Little Fires Everywhere
Ratings602
Average rating4
I cannot say enough good things about this book. It deserves all the accolades it's received. I was so-so on Ng's first novel (Everything I knew Told you) but this one is much richer, complex, and nuanced. Mia is such a complete and well imagined character-it is extremely difficult to describe a visual artist and their work but Ng has succeeded here so well that I could actually see in my mind the collage pieces that Mia created. Each of the characters- all five teenagers and all four mothers were richly drawn so that we understood their motivations, their fears, their flaws, what it would feel like to be them. Bel Canto remains my favorite book of all time but this one has taken slot #2. And as a writer, I was also intrigued by how many “rules” she broke - no back story? This book is over 300 pages long and only the first and last chapters (approximately 17 pages) are NOT the story of what happened in the past. There's head hopping, there's tons of adjectives and “ing” words and yet - and yet- I could not stop reading and I never wanted it to be over.
I thought Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ainge, was an incredible story, both in plot and character development. Elena Richardson and her family live in Shaker Heights, pretty much a utopia community with perfectly manicured lawns and a tree in front of every house. Mia Warren, an eccentric artist, and her teenage daughter become tenants in the Richardsons' rental home, bringing with them a mysterious past and alluring the Richardson children. Trouble erupts when a friend of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese baby and a custody battle ensues, putting Mia and the Richardsons on opposite sides. Mrs. Richardson becomes determined to uncover Mia's secret past, with dire consequences for both families.
I thought the characters were very believable and well-developed. They seemed to react to situations in ways I felt like a lot of people might have reacted.
I listened to the audiobook, and I thought Jennifer Lim did an excellent job at narrating the story. She used different voices for all of the characters, in particular, softening her voice when reading Mia and using a firmer tone for that of Mrs. Richardson. She also read the Chinese accent for one of the characters very convincingly. I thought her voice was perfect for this book and she was very pleasant to listen to. She kept up a good pace throughout the story, without reading so quickly that I couldn't grasp the plot. I had no trouble hearing soft voices, and the sound quality was perfect; there was no background noise or latency that I could hear.
Overall I thought this was an excellent story with fantastic narration. Jennifer Lim complimented the book really well. I always looked forward to reading it, and I was both thrilled and sad when it ended: thrilled that I finally got to find out what happened, and sad that this particular experience was over. I would recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting story with an excellent plot and plenty of twists to keep them guessing.
Title: Little Fires Everywhere
Author: Celeste Ainge
Narrator: Jennifer Lim
Publisher: Penguin Audio 2017 (Unabridged)
Length: 11 hours, 27 minutes
I've been waiting for Ng to write another book after reading Everything I Never Told You. In my opinion this book isn't as good, but it is still another great story. Ng is an outstanding, talented writer! In both of her books every character is so well defined, and her stories stay with you long after you are done reading.
Something which I normally wouldn't choose for myself and was definitely pleasantly surprised. It was a really good exploration of race and class through the fictional town of Shakers Heights.
The whole book was very character focussed and revolved around different perspectives of motherhood and the weight of secrets.
Would consider reading again.
I can't give this book enough stars. I didn't know what to expect going in, except an interesting story. I didn't even know what it was about. But I loved every page. The way characters' stories are interwoven, complex, and layered reminds me of a tapestry. The way Ng weaves so many threads together, countless threads, is masterful. Both metaphorically and narratively, it could be enough to make your head spin, but Ng gently guides you to realizations, emotions, challenges, and, of course, plot lines.
Little Fires Everywhere is about family: what a family is, what a family looks like, and what a family means. There is no main character you follow really, but Mia Warren may be a center point. She is an artist and a vagabond with her daughter Pearl. They live somewhere for a while, Mia works on her art, and when the inspiration dries up, they move on. Now, they've slightly settled in Shaker Heights and the story unfolds with the members of different families intertwining.
I found this book beautiful in many ways. It made me emotional and even burst out crying. Knowing less about a book before reading it is my preference, so I truly don't want to say much more. I would love to re-read it some day, and I can't wait to read Ng's other work.
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This is a genre I tend to avoid because real life-adjacent stories are not usually engaging enough for me, but the hype around this novel a few years ago was intense, and I was landed with a copy through no fault of my own. I am currently making my way through a long progression fantasy series, and needed a breather, so I decided to just read this as a break.
Right off the bat: I really did enjoy this, despite my preconceptions of the genre. I was pretty much hooked from the start, and finished in two days. The characters are well written, with complex emotional worlds, and histories in which they can be interpreted as both good and bad people. They are in the grey-zone in between, and that is refreshing.
I had a look online to see how much $10,000 USD in 1982 would be worth now in 2024, and the sum is about $32,500 USD (??25,600 GBP). I personally would not volunteer to carry a child for someone and birth it for even ten times that amount, and that's because I don't think permanent changes to my body are something I could put a price on like that. I am not sure if this is meant to show Mia's sheer desperation or whether the author thinks that is a reasonable, believable amount for a surrogate pregnancy.
note: I did just Google it, and the prices do appear to start at $35,000 for surrogacy in the USA, and about ??10,000 in the UK. I find this unbelievably cheap.
3.5, I actually ended up like this a lot more than I thought but it took about 30% of the book for anything to happen because there was so much detail going into the setting. I liked that she told from different POV's but was very clear and it was easy to follow.
Lu après avoir vu la série. Au début, j'ai eu dû mal à accrocher car je me souvenais de la fin et puis le style de Celeste Ng m'a embarqué dans son style élégant sur les thèmes de la maternité et du racisme dans un suburb typiquement américain des années 1990s.
I spent the last third of this book tearing up and calming down and tearing up and calming down and then just tearing up until the last page which did make me just cry. Incredible prose, incredible characters, incredible emotion. Themes of motherhood, racial and class boundaries and what it takes to maintain them without ever actually putting a physical gate up, of judgement and hatred masquerading as love, as regret and hope, of art and love; Ng just does not stop with the punches. My god. If this has been on your list, you have to read it today. YESTERDAY!!
3.5/5
It was a good book just not anything special. One thing that bothered me was how they would introduce a conflict and then tell the reader the outcome before even explaining what happened during it, like they killed any suspense that could've been there. Overall, I enjoyed it though, just wasn't super memorable tbh.
A wonderful slice-of-life book that spends a good amount slowly setting up the scene in order to break it apart into polaroid-like fragments. It's a metaphor for how the book itself is written: with one perspective, then others building atop each other in a mishmash of a collage. No one will ever truly be aware of how one photograph connects to the other, not even the one who put them together. Having to be at peace with not receiving closure in the ways one would want.
The writing style reminded me of what you might find in a fictional memoir. The characters were all alive, even if nothing was centred on them (as in, the side characters were breathing too). Everyone is a grey area, everyone has their reasons and a lot are justified and a lot aren't, including the darker side of their decisions. There were a lot of parts that spoke to me; I appreciated the subtlety but blunt refusal to relent with which a lot of “small town” micro-aggressions were written. Nothing about this didn't feel real, and that's so rare to find with literature in general.
Part of me almost wanted the little fires to be caused by something or someone else. But in a way, the “culprit” being given away early, and the rest of the novel more so exploring what that means, is more fitting of the narrative. Another metaphor as to how some of us get tightly closed up with our fear and others set a literal match to it to start over. Still, I would definitely recommend this novel to others and also re-read it, which is a rare thing for me to say.
I feel a little ambivalent about this one. I'd give it 3.5 stars. While I enjoyed it and there were a couple really good storylines, without giving anything away, I wasn't sure I'd agree with who the author chose as the moral compass of the story. I ended up not liking most of the characters.
5:
Although I'm not quite sure this is in fact my favorite out of the very few books I've read this year, it was the one that accompanied me through the hardest period of my life this year, it brought my mind to less grief-stricken places, and helped me tackle my months-long reading slump; for that I'm very thankful.
As for the story itself, oh man. At this point it's been months, and I'm still not 100% sure about how I feel regarding the baby's storyline outcome! I loved that it got me thinking; I've seen reviews and some feel that Celeste was spoon-feeding a certain stance, but to me it did not feel that way.
I did have my suspicions regarding Elena from the very beginning, though, because to me she seemed very white-savioury. And I was right, what a raging bitch. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's self righteous hypocrites. I was full of schadenfreude, dying to see her reaction to the pregnancy issue, but oh well.
I wish she'd fleshed out some of the characters a bit more. Especially the Richardson children, or at the very least she could elaborate on Chip some more. With such a ridiculous name there had to be SOMETHING to him, for Pearl to like him that much. I also wasn't crazy about the ending, I wish Izzy hadn't been left all on her own, my girl did not deserve that. In my heart I know she and Pearl and Mia reunited, and became a family.
Overall I'm happy I read this! Celeste's writing is enrapturing, I can't wait to read her other stories!
3.5 enjoyed this! easy read to start off the holidays with. didn???t feel wholly connected to any of the characters which made it a bit more of a ??_(???)_/?? situation than i???d liked in the end.
Exceptionally beautiful, expertly twined together. A gorgeous story that I was hesitant to read, foolishly fearing that it would be yet another case of an uncomfortable domestic situation poorly rendered. It was not. Everyone in this book meant something, and Ng treats them like that, allowing us to understand every single person in this book, to hear their thoughts and motivations, and to treat them like people.
Brilliant plot, brilliant characters, painful and powerful, oh my god.
2.5
i think i went into this book expecting something else. i liked the plot with the baby and the chapters about Mia and her past and i wish there was more of that. instead the book focused on the kids hanging around and it was just slow and boring to me. it had very important themes but the way it was done and written wasnt my favourite, i just wanted more of that and less of kids dating and talking abt nothing.
3.5/5 stars
There were moments when I thought this book was absolutely phenomenal. This is definitely a book that creates a lot of intriguing and debatable discussion on ethics, race, and motherhood. It really paints a picture that life and situations aren't strictly black-and-white but a very, very messy shade of gray.
However, the writing and the constant time jumps got annoying to me after while and I found myself kinda just ready for everything to wrap up.
I've been on a literary fiction roll this month and I think I will definitely be reading more literary fiction in 2022.
I knew of this book, but I didn't really know about this book. I am oh so glad I decided to check it out.
What a great story. The book touches several hot topics about growing up, and sexuality, and family and lies. I would recommend to everyone. It's just a great story.
I'm still feeling pretty mixed about Little Fires Everywhere as I write this review. I enjoyed it, definitely so that means it gets 4 stars. I have a sort of love for slow moving books about family dynamics so that checked a lot of boxes for me.
There are some emotional situations in this book that really get you thinking and as a woman who hopes to adopt in the future, they really hit home. But I don't necessarily side with the adopters or the birth mothers in this book. This book shows a true emotional account about how these things are rarely black and white and I really appreciate it.
My one upset from this book? I wish we got some more of Izzy right at the end. But I do understand the emotional power of leaving the book with Mrs. Richardson and her thoughts about Izzy instead.
This book just didn't do anything for me. None of the characters felt real to me, the only character I felt anything for was Bebe and that's the only reason I found the ending satisfying in any way. Not much else to say.