Little Fires Everywhere
Celeste Ng
Shaker Heights is the ideal place to live in Ohio. The town, from the very beginning, has always
been planned out. So has the course of its citizens’ lives. But there was no way Elena
Richardson, paradigm of this town’s ideals, could’ve planned this.
The Richardson family is relatively well off. The father, Bill is a lawyer and the mother, Elena: a
journalist. Together, Bill and Elena have 4 kids: Lexie (HS senior), Trip (HS junior), Moody (HS
sophomore), and Izzy (HS freshman). Elena has a good relationship with all of her kids, except
Izzy, who’s the black sheep of the family.
Their lives change when Mia Warren, an enigmatic artist, becomes a tenant in a house owned by
Elena. Eventually, Moody takes a liking to Pearl, Mia’s 15-year-old daughter, and the two
families’ lives become intertwined as Mia is offered a job working for them. But something is off
about Mia, Elena notes. Something that comes to the surface as a vicious custody battle erupts in
this idyllic town over a Chinese-American baby, straining ties between Mia and Elena.
And Elena is determined to find out what, whatever the cost may be. Even if everything burns to
the ground.
I finished this book in one sitting. It was amazingly well-crafted, and Ng’s prose is once again a
hit for me. I loved the themes about family and motherhood in this book and was intrigued by the
side plot about May Ling (the baby). Mia’s character was so complex, and while I didn’t
necessarily support her all the way through, her backstory was so interesting. (I loved the
flashback chapters). Same with Elena’s character. She’s not exactly a good person, but Ng has a
way of making the reader feel for her. The pacing in this book was great, and it was an extremely
thought-provoking read. I would encourage fans of books centered around family dramas to read
this. 5/5.