“Before that she hadn’t realized how fragile happiness was, how if you were careless, you could knock it over and shatter it.”
Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You begins with the lines: ‘Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.’ Lydia is the favourite child of Marilyn and James Lee, a Chinese American family living in small-town Ohio in the 1970s. Her parents dream of her accomplishing the sorts of things they were never able to. But, when he body is discovered in the local lake, the delicate balance keeping their family together is shattered, sending them all into chaos. Both a gripping mystery and a sensitive family portrait, Everything I Never Told You is a story of family, secrets, and longing. If you loved Celeste Ngs’ bestseller, join us at What We Reading for the best books like Everything I Never Told You!
Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng
Kicking off our list of books like Everything I Never Told You is another of Celeste Ng’s best-known stories, Little Fires Everywhere. In the placid, progressive suburb of Shaker Heights, everything from the colour of the houses to the lives their residents lead is carefully planned. And no one embodies this more than Elena Richardson.
That is until the arrival of Mia Warren, an enigmatic artist and single mother to her teenage daughter, Pearl. The Richardsons are drawn to this mother-daughter duo. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the rules that threaten to upend this carefully ordered community. And when a custody battle threatens to split the town in two, Mia and Elena find themselves on opposite sides, with the latter doing all she can to uncover the secrets of Mia’s past. But her obsession will come with unexpected and devastating consequences.
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The Mothers – Brit Bennett
It is the last season of high school life for Nadia Turner, a rebellious and grief-stricken seventeen-year-old. Mourning her mother’s recent suicide, she takes up with Luke Sheppard, the twenty-one-year-old former football star and local pastor’s son. Whilst it isn’t intended to be anything serious, the unexpected pregnancy that comes about will have an impact that stretches far beyond their youth.
As Nadia attempts to keep her secret from everyone, including her god-fearing best friend, Aubrey, the years trundle on by. Nadia, Luke and Aubrey find themselves as fully-grown adults, still carefully navigating a tricky love triangle and the consequences of the decisions they made one summer. Similar to Everything I Never Told You, The Mothers is a thought-provoking exploration of love, belonging and mother-daughter dynamics.
This Is How It Always Is – Laurie Frankel
Claude is five years old. He is the youngest of five brothers and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress and dreams of one day becoming a princess. When he grows up, Claude says that he wants to be a girl.
Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not so certain they’re comfortable with sharing that with the wider world. Soon, the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day, when everything explodes. Laurie Frankel’s This Is How It Always Is is perfect for fans of Everything I Never Told You for another tale of how children grow up but not always according to plan, and how families with secrets are rarely able to keep them hidden.
Then She Was Gone – Lisa Jewell
Another one of the best books like Everything I Never Told You with similar themes and styles comes from Lisa Jewell in her 2017 mystery-thriller, Then She Was Gone. It’s been a decade since Ellie disappeared, but Laurel has never given up hope of finding her daughter. Then, one day, a charming man named Floyd sweeps into a cafe and claims Laurel’s heart.
Before long, the pair are spending their nights together around Floyd’s house, and Laurel is being introduced to his nine-year-old daughter, Poppy. Poppy is precocious and pretty, but meeting her completely takes Laurel’s breath away. Because Poppy is the spitting image of Ellie when she was that age. With all the unanswered questions coming flooding back, Laurel is plunged into discovering what happened to her daughter, and who still has secrets left to hide.
The Joy Luck Club – Amy Tan
In 1949, four Chinese women, recent immigrants to San Francisco, meet weekly to play mahjong and tell stories about the lives they’ve behind. United in loss but bound by new hope for their daughters’ futures, they brand themselves the Joy Luck Club. Their daughters, who have never heard these stories, think their mother’s advice is irrelevant to their contemporary American lives. That is until their own inner crises showcase just how much of their mother’s past they’ve inherited.
Like Everything I Never Told You, Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club is a historical fiction story about Chinese American parents and examines the painful and tender connections between mothers and daughters.
The Burning Girl – Claire Messud
Julia and Cassie have been friends since nursery school. They have shared everything, including their desire to escape the stifling limitations of their birthplace, the sleepy town of Royston, Massachusetts. Yet, as the two girls enter adolescence, the two girls’ life paths diverge as Cassie sets out on a journey that will put her life in danger and shatter her deepest, closest friendship.
Claire Messud’s The Burning Girl is a mesmerising coming-of-age tale that examines the stories we tell ourselves about being young and having friends. Similar to Everything I Never Told You, Messud’s story straddles the imaginary worlds and scenarios children conjure up and the painful realities of being an adult.
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman
Eleanor Oliphant struggles with most social skills and tends to say exactly what she is thinking. Her weekends are spent in the company of vodka, frozen pizzas and long chats on the phone with her mother. Yet, everything changes for Eleanor when she encounters Raymond, the bumbling, unhygienic IT guy from her office. The pair help out an old man named Sammy when he falls over on the pavement.
Together, the three of them become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find a way of repairing her own exceptionally damaged one.
Mad Honey – Jodi Picoult And Jennifer Finney Boylan
Jodi Picoult’s Mad Honey is one of the best mystery books from 2022 and one of the best books like Everything I Never Told You for readers looking for another tale about what he choose to keep from our pasts. After her idyllic life in Boston is upended, Olivia McAfee finds herself back in her quiet New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in and taking over her father’s beekeeping business.
Lily Campanello has also arrived in Adams with her mother for her final year of high school. Olivia and Lily’s paths cross when Olivia’s son, Asher, falls for the new girl at school. And Lily cannot help but feel the same for him. Then, one day, Olivia receives a call from the police telling her Lily is dead and Asher is being questioned. Whilst she’s adamant her son is innocent, Olivia knows Asher has plenty of his father’s anger inside him. And, as more of the case against him unfolds, she begins to realise just how much he has kept hidden from her.
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Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
