More from Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Ng's novel offers lessons in narrative drive, character agency, and so much more.

I recently shared with you an Inside Outline for Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. In that post, I discussed the ways this novel is a great example of narrative drive (aka cause-and-effect trajectory) as well as character agency. I want to come back to this novel because it also offers examples of some other things I’d like to show you. Things like a bookended beginning and ending; getting information in that the POV character couldn’t know; grounding the reader in time and place; and getting backstory in organically.

SPOILER ALERT: This post gives away the entire plot and ending of Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng.

Beginning: 16-year-old Lydia is missing. As her family members search for her and look for clues, each family member reveals secrets to the reader, secrets they have been keeping from the other family members. This is important to keep in mind because this novel has perfect bookends, so in Chapter 12, we will see the ending connect to this beginning.

Chapter 1: This chapter is a masterclass in so many things, so I suggest you pick up a copy and read along.

Note the characterizations and context throughout the first chapter, using exquisite details: the physics homework and sharpened pencil; the radio station and dial; Love's Baby Soft cologne; pop culture: Elvis’s death, Happy Days jumping the shark, and Atari.

Note also that, although we are told in the first line of the novel that Lydia is dead, there is still tension. The tension is not, “Is Lydia okay?”—we know she isn't. The tension is, “What happened to Lydia? When and how will her family find out she is dead?” By revealing Lydia’s death at the outset, Ng has created even more tension.

Then note the masterful foreshadowing: Lydia’s mother Marilyn is mistaken about the lake being a harmless pond—it is big and deep. We learn that Lydia drowned in it.

Note the way backstory is (a) incorporated into the story present organically; and (b) is not wasted but is meaningful to the story. Example: Marilyn pulls a mug from the cupboard—this triggers a memory of pouring tea into a mug when Lydia was a baby and learning something about Lydia’s way of being in the world. Example: Marilyn is wondering where Lydia could be—this triggers a memory of a child suffocating in a storage shed a few years earlier and a police advisory being sent out. This memory prompts her to search the house, even the most unlikely places, and we feel her desperation. It also prompts her to think of things going on in the news in May 1977—Son of Sam, etc.—and to rationalize those things couldn’t happen in their small town. This also serves the purpose of grounding readers in time and place.

Chapter 4 (for example): Lydia’s brother Nath hates Jack, the boy Lydia has been hanging out with all summer. Throughout the story, in the chapters set in the past, we see hints that Jack is a kind person, but Nath misreads him. In this way, the present story continues, even in the chapters set in the past.

Chapter 5: Note in the beginning of this chapter, in little sister Hannah’s point of view, how we organically get backstory. It is also something that Hannah couldn’t have been present for because she hadn’t yet been born. So how does Ng get it in? With these seven words: "Hannah has heard this story many times." Excellent example of how to do this and so simple.

Chapter 6: In this chapter, Jack tries to comfort Nath with the red Swedish fish candies, but Nath gets upset. Now, he can’t remember what Jack said, just that he was angry with Jack. We see signs that Nath’s feelings about Jack are complicated.

In Chapters 1-6, the story alternates between story present and story past (mom Marilyn’s past decisions that drive the story forward to the point where she accepts the disappointments of her own life and pins her hopes on Lydia).

Note Marilyn’s agency. She makes decisions in every chapter. They may be good decisions, or they may be bad decisions, but she makes decisions. She does not simply observe or wait for things to happen to her. An inactive character is a boring character, and Marilyn is anything but. She suffers the consequences (or reaps the benefits) of those decisions in the ensuing chapters—this is the narrative drive: each decision or action by Marilyn causes the next thing that happens in the story and moves the story forward.

At the midway point, Marilyn’s POV is replaced with Lydia’s. Then it becomes Lydia making decisions or taking action, and it is Lydia who suffers the consequences of her decisions and actions.

In Chapters 7-12, the story alternates between story present and story past (daughter Lydia’s past decisions that drive the story forward to the present, where she is dead).

Chapter 7: This chapter begins with the consequences of Marilyn’s decision in Chapter 6 to pin her hopes on Lydia. Lydia begins to keep secrets, to lie, and to pretend she is popular and doing well in school.

Note: When you’re writing in multiple points of view, you have a choice to make—will a separate cause-and-effect trajectory follow each point-of-view character? Or will the cause-and-effect trajectory continue from each chapter to the next, no matter whose point of view the chapter is in? Here, Marilyn is the POV character in Chapter 6, but the narrative drive (the consequences of Marilyn’s decision in Chapter 6) continues into Chapter 7, even though Lydia is now the POV character.

Ending: In a perfect bookend to the beginning, the characters begin to discuss their secrets and Lydia’s, the things they were afraid to say or didn’t say, that led them to this place. With open and honest communication, the family begins to heal, which gives Lydia’s life and her tragic death meaning.

The story is bookended with the consequences of failed communication in the first chapter and the healing power of healthy communication in the last chapter.