An interesting perspective on family - both blood and found - and the loyalty felt to culture and kin. I most enjoyed the storytelling from multiple points of view and the supporting stories of Jackie and Shanda that shone a light on Pete and Ditra’s narratives. Well- written and thoughtful. My only wish was that we had seen a bit more of Pete’s tale at the end.

Family. We love each other and yet harm each other. We need each other and avoid each other. Sometimes family is connected by blood, while other families are connected by love. We inherit families and we create families.

Adopted twins Drita and Pete loved each other as children. They were nothing alike. Drita was driven to succeed and saw Pete as a perpetual loser, always making stupid choices. When he married the girlfriend he impregnated, Drita was through with helping her brother. They went their separate ways.

Then, Pete’s wife Shandra and her son Dakota show up at Drita’s door. Pete has cleared off. Drita takes them in,but decides to find Pete, searching online. Can she change Dakota’s life for the better? Will Shandra keep of the drugs that brought relief from her painful childhood? Or can Pete stay sober?

Drita’s quest ro find Pete alters all their lives.

The twins grew up knowing they were Albanian, but knew little of their heritage. Pete’s journey leads him to connect with American Albanians deeply connected to their homeland, now under war. He wants to join the effort, as a way of finding community.

As Drita follows Pete’s trail, she also learns about her people and forges an unexpected relationship.

Alternating chapters reveal the twins’ and their adopted mother’s backstory, revealing an startling truth.

With strong and interesting characters and insights into Albanian history and culture, I enjoyed this read.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

This one was a bit slow for me. Very character driven but it just never did grab me. Not bad. Just alright.

The following is a review from an editor for Condé Nast Traveler's Women Who Travel Book Club: In Everybody Says It’s Everything, adopted twins Drita and Petrit seemingly have nothing in common, yet are bound together by a shared childhood and familial ties. Author Xhenet Aliu unravels the twins’ story from both of their perspectives with each chapter taking on a new voice. Drita and Petrit (aka Pete) grew up in the '90s in Connecticut as two Albanian children who were adopted young. By the time they are teenagers, they set off on divergent paths—Drita attending college and pursuing a career as a nurse close to home and Pete running away from home to start a new family. It is now 1999 and the war in Kosovo is raging. Drita, unlike Pete, can’t quit the curiosity to find her brother and pursues a quest to learn more about their Albanian roots and the story of their adoption. Along the way, we discover that Drita and Pete are more alike than they think. They are bound by a hunger for answers about their family, identity, and belonging—their approaches to finding these answers just happen to be different.

I can see that this is a well written novel and that it sets out to do what the author intended. I, however, did not enjoy this novel. I did think the secret was an interesting one, but I just did not care for any of the characters or what they were doing.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I thought the writing was wonderful; there was a poetic feeling to it without it feeling heavy or too wordy. However, the overall plot was a little lacking, I felt like I wanted a little more to happen to keep carrying the story along. Overall it was a nice story about family and belonging and the struggles we all feel in those areas.

This was a beautifully written book about family, specifically relationships between siblings and secrets between parents and children. I loved the dynamic between the sister Drita and her brothers girlfriend Shanda. Really loved the 90s flashbacks to roller skating rinks and the dawn of chat rooms. I haven’t read a book that centered around Albania / Kosovo and the war with Serbia. Overall, enjoyed this one!

The title gave a hint for my thoughts about this book. It’s trying to be everything but by spreading itself thin, misses the mark. Told from multiple POVs, the switching back and forth distracts rather than adds here. And, the plot suffers as a result.

I don't read a lot of literary fiction these days (the world is depressing enough), but I make exceptions for certain authors. Xhenet Aliu is one of them, and if you liked her novel Brass (like I did), I think you'll like this one, too. I think I liked this even more than I liked Brass, maybe because I line up fairly closely in age to the main protagonist and appreciated some of the nostalgia of the story mostly taking place in 1999. Drita is a nurse who left her life in New York City to return to her hometown of Waterbury, Connecticut to care for her adoptive mother, Jackie. She's resentful and stuck and struggling, and then one day her brother's partner and their son show up in her life, needing her help. Drita is Albanian by birth, as is her twin brother Pete (Petrit), who left his partner and kid in Arizona and hasn't been around since. By chance, she finds out that Pete is in New York, working for a roofing company and involved in US-based efforts to support ethnic Albanians fighting in the Kosova Liberation Army. She gets into an early internet email exchange with the person leading the movement in the Bronx, and tries to find out what's going on with Pete in an effort to get him to come back home and take care of his kid. The novel alternates between focusing on Drita, Pete, their adoptive mother Jackie, and Shanda (Pete's partner and the mother of his baby). While it mostly takes place in 1999, there are a few detours to earlier points in each character's life. There's a lot of trauma here - child abuse and neglect, substance abuse, war and other related violence, and more - but somehow at the end I did feel a glimmer of hope. That's usually what I'm after in a family saga, so I was satisfied with this one.

“Everybody Says it’s Everything” is by Xhenet Aliu. This book follows twins Drita and Pete, Albanian by birth but after their adoption raised in Connecticut. Although they grew up together, the two kids are very different and over time their life paths take them in different directions. This book is told in various points of view - the major being those of Drita and Pete, but their adoptive mother Jackie and Pete’s girlfriend, Shanda, also have their own chapters. My one comment is that I didn’t find all of this book interesting. The author’s information about the Albanian/Serbian conflict (something I know very little about) I found interesting, but the writing style wasn’t my favorite. While I understood the time jumps (80s to 90s to present day), at times I’d have to refresh my memory about which time period it was - which happen more when I’d put the book down for a bit. This wasn’t the book for me, but if complex family relationships are something you enjoy, this might be of interest to you.

A well-written, emotional and riveting story about two siblings who reach adulthood and are following completely different paths.

The book is told in four different voices; Drita, her twin brother Petrit (Pete), their adopted mother Jackie and Pete's girlfriend Shanda. Drita and Pete feel tied together not just by genetics but by the Albanian heritage that was never explored growing up in an Italian-American family. Set in the 1990s against the backdrop of the Kosovo war, Drita has hit a dead end after dropping out of her school to return home and take care of her mother and Pete is on the run after leaving Shanda and his son Dakota with nothing more than a note.

I enjoyed some of the storylines more than others. Jackie's was particularly interesting and shows how misunderstood parents can be by their children but also the lengths parents go to- and the mistakes they make along the way.

Drita's storyline with Shanda and Dakota, a child is very special and unique, was really touching and the real heart of the novel. I was less engaged in Pete's storyline but perhaps that's because Pete was the least likeable of the characters, though I understand he had his reasons. What was relatable was Pete himself, in that everyone has a family member like Pete who they want save even when they refuse to save themselves.

At less than 300 pages, this book expertly tackles themes of complex familial relationships, cultural identity and belonging. The characters and the dialogue was very raw and real. The title of the book is taken from a passage where one character notes that she isn't someone's blood relative.

'That's just, like, a matter of blood. What does that have to do with anything?'

'Pete always said it was everything. Everybody says it's everything.'

The takeaway: Family is about more than blood.

I found the exploration of Drita and Pete's Albanian identity very compelling and informative- one of my reading goals this year is to diversify my reads and I feel this book was a good example of the books I am hoping to read more of in 2025. Thank you Netgalley and Random House Publishing for an earc in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was a dnf for me. I couldn’t get into the story and it felt a bit all over the place with the storytelling. I’m sure others would connect with it more but I just couldn’t get into it.

Thanks to NetGalley & Random House Publishing Group for providing me an e-ARC!

**2.5 stars** This is my first Xhenet Aliu book I read and am intrigued to read more. I do appreciate the perspective on having a multicultural identity crisis but there was something lacking.

The story follow adopted twins, Drita and Pete of Albanian heritage navigating their separate lives. Now in their twenties, Drita, having been the star pupil and the family’s ideal daughter puts her future at pause to care for her mother while Pete has a son with his now-separated partner, struggle with an identity crisis having been adopted by Italian parents. Drita helps Pete’s ex, Shanda find Pete after he disappears, abandoning his son.

Having a huge interest in multicultural families, this premise sounded very interesting. But from the beginning, there lacked any information of the family dynamics. The novel barely explores the nuances of the twins' upbringing within the adoptive family. We get glimpses of their childhood, but the dynamics within the family remain largely unexplored

The writing style did not help clarify the family dynamic. The dialogue sounded very juvenile for characters in the twenties. The lack of detailed physical descriptions also made it difficult to fully visualize and connect with the characters. I found Pete's perspective more engaging than Drita's. His struggle to find his place in the world, torn between his adopted identity and his Albanian heritage, will resonate with a lot of readers.

While the writing was not my favorite, the core concept of exploring the complexities of identity and belonging is interesting to read about. This wasn’t my favorite read but I am curious by this author’s other works.

Interesting and surprising in places, with all characters. Jackie’s backstory was simultaneously matter of fact and compelling

Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review

This was such an interesting story of family as two siblings learn secret about their family. Hope to read more from this author in the future!

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

An adopted brother and sister navigate challenges as young adults. Information from their unknown pasts comes to life.

I loved this multi-POV story of what it means to be family. How do we define success? How does our understanding of family shape who we are? Where should our loyalties lie? Aliu has beautiful writing that kept me enticed. Some of the characters needed a bit more depth, but an enjoyable story overall with good points to think about.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book! The twin aspect was fascinating and very well done. I look forward to reading more by this author in the future.

This was an absolutely beautiful story of family and family ties, all the ways that we are tied to our families in ways good and bad. The subject matter is very relatable as we all have certain familial relationships that have try and test us, and tie us together all the same. All of us have certain family members that complicate things, maybe some of us even are that person. This was a very personable and relatable story, it felt very realistic and it's strongest parts were it's characterizations. The character work was impeccable here, the dialogue was the best part about this because it was so raw and unflinching and honest, it really cuts thru all the exterior. bullshit and gets right to the heart of the matter.

This was readable, and engaging but it was not the most unique book I've ever read, even with it's ethnic elements I still felt the sensation of having read similar books before, but that did not make this any less readable. It never bored me which is major, the pacing was steadfast throughout and for that I gave it 4 stars because of its enjoyability factor. The writing seemed at times to think it was smarter than it is, but for some that type of pontificating works, but for me I had to detract a star.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange of an honest review. I had difficulty staying focused on the characters. There seemed to be too much jumping around, and it left me feeling like I couldn't get interested in either the story or the characters. There was a strange undertone throughout the book that I can't put my finger on. The twins started out to be interesting, but then reverted to being about Pete's drug abuse and criminal history, and Drita's interaction with Pete's son and his mother. Then, jumps to their adopted mother, Jackie. This book was not one that I can recommend, as I had difficulty finishing it.