Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

If a book is suggested by a friend or other reliable source, do you read the cover before you decide whether or not to read it or do you take your friend's word on it?  Do you judge a book by the cover or do you read a few pages before you commit?  I ask these things, because I don't always read the information on the book before I dive in.  I end up with interesting things I NEVER would have read.  If I had read the reviews for the Sasquatch book, I probably wouldn't have read it.  If I hadn't have taken my librarian's word on Leaving Time, I probably wouldn't have listened to it.  There are many other books I've read over time that I wouldn't have chose for myself.  I'm glad that I've read those books, though, even if I didn't love all of them.

This is one of those books I probably wouldn't have picked for myself.  This book is full of heartbreak, family issues, and mystery.  There were times I almost wanted to cry for goodness sake!  I don't read fiction that makes people want to cry!  I read fiction about zombies and vampires, but this book was on the Summer Reading Challenge, I had to cross it off the list.  I gotta say, I'm glad I read this one, too!  I downloaded the audio for this book from my library's site for FREE!  We all love free books, after all.

This story is about a biracial family in the 1970's who is faced with the tragic loss of a teenage daughter.  Her mother, father, sister and brother are all trying to figure out what happened to her and why it happened.  They are all trying to cope with this disaster and learn to live without Lydia.  This will either destroy this family or bring them closer together as they reflect on the events that lead up to the day she disappeared.  There were a couple times I wondered if we would ever figure out exactly what happened, but thankfully, this book ended with adequate closure.  That's all the spoiler you will get out of me.

I thought this was really well read and really well written.  I'm not usually in tune enough to realize when a writer is using imagery and figurative language to build a story and get a point across, but I noticed with this book.  I'm not organized enough to take notes to give you specific examples, I'll work on that, but I really liked the prose used by this writer.  I would read more by Celeste Ng and have started following her on GoodReads.

I recommend you pick this one up.  I listened to the audio, but I think the written would have been just as good.  As always, let me know what you think in the comments below.