What to say about this stunning debut novel?

I was drawn in immediately by the first line, and then the first few pages, and before I knew it I resented my homework and other novels needed to be read for class for taking me away from this.

Everything I Never Told You stars a family that is...I hesitate to say dysfunctional, because that doesn't quite encompass the depths of desire, hope, expectation and suffocation every single one of these characters experiences. Mothers and fathers have influence over their children in ways they sometimes can't see, and that influence then extends to their children's children, etc etc, until you have Lydia: suffocated by her mother's desire for her to be more than what she ended up, and her father's desire to be more well-liked than he ever was.

Stepping back, I find it so strange that I found the family dynamics so much more interesting than the racism itself. Being Chinese and half Chinese does have a huge impact on this family, but that manifests in different ways on each child. There's the overt racism, yes, but it's the inadvertent ways it impacts the family that hurt more than the obvious ways.

And Lydia, poor suffocated Lydia, with the weight of her parents hopes and dreams on her shoulders. Poor Nath, chafing from being cast aside in favor of Lydia. Poor Hannah, for being invisible. Poor Marilyn and James, for wanting the best, but not realizing the weight of what they set on their daughter.

The way this family drama plays out, how or why Lydia dies stops being important. When her death was revealed, I simply sighed, weighed down by this broken family.

And yet, a spark of hope at the end. At least there was that much.