BOOK REVIEW: Celeste Ng�s debut novel

IFFATH IRFAN AYESHA

“Everything that I never told you”- Celeste Ng’s debut novel, is a thriller that begins with some shock elements- a missing girl, a lake, a local bad boy, who was one of the last to see her and won’t say what he knows.
‘Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.’ And so the story starts. The whole setting is in 1977, in a quiet-up American town in Ohio. A place where one knows another and they never heard of anything like this. It’s a familiar territory but Ng spins it in an unfamiliar tale.  Even if you know this story, you haven’t seen it in American fiction. Well, not until now.
The mystery is not the missing girl, Lydia, dead or alive, or where she’s gone- you’ll learn on the first page that she is dead and her dead body was found deep inside a lake. The enigma starts when the cops enter the story. When they start asking some uncomfortable questions- Was she doing well at school? Who were her friends? Did she seem depressed? Did she ever talk about hurting herself? — and her parents, sister and brother all find themselves unable to answer honestly. The mystery is why they can’t bring themselves to tell one another, or the police, what they believe is behind her disappearance.
Let’s make this more complicated for you. Shall we?
Lydia Lee, the missing girl, apple of her father’s eye, her mother’s favorite daughter. A blue-eyed Amerasian, the most white-looking of her siblings in her mixed-race Chinese and white family, she is also so serious, so driven, so good and responsible, she seems the least likely to disappear and get killed.

The term literary thriller might make you scoff, but Ng has set two tasks in this novel’s doubled heart — to be exciting, and to tell a story bigger than whatever is behind the crime. She does both by turning the nest of familial resentments into at least four smaller, prickly mysteries full of the secrets the family members won’t share.

Nonetheless, the whole novel is a big whoosh, if you are having a bad time and need to forget about the world.

Goodreads rating- 3.8/5
Barnes and Noble- 3.7/5 

BOOK REVIEW: Celeste Ng�s debut novel

IFFATH IRFAN AYESHA Everything that I never told you- Celeste Ngs debut novel, is a thriller that begins with some shock elements- a missing girl, a lake, a local bad boy, who was one of the last to see her and wont say what he knows. Lydia is dead. But they dont know this yet. And so the story starts. The whole setting is in 1977, in a quiet-up American town in Ohio. A place where one knows another and they never heard of anything like this. Its a familiar territory but Ng spins it in an unfamiliar tale. Even if you know this story, you havent seen it in American fiction. Well, not until now. The mystery is not the missing girl, Lydia, dead or alive, or where shes gone- youll learn on the first page that she is dead and her dead body was found deep inside a lake. The enigma starts when the cops enter the story. When they start asking some uncomfortable questions- Was she doing well at school? Who were her friends? Did she seem depressed? Did she ever talk about hurting herself? and her parents, sister and brother all find themselves unable to answer honestly. The mystery is why they cant bring themselves to tell one another, or the police, what they believe is behind her disappearance. Lets make this more complicated for you. Shall we? Lydia Lee, the missing girl, apple of her fathers eye, her mothers favorite daughter. A blue-eyed Amerasian, the most white-looking of her siblings in her mixed-race Chinese and white family, she is also so serious, so driven, so good and responsible, she seems the least likely to disappear and get killed. The term literary thriller might make you scoff, but Ng has set two tasks in this novels doubled heart to be exciting, and to tell a story bigger than whatever is behind the crime. She does both by turning the nest of familial resentments into at least four smaller, prickly mysteries full of the secrets the family members wont share. Nonetheless, the whole novel is a big whoosh, if you are having a bad time and need to forget about the world. Goodreads rating- 3.8/5 Barnes and Noble- 3.7/5