Book Review: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.

Thus this sentence took you on a short rollercoaster about a Chinese American family who's trying to grieve over their sixteen year old Lydia, who killed herself. The book opens to her funeral, and then we take the ride there, learning about how James, a Chinese man, learning about his life and where he came from and how he met Marilyn, a Caucasian woman. The two met at the first class James was teaching, and went on to get married, have three kids, and then go through the trauma and pain of losing a child, especially their middle child.

Once Lydia died, that's when things start to come to light-Nath, the brother, blames Jack for his sister's death. James is having an affair with Louisa but didn't go far. Marylin is trying to figure out what was it that she'd done to make Lydia kill herself. And poor, small Hannah, who knows everything and doesn't even say a word.

This book drew me in and I devoured every single word that Celeste Ng wrote, but the one thing that got me was the going in the head and coming out of the characters' head, almost like it was running together, but I enjoyed nontheless, and I wanted more, but I think this is a really good short to stop with and then read more of her stories. I hope that one day we can go back to them, but until then, I love and hate the Lee family, only because of the small cheating part and how they handled Lydia's death, like she's still there but she's gone, and now they're regretting how they feel and how they treated her when she was alive when it was clearly shown that she had depression and just wanted to have one friend that didn't treat her like shit, but I guess that didn't happen (well, there's Jack, but he treated her like a human fucking being).

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Book Review: Pretty Things by Janelle Brown

Pretty Things by Janelle Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Pretty Things by Janelle Brown is my first suspense novel I've ever read, and I have to say...I enjoyed this book. Shockingly, I thought I would hate it, mostly because I don't read suspense novels like this. But the more I read it and fell in love with the characters Vanessa and Nina, and also Lachlan/Michael before he was killed. I also thought that I was going to hate the mother, but after the things she lied about and what she did to her own daughter made me hate her so, so much. So what is this book about?

This book is about a heist of a lifetime-Nina Ross and Lachlan, going out to Stonehaven to loot the very rich family the Lieblings. Only problem is...the Lieblings are broke bitches. Vanessa became an influencer on Instagram, her brother Benny became a schizophrenic, mother killed herself on her boat, and her father died in bed. At the same time all of that was going on, Nina and Benny were seeing each other as teenagers, and one day while they were making love, Mr. Liebling walked in on them and threw Nina out, thus sending her on this 'revenge' heist, looking at Vanessa's instagram and plotting on how to make her pay for what her father did, all the while stealing from other rich kids "that deserve it".

When at the same time, Vanessa's life is anything but peachy. She kinda blames herself for the schizophenia, though she really blames her father for it. She actually did meet Nina at the coffee shop, but then again she didn't even notice her, just looked down at her phone. But when she got the email from a couple named Ashley and Michael, after being so alone in Stonehaven, of course she invited them in.

The first few days Vanessa spills her guts to Ashley/Nina, telling her that "I am very...alone...right now." after telling her her whole story to her...and then afterwards Nina says (not to her face) "She thinks we are friends?" like...come on, bro. She spilled her life and that's what you think? Ooof. But the worst part was when Vanessa thought of a plan to get rid of "Ashley" after learning her true identity, drugging her drink and making her leave, having "Michael" all to herself. But not before Nina goes into the vault and finds a letter Lily wrote to William Liebling, thus setting off a chain of events that lands her in jail.

And Michael? And Vanessa?

They got married and they're staying in Stonehaven. Vanessa picks up sketching while Michael is writing. But it turns out Michael is a big fat liar, and Vanessa's happy little marriage starts to not sound right, even when she finds out that she's pregnant with his child. So she goes to see Nina in jail, after finding little clues that helped her figure out that Michael isn't who he says he is, and the two girls go to his house after Vanessa pays for bail and...they found out that Vanessa's husband's real name is actually Michael O'Brien, he's not from Ireland, and also that he pulled the same con on so many women that it made even Nina sick to her stomach.

Oh and when Nina learned that her mama set up the whole entire thing, the whole she bang, it shocked her and me, because that's a huge yikes in my book. And when it was time to confront Michael, they did everything he said before Nina kicked him down the stairs, and then, at the end, Vanessa killed him. Nina served her years and worked for Vanessa as a house editor, getting things organized and ready to sell, Vanessa had a little girl named Daisy and moved Benny back in, and also Vanessa's a mommy blogger. Awe. She she even got a clothing line coming out.

So all in all, this book was really good, and it inspired me to try and write my own suspense (or try to). I just didn't like the whole Michael keeping the secret and how he pretty much plagerized famous poems and didn't write his own.

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