Book Review: Everything Here Is Beautiful

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This is my book review of Everything Here is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee.

‟A tender but unflinching portrayal of the bond between two sisters.” —Celeste Ng

Book Summary:

Miranda and Lucia are two Chinese-American sisters living in New York City. Miranda is the older, more responsible sister. Lucia is the impulsive, unpredictable one who is mentally ill. She begins hearing voices, and it is up to Miranda to reach her when, inevitably, she crashes.

Their mother had asked Miranda to watch over her younger sister before she died. But Lucia is hard to contain and is in bitter conflict with being “managed.”

Mental illness is a treacherous path for loved ones. Family members typically battle with how much to be involved with the caretaking of their sick loved one, and how much to give them free rein.

With or without Miranda stepping in, Lucia continues to be volatile and keeps ending up in mental hospitals.

Then Miranda gets married and moves to Switzerland with her husband, but keeps getting drawn back into Lucia’s relapses.

I truly enjoyed this book, and I applaud anyone dealing with a loved one with mental illness, because it can’t ever be easy.

About the Author:

Mira T. Lee’s debut novel, Everything Here is Beautiful, was selected as an Indies Introduce title (Top 10 Debut for 2018) and Indie Next pick by the American Booksellers Association.

This book was named a Top Winter/2018 Pick by more than 30 news outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, O Magazine, Poets & Writers, New York magazine, Chicago Review of Books, Seattle Times, Buzzfeed, Marie Claire, Real Simple, and Electric Lit, among others.

In her previous lives, Mira has also been known as a graphic designer, a pop-country drummer, a salsa dancing fanatic, and a biology graduate student. Mira is an alum of Stanford University, and currently lives in Cambridge, MA.

She is a graduate of Stanford University, and currently lives with her husband and two young sons in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This is her debut novel.