Book Review: Everything Here Is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee
Everything Here Is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee
Publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
Release Date: January 16, 2018
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Two Chinese-American sisters—Miranda, the older, responsible one, always her younger sister’s protector; Lucia, the headstrong, unpredictable one, whose impulses are huge and, often, life changing. When Lucia starts hearing voices, it is Miranda who must find a way to reach her sister. Lucia impetuously plows ahead, but the bitter constant is that she is, in fact, mentally ill. Lucia lives life on a grand scale, until, inevitably, she crashes to earth.
Miranda leaves her own self-contained life in Switzerland to rescue her sister again—but only Lucia can decide whether she wants to be saved. The bonds of sisterly devotion stretch across oceans—but what does it take to break them?
Everything Here Is Beautiful is, at its heart, an immigrant story, and a young woman’s quest to find fulfillment and a life unconstrained by her illness. But it’s also an unforgettable, gut-wrenching story of the sacrifices we make to truly love someone—and when loyalty to one’s self must prevail over all.
Everything Here Is Beautiful is the story of two sisters – Miranda and Lucia, the daughters of a Chinese immigrant single mother. Miranda is the typical oldest child, responsible to a fault. After their mother dies, she becomes almost a single mother to Lucia. When Lucia develops a mental illness, Miranda’s role as her care-taker becomes all the more important.
This novel is an honest exploration of mental illness and how it affects not only the mentally ill person but their friends and family as well. I liked that Lucia was not portrayed as an enigmatic, glamorous creature. Her situation was not romanticized. Lee eloquently captures Lucia’s internal struggle with her demons. I was able to understand why she had trouble staying on her medication and how when she went off of it, her mental illness could take over her mind without her even realizing it. Miranda loves her sister fiercely, yet can’t help getting frustrated with Lucia at times. It’s hard for her to accept that Lucia can’t control her mind, even though rationally she knows it’s true.
I chose this novel to review because Celeste Ng, who has become one of my favorite authors, blurbed it. I’m so glad I did. It’s a beautifully written, character driven novel about sisterhood, motherhood, love and mental illness. Everything Here is Beautiful is a fantastic debut by Mira T. Lee. I’ll be following her and eagerly awaiting her next offering.
(I received a complimentary copy of this book for review.)
