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A review by mandyist
All That's Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien
3.0
This one was a real challenge to finish and I regularly thought of giving up. I was reminded a lot of my second year Sociology textbook Social Problems and the Quality of Life. It seemed the author wanted to shoehorn every possible social problem into her community with the finesse of textbook rote and we never get more than a superficial glimpse of what all this means.
From a personal perspective, I didn't relate to Ky's reaction to her brother's death and her judging him for not being perfect at school. You tend to lionise those you lose, especially in murders or violent events.
I do relate to the pain of not knowing but disagree with the notion that it makes no difference if you know what happened. It does help to know. In my personal experience, the discovery at trial that a family member had simply been at the wrong place at the wrong time brought us immense peace and closure. To know that they hadn't been targeted for their religion, race or sexual orientation was important to us.
Ultimately, there was a good story here and it all knits together in the end. It was a challenge to get through, in large part due to the textbook trauma-dumping. I also felt my own experience with loss, police investigations, and community outrage following these events made it difficult to relate to a lot of the book but that's on me.
From a personal perspective, I didn't relate to Ky's reaction to her brother's death and her judging him for not being perfect at school. You tend to lionise those you lose, especially in murders or violent events.
I do relate to the pain of not knowing but disagree with the notion that it makes no difference if you know what happened. It does help to know. In my personal experience, the discovery at trial that a family member had simply been at the wrong place at the wrong time brought us immense peace and closure. To know that they hadn't been targeted for their religion, race or sexual orientation was important to us.
Ultimately, there was a good story here and it all knits together in the end. It was a challenge to get through, in large part due to the textbook trauma-dumping. I also felt my own experience with loss, police investigations, and community outrage following these events made it difficult to relate to a lot of the book but that's on me.