Man, this book. What can I say? It was a masterpiece but in a unique way. Centered around an interracial family in 1970s America, Everything I Never Told You is the tale of how that family copes with the unexplained and sudden death of Lydia, one of the daughters of James Lee (the father) and Marilyn Lee (the mother). It reminded me a lot of 2 movies: the thriller movie Searching in how it’s focused on the disappearance of a daughter and the family trying to figure out what happened, as well as the movie Interstellar in how the story is focused a lot around a single family and the relationships between its members. However, it is highly distinct in its own way as well. In the background are two major running themes –the public perceptions of an interracial family in 1970s America and women trying to escape the societal expectation that they play a huge role in the “home” as opposed to pursuing a career.
The opening part of the book felt a bit awkward for some reason, and there was one sort of scene in the book that I felt to be kind of weird at the beginning, but as I read on, the messages of the book and the overall story largely made up for that. You really get a good idea of what the expression “a story/movie/book woven together” means because the elements of the story are all equally significant and each have some sort of major consequence that makes it increasingly meaningful. This element of the book also adds so much more depth to the death of Lydia, and you gain an understanding of the circumstances that surrounded her death and her family’s state at the very root.
While and after reading this novel, I got the perception that a lot of planning went into it, and it truly pays off in the way that the book’s events and chapters constantly play off of each other. It’s definitely worth reading, and it touches on all sorts of social issues but incorporates them in clever ways. Enjoy!
Review By ~ Andrew
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