Book 182: "Everything I Never Told You" by Celeste Ng

I picked this book up on whim. I needed something to read while my besties and I laid on the lake shore in the sun. My favorite thing about "whim" books is how often they end up being great and expanding your horizons.

As you've most likely noticed, I get caught in the fantasy and dystopian genres the majority of the time. While I do read literary fiction here and there and often read classics, general fiction is often moved to the bottom of my TBR pile. I'm glad this one made it to the top by chance.

Everything I Never Told You is an in-depth story about family and grief. It's about inter-racial couples and prejudices. It's about finding out who you are in spite of who your parents want you to be. It's about dealing with the realities of who your family members are even when you believed them to be completely different. It's about secrets. It's about escapism and avoiding reality. It's about love; familial and romantic.

The story follows one family who suffers the tragic loss of one it's number. They have to come to terms with this loss even though there are no answers. It follows each member. It covers their past and the present while dealing with the loss. The story follows them as they break apart and heal, each in their own way.

I'm having a hard time explaining what, exactly, this book is about. It covers so much and does it so well. The story of this one family is powerful, hopeful, heartbreaking, and -most of all- real.

Read it.