Review: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Narrarated by Jennifer Lim
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This isn’t typically the type of book I go for, but I really enjoyed it. I picked this up to fill a book challenge prompt for A book from a celebrity book club. Reese Witherspoon's book club picked this and Reese herself has raved about it and her production company is making it into a movie. This would fit several categories for the Popsugar reading challenge.

The book is very character focused, and at the center of everything is Mia. Mia is an artist, she and her daughter Pearl are renting a house from the Richardsons. At the very beginning of the book the Richardson’s house burns down, the fire is set by their youngest daughter Izzy. Izzy has decided to take matters into her own hand and make her family start over, while burning their house down seems to be a bit over the top, as the book unfolds and you see things from her perspective and the way her family acts, it makes sense. I don’t condone burning houses down to get people to see your point or make a change, but the Richardsons were snobby, privileged, and never took Izzy seriously. She wasn’t supported and they didn’t listen to her. They did a lot of things that were wrong because they were the right kind of people, and they didn’t think anything of it. The book then goes back in time to when Mia and Pearl move in and how the entire story is inter-connected.

The story mainly focuses on Mrs. Richardson, Mia, and Pearl and their interactions with the Richardsons. I would have liked more of Izzy, but overall I really liked how each of the characters was developed. You got to know each of their personalities quite well. The world building was pretty good to, Shaker Heights, Ohio is a suburb of Cleveland. It is the right kind of place where the right kind of people live, the Richardsons are the right kind of people. They have money, they went to the right schools, they know the right people, they have nice things. Mia and Pearl are not the right kind of people, they are drifters, never staying in one place for too long. Mia is an artist, only staying in one place until her inspiration has been exhausted. She takes abstract photographs that make her decent money, but she also works odd jobs to make sure she and Pearl have the necessities. They don’t have much, and they thrift shop. They are completely opposite of the Richardsons. Mia rents a house from Mrs.Richardson, and Pearl goes to school with the Richardson children quickly becoming friends with them. She is often at their home spending time with them. On the other hand, the youngest Richardson finds a connection with Mia. Mrs. Richardson and Izzy have a very strained relationship, so for the first time Izzy finds compassion and caring in someone like Mia and they click. She finds inspiration in Mia’s words.

Surrounding the family dynamics of Mia, Pearl, and the Richardsons is and adoption case for a Chinese baby girl. Mia knows the mother from work and the Richardsons are good friends with the couple who has been fostering the girl for months. Bebe, the baby’s birth mother was suffering post partum depression and being por and from China was unaware of support she was able to receive. She doesn’t speak English very well and found it hard to care for her child, so she left the baby at a firestation. The McCulloughs desperately want a baby, after many unsuccessful attempts on their own to start a family, they are this close to adopting the little girl when Bebe shows up wanting her baby back. Mrs. Richardson is not pleased that Mia is involved and supporting Bebe, and starts digging into Mia’s past. Mia has kept plenty of secrets of her own, and she is reluctant for Pearl or anyone to find out about her past.

This book talks about so many issues that face today’s society: parenting, childbirth, adoption, privilege (specifically white privilege), miscarriage, surrogacy, immigration, post partum depression, abortion, and probably other things that I’m forgetting to mention. I really enjoyed the way these topics were discussed especially because some of them hit close to home.


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