In Everyone Wants to Know, Kelly Loy Gilbert (When We Were Infinite) delivers a transfixing, provocative narrative about a reality-TV family as they reckon with "mixed-race trauma," generational guilt, the influencer culture, and capitalism.
In her family of brand ambassadors and "momfluencers," Honor Lo, 16, remains relatively unknown. She prefers working on her clay art over upholding her former reality-TV star family's brand: "somehow both relatable and aspirational, the idealized version of the life you always wanted." At least, it was their brand until Honor's parents announced they were separating, and the meticulously curated image of their family began to crumble. Now, when she's not hyper-fixating on celebrity gossip websites, anxiety-ridden Honor is focused on trying to reunite her fractioning family. A guarded boy with his own family issues serves as a good distraction, but as more revelations about the Los surface, Honor gets dragged under.
Gilbert's novel is illuminating, nuanced, and salacious as it astutely explores the complexities of being mixed-race and in the public eye. Honor's "Asianish" (Chinese American and white) family of influencers faces not only backlash from the public, as shown through People magazine articles, and commentary from gossip websites that Gilbert deftly intersperses throughout the narrative, they also wrangle with "rootlessness," pressure to make their ancestors proud, and inauthenticity. All of which Gilbert entwines effortlessly into a scandalous plot that reveals shocking secrets at a fast clip. Everyone Wants to Know revels in its dramatic plot and shrewd examination of toxic, codependent families. --Lana Barnes, freelance reviewer and proofreader