Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Goodreads

Pages: 338

Publication Date: September 12th, 2017

Genre: Contemporary, Fiction

I really enjoyed this book and I don't typically like contemporaries, but this book has a lot for it. Spoilers below.

It starts out in the idyllic, progressively, meticulously planned community of Shaker Heights. Imagine upper-middle class White America, but all Democrats. They know where they are going and what they want out of life. This is the Richardson's. Mrs. Richardson is a journalist, Mr. Richardson is a lawyer and they have 4 kids. 2 boys and 2 girls, the All-American family. They are drawn to the Warrens. Mia is a single mom for Pearl and has a mysterious past. There is a custody battle between the McCulloughs (Richardson's friend) and Bebe (Mia's friend). Bebe left her baby years ago at a fire station (legal with safe haven laws) and now she wants her baby back. Mia and Richardsons are on opposite sides of the custody battle.

I liked the relationships between Mrs. Richardson and her kids, Mia and the Richardsons, and all the other relationships that drove the story. Every character got a fair amount of development and I could relate and understand their motivations. The town and everything was vivid and I felt like I was a part of the town watching in on everyone. I can see this whole book as a miniseries. I also liked how they questioned the McCullough's on their ability to raise a Chinese baby with respect to her heritage. The unfortunately obtuse McCullough's made comments about picking a panda bear, going to a Chinese restaurant and feeding her rice as how they are raising her in respect to her heritage. I'm sure you can see everything wrong with these statements. They can buy her all the toys in the world and send her to the best schools though. I don't think that the McCullough's are bad people, they are going to raise that kid well and love her with all their heart but they seemed very sheltered and honestly saw nothing wrong with their comments.

My own complaint was Lexie using Pearl's name at the abortion clinic. That wouldn't happen, Pearl would not let that occur no matter how quiet she was. I also wish Mrs. Richardson realized that it was her daughter too, not poor Pearl.

Izzie was probably my favourite character, the most liberal and showing the most independence. I wonder if she was the way she was because of Mrs. Richardson or if Mrs. Richardson treated Izzie because she was that way.

The book brought up interesting moral dilemmas that I hadn't thought of yet. If someone comes out of the woodwork after giving up their kid should they get the kid back? It's hard to say, what is right and what's wrong. Surrogate mothers rights.

5/5

I think this book did a great job to show that you can make a great story with good characters and a strong family dynamics. It explores a lot of complex issues in a raw way. It's a quick read and it's really, really good. I highly recommend it!

Cheers,

Jen