How had it begun? Like everything: with mothers and fathers.

And it is around mothers and fathers that Celeste Ng weaves the intricate story of a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio, in Everything I Never Told You.

The story begins with the disappearance of Marilyn and James Lee’s ‘favourite’ daughter, Lydia. The family and police begin searching for her immediately.

Television, magazines, radio: everything feels frivolous in the face of their fear.

It is quickly revealed that Lydia is not missing, but dead, and from there the story moves backwards and forwards in time, the perspective rotating between various key characters to tell how Lydia died.

Although the narrative pivots around Lydia, it is dominated by James and Marilyn’s backstories, specifically how James, Chinese, grew up in an Anglo-dominated society, and blonde and blue-eyed Marilyn (desperate to study medicine in a male-dominated world) sought to distinguish herself.

Because more than anything, her mother had wanted to stand out; because more than anything, her father had wanted to blend in. Because those things had been impossible.

Though their three children, James and Marilyn’s vulnerabilities reverberate, and the challenges each face are revealed – being the ‘favourite’ comes at a cost, after all.

Whenever I read a book structured in the way of Everything I Never Told You, I imagine the author standing before a whiteboard, with the characters and plot points all linked by a spaghetti of inter-connecting lines going every which way. Some readers love this type of structure, the pieces of the puzzle slowly falling into place, and the fulsome back stories making each characters’ motivation crystal clear. But I’m not one of those readers – it’s too much telling, and not enough showing (which relies on the reader to fill in some of the spaces). This one wasn’t for me but would make a terrific beach-read if in the right frame-of-mind.

2.5/5 Meh.

Every day, as Marilyn unboxed a frozen pie or defrosted a Salisbury steak – for she still refused to cook, and the family quietly accepted this as the price of her presence – she made plans: Books she would buy Lydia. Science fair projects. Summer classes.

As part of the 20 Books of Summer reading challenge, I’m comparing the Belfast summer and Melburnian winter. The results for the day I finished this book (June 6): Belfast 10°-17° and Melbourne 7°-14°.