Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Description: ❝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 alluring 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 the Richardsons’ friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town and puts Mia and Mrs. Richardson on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Mrs. Richardson becomes determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs to her own family – and Mia’s.

Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of long-held secrets and the ferocious pull of motherhood-and the danger of believing that planning and following the rules can avert disaster, or heartbreak. ❞ (end of description)

REVIEW

What happens when two characters with very different personalities converge? A captivating story.

On one corner we have Elena Richardson, a successful, married reporter with four children who live in a well-to-do neighborhood, she has planned out carefully her life and executed it meticulously.

On the other corner we have Mia Warren, an enigmatic, creative, single artist and her daughter Pearl who at the beginning of the story rented an apartment from Mrs. Richardson.

Soon these two families start interacting and what follows is a journey you have to take by yourself.

The story is told from different points of view and it alternates between the past and present. Celeste Ng (pronounced “ing”) has brilliantly written this book, everything is excellent from the characters to the writing. I have become a fan.

Overall, I loved this book. It is one of the best novels I’ve read.