A review by shelleys_book_nook
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I don’t know what it is about Elizabeth Strout’s writing that always captures me. Maybe it’s because it is about ordinary life written in such an extraordinary way. There’s so much sadness in this book sexual child assault, murder, suicide, aging, cancer and death. But for some reason that’s not what I focused on. I’m a pessimist at heart but the way Elizabeth Strout writes had me noticing the love, laughter, friendships and joy more than anything else.

There’s a bit of a mystery in this one as well, when the dead body of a resident shows up in a car crashed in the Quarry. But the focus isn’t really on solving the murder as much as why it happened in the first place and that was very refreshing. This book is very character driven so there really wasn’t a plot per se.

Don’t try to find meaning in this series (this is book five) it’s just about unrecorded simple lives. It’s about the little things that matter and not the big picture. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Nothing is certain except death and taxes.” What I reflected on while reading this was, don’t take life too seriously and enjoy the little things while you can. As my English friend Morning always says bloody brilliant. All. The. Stars.