everything i never told you by celeste ng
✨✨✨☆☆☆
the short version:
a deeply sad, slow-burn family drama about expectations, identity, and all the things left unsaid. beautifully written but so emotionally heavy. do not read if you’re looking for something lighthearted—this book will sit on your chest like an existential crisis in novel form.
the vibes:
💔 family dysfunction, but make it painfully real
📖 every character needs therapy, immediately
🌊 mysterious drowning + a lot of unanswered questions
😞 miscommunication to the MAX
the plot:
lydia, the golden child of a mixed-race family in the 1970s, is dead. her parents don’t know it yet, but this tragedy is about to unravel everything. we backtrack through the family’s history—how her mom, marilyn, pushed her toward academic success, how her dad, james, just wanted her to fit in, and how her siblings were basically ignored in the process. it’s less about what happened to lydia and more about why—the weight of unspoken expectations and the slow, quiet suffocation of a family trying (and failing) to understand each other.
my thoughts:
first off, celeste ng can write. the prose? stunning. the way she unpacks generational trauma and racial identity? chef’s kiss. but wow, this book is exhausting. every character is drowning in their own sadness, and the miscommunication is so bad that it physically hurt me. like, please, i am begging you people to just sit down and talk for five minutes.
that said, this book gets human nature in a way that’s almost too real. the way parents project their dreams onto their kids? the way siblings can feel invisible? the way grief makes people do stupid things? all painfully accurate. but also... so slow. if you’re expecting a thriller or a big mystery reveal, you’re in the wrong place—this book is a quiet, character-driven unraveling of a family, and sometimes it just drags.
also, lydia deserved better. that’s it. that’s the thought.
final verdict:
✨✨✨☆☆☆
read this if you:
love slow, introspective family dramas
enjoy books that feel like a sociology class on generational trauma
are emotionally prepared for a novel that is 95% sadness and regret
skip this if you:
want any sense of happiness or catharsis
hate books where every problem could be solved with basic communication
need a fast-paced plot that actually goes somewhere
