Member Reviews

All That’s Left Unsaid

They claim they saw nothing.
She knows they’re lying.

We follow Ky Tran, who wants to find out just what happened the night her younger brother, Denny, was killed. Denny had been celebrating his high school graduation with his friends, at a busy restaurant in Cabramatta Sydney, but Denny didn’t make it home, he was brutally murdered.
Denny wasn’t a trouble maker, he was a studious innocent, so what on earth happened?
Ky feels guilty as she had persuaded her parents to let him go, even though it was in a rough area.
To help her conscience, Ky begins to track down witnesses to talk to them, plead with them, t help her uncover the truth. Instead she is up against a community that daren’t speak up, in fear themselves. Will Ky ever discover the truth?
I shed a few tears whilst reading but for such a sad subject, the author handles it perfectly and as i read on i needed to see it through, I needed that ending.
This is a beautifully written book that deals with grief and trauma so well. Its hard to believe this is a debut novel!

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Really sad the way people react to the death of this young man. Dad and heart breaking. Its well written, a good read but very sad too.

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A beautifully-written novel about Ky, whose brother, Denny, is killed in a Vietnamese restaurant in SW Sydney, Australia. This book took me to a world (in particular, the deprived suburb of Cabramatta) that I knew very little about.

Cabramatta is home to a lot of Vietnamese immigrants. Ky has left, made a life for herself as a journalist in Melbourne. But many people in this Sydney suburb don't move on. Her younger brother, Denny, has just graduated high school, has a promising life ahead of him, when he is senselessly killed at the Lucky 8 restaurant on the night of the school prom.

Essentially, this is a novel about how people cover up the truth - how people won't tell the truth due to the fear of the repercussions this may have. Ky sets herself the challenge of doing what the police haven't done - to find out who killed her brother. One of the book's main strengths is the way Lien adopts different speakers' voices - specifically, when Ky visits the little girl's apartment whose parents are out at work.

At times, I found this a little disjointed - for example, the strong focus on Denny's geography teacher, Ms Faulkner, and then the fact she isn't mentioned again (and would a teacher be out with two of her students without other adults? Not sure...) It is also, perhaps, a little odd that no-one will admit to what has happened in the Lucky 8. I understand that gangs were rife in Cabramatta in the 1990s, and many people wouldn't speak as they feared what would happen to them, but I am not sure it is fully truthful. Regardless, the writer shows how determined someone can be when a loved one's life is in question - even if others, parents included, don't want to know.

'All That's Left Unsaid' is a very impressive debut and says a lot (even today, in 2023) about how minority groups can be treated so different to whites. Surely, this has to change but there is a long way to go before we are out the other side, I think.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

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This was a gripping story told with passion and charm. There were moments when I wondered if it was all a bit familiar, but I enjoyed it and would recommend it as a good escapist novel.

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If you are looking to try a different take on mystery, All That’s Left Unsaid is a great book to start. It has the right amount of mystery and emotion to get you invested and keep you intrigued until the very end.

Synopsis

Just let him go. These are the words Ky Tran will forever regret. The words she spoke when her parents called to ask if they should let her younger brother Denny out to celebrate his high school graduation with friends. That night, Denny–optimistic, guileless, brilliant Denny–is brutally murdered inside a busy restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, a refugee enclave facing violent crime, an indifferent police force, and the worst heroin epidemic in Australian history.

Returning home to Cabramatta for the funeral, Ky learns that the police are stumped by Denny’s case: a dozen people were at Lucky 8 restaurant when Denny died, but each of the bystanders claim to have seen nothing.

Desperately hoping that understanding what happened might ease her suffocating guilt, Ky sets aside her grief and determines to track down the witnesses herself. With each encounter, she peels back another layer of the place that shaped her and Denny, exposing the seeds of violence that were planted well before that fateful celebration dinner: by colonialism, by the war in Vietnam, and by the choices they’ve all made to survive.

My Thoughts:

“You can’t be there for everyone. You can’t be everything to everyone. People will make their own choices, no matter what you do.”

My goodness, this book is beauty and heartbreak, brilliantly put together. It will hold a special place in my heart. All That’s Left Unsaid is quite close to me, not because Ky will lose a brother. I’ve never felt such loss and I hope to never feel it. But Ky speaks to me because of who she is and where she comes from. Being an immigrant myself, I could connect with Ky’s story in a way that I didn’t anticipate I would. I’ve read many books with this topic before, and didn’t quite click with a character in a way I clicked with Ky. The culture differences and the lost sense of belonging casts a shadow on every written page.

“When I’m away from Cabra, I feel like I’ve shed my own skin. But whenever I come back here, it’s like I didn’t shed anything at all. It’s like I’ve just flipped a switch, you know? And my old self was there all along.”

I devoured this book, because it entwined these motives into an interesting and emotional mystery. Ky is trying to find out who her brother has become in her absence from home. And why he is now suddenly dead. Everyone is keeping secrets and Ky is not sure who to trust.

“It wasn’t the punishment itself that Ky feared. It was the look. The look that said, I expected more from you. I’m disappointed in you. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

I also enjoyed how her past friendship ends up having a role in her present life. The author can portray broken relationships in a very relatable way. Drug abuse and drug dealing are a main topic in this book and they often come up – so please be aware if this may trigger you whilst reading.

“Would an explanation of why something was not done in the past make you feel better? Because if it would change your life for the better and put happiness in your heart, pull up a chair and I will explain everything I have never done.”

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Thank you Netgalley for giving me chance to read this wonderful book.

All that's Left Unsaid is set within the Vietnamese community in Australia. The book follows Ky as she attempts to find out the truth behind her brothers murder whilst exploring people and places from her past.

This book was well written and I could feel the family's sense of loss from different perspectives. Highly recommended

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Wow! What a debut this is.

The book starts with the brutal murder of Denny. When his sister, Ky, returns from Melbourne for his funeral she finds her parents in denial, friends and family closing rank and claiming that they saw nothing, and an all white police force that have little to no interest in the affairs of the Vietnamese-Australian community in Cabramatta during a heroin epidemic. Unable to accept not knowing, Ky, a journalist, takes it into her own hands and pushes to find the truth.

Extremely powerful and touching, the book is a depiction of the difficulties faced by the immigrant Vietnamese community, and the racism and stereotyping they faced when forced to leave their home during the Vietnam war. The book cleverly depicts the different pressures experienced by the different generations, and how intergenerational trauma is carried forward, affecting behaviours for generations to come.

I had no idea of the heroin epidemic in the 1990s (based on true events) and the writing is uncomfortable and forces you to consider your own biases and beliefs. I couldn't put this down and finished it in less than 24 hours. It broke my heart and made me feel angry and sad. The writing was provocative and powerful, covering sensitive subjects with understanding and empathy.

A writer to watch and I will definitely be keeping my eye out for future releases.

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All That's Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien is a very compelling read. It did take me a little bit to get into it initially but then when I did, I had trouble putting it down.

The story was deeply disturbing due to the nature of her brothers death and you knew there wasn't going to be a happy ending, but somehow the author managed to capture some hope at the end.

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Found this book so painfully sad. "Just let him go" Ky said to her parents about her brother Denny going out for a meal with his friends at Lucky 8, after his formal at school. She never knew he would be brutally murdered there
It's a book about refugees, racism, broken families, drug addiction, friendship, grief and so much more

"because what do the living do but carry the weight of the dead?"

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Thanks to Tracey Lien, the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

This was a book slightly different to my typical reads and was far more emotive and complexed. It was a difficult read which on the surface is a murder mystery, but has the added complexities of immigration and intergenerational relationships. An interesting read.

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"All that's left unsaid" was a page turner and fuelled my curiosity from the first page. Ky (pronounced 'key') is the female protagonist, investigating the brutal and shocking murder of her younger brother Denny (a straight A student and University hopeful) on the day of his High School graduation. Denny got through school without even a bad grade against his name, so why would anyone want to kill him? With no suspects and no motive, Ky turns to the witnesses for answers and yet everyone stays quiet, only the sheepish excuse of "we didnt see anything" on everyone's lips. With the police ready to close the case, Ky has to take matters into her own hands to bring Denny's killers to justice but will she unearth more than she bargained for in the process?

A murder mystery set against a cultural political backdrop highlighting the trauma and experience of being a Vietnamese-Australian refugee in 90s Australia, this was a strong debut. I found myself getting invested in the story, often not even realising that the mystery itself was not the only aspect that captures attention but every individual character had their own unique experience to share with the reader and it was fascinating, and often tragic, real and raw. My only reason for knocking the star off is I felt the connection and link between the two themes in the book was off, I did not buy the correlation and when the conclusion was drawn, the execution felt like it missed the mark for me. It was still worth the read though and I would recommend it to readers who love thrillers! Thank you @NetGalley and @HQStories for the advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

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A bleak narrative of friendship and family in a community experiencing a heroin epidemic. Uncompromisingly bleak, but compelling and very interesting.

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This book is so beautifully written and made me really quite emotional as I was reading it. It follows a woman as she comes home to grieve, and to find out what happened the night her younger brother was killed. I very quickly got engrossed in this book and could really feel the pain of the family throughout this novel, it was incredibly moving and I felt like I was reading about real people. This is one of those books that gets under your skin and it feels like it will stay with me for a long time to come. I highly recommend this one.

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This is a beautifully written book which addresses themes of immigrant discrimination and difficulty in assimilating into a new host country through different generations. The writing is descriptive and evocative, conjuring up the setting and characters with depth and honesty.

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*All That’s Left Unsaid* by Tracey Lien is an inter-generational family drama about the sudden and seemingly out-of-the-blue murder of a young man — a son, a brother, and a friend — and his older sister’s desperate mission to find the truth of what happened, even though everyone present in the busy restaurant that night claims not to have seen anything. The premise immediately reminded me of the excellent *Everything I Never Told You* and I felt vindicated when I saw that Celeste Ng blurbed this book. They share stories that are about a sudden and mysterious death of a teenager but are *really* about immigrant communities in xenophobic countries.

This book also looks at the intersections of a refugee group confronting a xenophobic post-colonial mainstream culture with drugs and abuse. The subject matter is heavy and the characters are all put through the wringer, so consider yourself warned. Drug addiction and its varying effects on people in its wake are a continuing thread through the story and Lien makes sure to add nuance to this difficult subject. It also sheds light on why many of the characters involved in the story and the mysterious death of the main character’s brother are reluctant to be forthcoming with any witness testimony. In the end, the reader does become enlightened about the mysterious and tragic death of Denny, but it is hard to say that this knowledge feels satisfying. It made the tragedy even sadder to me, but I think this is the point of the story. Tragedies happen and there is not always a satisfying reason for them. But the true tragedy in this story is the generational trauma, xenophobia, and drug addictions that made the mysterious death of Denny possible in the first place.

I have been slowly starting to read more books set in Australia, as it seems Australian authors are not well-represented in the bookshelves of British booksellers. *All That’s Left Unsaid* has joined *Moonlight and the Pearler’s Daughter*, *Feeling Sorry for Celia*, and *Three Wishes*, as one of my favorite stories set in Australia. *All That’s Left Unsaid* has a layer that much other coverage of Australia lacks: grappling with Australia’s colonial past and how it affects its current citizens and residents. I would like to expand my Australian literacy further in the future, and more Tracey Lien will certainly be on my list.

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Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This was an intriguing look into the experience of Vietnamese immigrants in Australia, and the racism and prejudice one family experiences after their son is killed and their daughter attempts to get to the bottom of what happened. It also touches on the complexities of family, friendship and relationships with the community as well as death, grief and injustice. Fans of Celeste Ng and Liane Moriarty should like this book.

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All That's Left Unsaid is a phenomenally unpredictable thriller from start to finish. Filled to the brim with twists and a captivating plot, this one is sure to keep readers hooked. The characters are well-developed. The story is incredibly fast-paced. This is one not to be missed! Highly recommended! Be sure to check out All That's Left Unsaid today.

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I found this quite a difficult book to read, it is well written and the characters are interesting , but it somehow seemed a bit dark and overwhelming. It is a murder mystery and does well in that category but it is also an insight into Vietnamese immigrants in Australia and that side felt more like a documentary. Quite a few characters were introduced to the narrative and then we just didn’t hear any more about them. The ending was good and followed a believable path but I didn’t really enjoy the read.

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Thank you NetGalley and publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I devoured this book, I genuinely didn’t want to put it down. Personally the writing style suited me and flowed easily, making the story a quick read.

I will be looking forward to the authors next release.

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I enjoyed this book mainly because it covered places and themes that I knew nothing about. Is it in my top ten for 2022 - probably not. The writing was well done and I like the characterisation too. It just didn't grab me - it was quite gentle considering the themes it covered.

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