of difference at a time when difference had no cultural value . . . Compelling * Los Angeles Review of Books *
I couldn't stop reading Everything I Never Told You . . . the writing is so smooth and keenly observed. The portrait of each member of the Lee family, the exploration of their mixed-race issues and the search for the killer of their sister and daughter, Lydia, pulled at my heartstrings to the very end -- Uwem Akpan, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Say You're One of Them
[A] moving tale... of daughters for whom cultural disconnect is but the first challenge * Vogue *
The mysterious circumstances of 16-year-old Lydia Lee's tragic death have her loved ones wondering how, exactly, she spent her free time. This ghostly debut novel calls to mind The Lovely Bones * Marie Claire *

About Celeste Ng

Celeste Ng grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Shaker Heights, Ohio. She attended Harvard University and earned an MFA from the University of Michigan. Her debut novel, Everything I Never Told You, won the Hopwood Award, the Massachusetts Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and the American Library Association's Alex Award. She is a 2016 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, and she lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Additional information

GOR007808154
9780349134284
0349134286
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Used - Like New
Paperback
Little, Brown Book Group
20141113
320
Short-listed for CWA Daggers: John Creasey (New Blood) 2015 (UK)
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
The book has been read, but looks new. The book cover has no visible wear, and the dust jacket is included if applicable. No missing or damaged pages, no tears, possible very minimal creasing, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins

Customer Reviews - Everything I Never Told You