I just finished listening to the audio book Everything I Never Told You
All in all it was an pretty good book. It’s written in first person and I’ve become a real fan of authors who switch from character to character writing in first person with the story told through each of the character’s eyes. This book could have benefited from that writing style.
The book tells the story of a young girls struggle between wanting to please her parents and wanting to be herself. The first line of the book is, “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.”..Lydia is the young girl. I think had the story been told in first person, I would have felt “closer” to the Lydia…closer to her parents and closer to her siblings. As is was told I didn’t feel as attached as I would have liked to. That aside it was a pretty good book.
Here’s what Amazon has to say, “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing,Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.”
Amazon readers give the book 4.1 Stars. I would be inclined to give it 3.5 stars for the reasons stated earlier. I wanted to feel more connected to Lydia and her family.