Book Review: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

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Synopsis:

Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down.

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principal is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother- who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons.

Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town – and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating cost…

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My Review:

Another book from the backlist. Little Fires Everywhere follows two families, the community they live in and the secrets that they hold.

This is a story about family and secrets. A family secret can make or break you and secrets can be destructive if you misunderstand or misinterpret what has happened.

I did like the backstory of Mia’s character, and how she developed her artistic style however I did find a lot of the characters fell into stereotypes and it bugged me a little. While the way the characters were written irked me, Ng did a fantastic job of writing the mundane family life and filling the silence that happens in those moments.

On the surface, this novel sets out what it intended to. It highlights issues within family dynamics, and this novel raises important questions and debates. However, there are some parts of the novel that fell a little short for me and that’s why I’ve rated it 3 stars.

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