Everything I Never Told You - Celeste Ng

Lydia is dead.  But they don't know this yet.

What a beginning.  It sets the tone for this story perfectly: one of a family slowly unraveling in the wake of the favorite daughter's disappearance and, as we readers know is coming, death.  Lydia is the center of the Lee family, a Chinese-American teenager whose life appears to be perfect until, after her death, the cracks begin to appear.  And with those cracks spread the cracks in the other family members' lives.

The bulk of this book is actually set before Lydia's disappearance and death, showing how the Lee family got to where they are.  And in the present of the book--actually set in the 1970s--the family is slowly crumbling in the wake of their unforeseen disaster.  The alternation isn't exactly a new technique, but it really works in this case.

The story itself is really heartbreaking, and struck me for one big reason.  My edition has a cover quote saying, "If we know this story, we haven't seen it yet in American fiction, not until now..."  But we do know this story, don't we?  The story of people wanting to stand out, and to fit in, and of parents putting pressure on their children to live the lives the parents themselves wanted to live, instead of letting the children follow their own dreams.  And of families falling apart under the pressure.  Ng sets this story in the 70s, with a mother who dreamed of being a doctor but gave up on her dream when she began a family and a father whose parents immigrated from China, who has always stood out because of his ethnicity, and wants more than anything to be popular and fit in.  When both parents are unable to achieve their dreams, they focus on their daughter, Lydia, trying to make her into what they'd always dreamed of.  Lydia goes along with it, what she sees as the price for her mother remaining with her.  Meanwhile, her older brother Nath is pushed aside, despite his dreams more closely aligning with his mother's, and Lydia's younger sister Hannah is just forgotten.

I don't think there's anything particularly riveting or revolutionary about the story, the writing, or the structure of the book, but it all comes together to make a lovely whole.  There's enough uncertainty surrounding Lydia's death and Lydia herself to keep us guessing at what, exactly, happened to lead to her death.  And while readers eventually find out the answer to that mystery, there's still a deep sadness surrounding the Lee family, because we know that they will never have the same sense of closure that we do.  I think that's what really makes this book striking--it's just a combo that works, and the ending makes that "working" resonate even more.  The characters are diverse enough that I think there's someone that everyone can empathize with, in one way or another, which also helps to lend this book a sense of deep emotion that books sometimes lack.

4 stars out of 5.