Ng, C. (2014). Everything I never told you. The Pinguin Press. Lydia was found dead in the lake near her house. Lydia was the middle child of Marilyn and James Lee. They are Chinese American family living in an era where they were looked down upon for being Chinese. Although her mother, Marilyn, was an American. Her family was the only Chinese family in the small town of Ohio. The fact that her parents married because her mother was pregnant affected the family more than they knew at the time. Although Marilyn thought she was happy it wasn't until her mother died that she realized how unhappy she was of no being able to fulfill her dream of becoming a doctor. That was the summer Marilyn decided to leave her family to return to school to and finish her degree. She was gone nine weeks and returned when she found out she was pregnant with their third child. James on the other hand grew up friendless and didn't want his children to go through that. The absence of their mother affect the two children but it affected Lydia the most. When their mother returned Lydia did everything possible to please her and that meant showing interest in what Marilyn loved. Nath and Hannah, the other two siblings were pushed aside. Their parents gave all their attention to Lydia. In the end Nath believes that Jack, the neighbor down the street, had something to do with her death. Although he didn't Jack does think he did because that night he was with her and he refused to have sexual relations with her, and he thought that pushed her to commit suicide. He was the last one to see her alive. Other books books similar to this one are Amy and Isabella and California Girl.
What I learned when reading this novel was that we as parents should never push our children to far. Marilyn didn't realize how damage she was causing Lydia by putting so much pressure on her. Marilyn wanted to live through her daughter and because of that Lydia wasn't able to live a normal childhood life. Her parents didn't know their own daughter and didn't realize what Lydia was going through. You can see this when they start making phone calls to who they thought were Lydia's friends only to realize that they really didn't know their daughter.