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Everything I Never Told You

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Everything I Never Told You

By: Celeste Ng
Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
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About this listen

Lydia is the favourite child of Marilyn and James Lee - a girl who inherited her mother's bright-blue eyes and her father's jet-black hair.

Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfil the dreams they were unable to pursue. But Lydia is under pressures that have nothing to do with growing up in 1970s small town Ohio. Her father is an American born of Chinese immigrants and his ethnicity, and hers, make them conspicuous.

When Lydia's body is found in a lake, James is consumed by guilt and sets out on a reckless path. Marilyn, devastated and vengeful, is determined to make someone accountable. Lydia's brother, Nathan, is convinced that local bad boy Jack is involved. But it's the youngest in the family - Hannah - who may be the only one who knows what really happened.

©2014 Celeste Ng (P)2014 Blackstone Audiobooks Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Emotionally Gripping Heartfelt Inspiring Tear-jerking Thought-Provoking

Critic Reviews

"[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)

"There is much here that might impress Pulitzer and Man Booker judges." (Mark Lawson, Guardian)
All stars
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A story of sacrifice, forgiveness and how our own childhood unknowingly affects our children.

Such a sad story

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Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

As I found the characters at the centre of this story very frustrating, I probably would not recommend it.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The most interesting aspect of the story was the central line of inquiry: Lydia's life, activities, feelings. Was this murder, or suicide? This part of the story took a long time to unravel. While it was very satisfying to finally know what was going on with Lydia, the time it took to get to her was frustrating.

The least interesting aspect of the story wasn't so much "uninteresting" as "cliched" -- James Lee's choices after his daughter's death probably provided the least merit in the story.

Did Everything I Never Told You inspire you to do anything?

Communicate with my family! While listening to this story I often felt extreme anger and frustration at each remaining family member -- Marilyn's selfishness and inability to accept her children for who they were; James's inability to learn to communicate with his son; Nathan's refusal to speak to police about his suspicions or to speak up within his family; the parents' constant and literal ignorance of the two children who weren't Lydia. This family's story was a definite "what not to do" for family life.

Any additional comments?

The ending was much neater than I had anticipated partway through -- it didn't seem detrimental to the story overall though, and provided some hope for the family's future.

Frustrating for many reasons, but well narrated

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make sure you get increase the speed of narration or else the narration will seem very slow and drawn out

a reflection on how we see our own hopes and dream

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A really wonderful, yet heartbreaking story. As always, Cassandra Campbell does an amazing job narrating.

Beautiful story

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What a brilliant analysis of racism, helicopter parenting and 'man's inhumanity to man'. It prompted me to think about my attitude to my own family. In parts it was shocking - was it only 40 years ago when marriage outside you own race was frowned upon and openly derided?
There were so many epiphany moments in this book I have lost count.
Also, the narrator was excellent - her voice was clear, sometimes mellifluous, sometimes angry, sometimes child-like. I cannot believe that some called it morose. This novel should not be missed and I'm looking forward to more books from this author.

So pleased I ignored the bad reviews.

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Narrator's voice was annoying butbthe storyline helped to keep me interested.
The characters are well developed

Not bad

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I loved this story it’s poignant, heartfelt sad..
and I liked the narration a lot

Brilliant

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I listened to this as an audiobook and thoroughly enjoyed it. Well done to author and narrator.

Well done family drama

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Amazing storyline covering many topics. Some that majority can easily relates to and some that not.

Amazing!

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I expected a story about solving the mystery behind why a girl died and this is not at all about that. Sure, that's the backbone of the story but it's actually told from the perspectives of each parent and sibling going back to their early lives and how each person is affected by family dynamics and the same events in different ways.

Once I got my head around that, I found it thoroughly enjoyable and heartwrenching.

Not at all what I expected, but fantastic anyway

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