✨ A ✨ 's Reviews > Little Fires Everywhere

“Sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground, and start over. After the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow. People are like that, too. They start over. They find a way.”

Shaker Heights is a progressive suburb in Cleveland where everything is planned out. The residents abide by a set of rules that maintain orderliness through their neighbourhood.

Mia Warren, an artist with a mysterious past, and her teenage daughter Pearl arrive in the pristine suburb and decide that Shaker Heights is where they are going to settle after so long moving from place to place.
They rent a house from the Richardsons and soon become more than just tenants. Pearl is quick friends with the Richardson kids and is drawn to this family and their normal life.

Soon a custody battle divides the town as a family friend of the Richardsons attempts to adopt a Chinese-American baby.

Elena Richardson promises to do her best to help her friend. Her suspicions of Mia being involved in the case leads her to invesgate more where she discovers secrets of Mia's past.

“Most of the time, everyone deserves more than one chance. We all do things we regret now and then. You just have to carry them with you.”

I've come to really enjoy books set in the suburbs. They're always so unassuming!

As readers, most of us are attracted to books that take us out of our ordinary lives. Through books we go on adventures, attend magical schools or catch a serial killer before he strikes again. So why in the world would we want to read about mundane people in the suburbs?

But like I said, these books are unassuming and that's the beauty in them. You think you know,, but do you really? Just like in real life. You don't know everything that could be going on in someones life.

At least this is what I feel when I read these kinds of books. The authenticity has me in awe and there's always someone or a situation I can relate to.


The writing was so amazing I cannot even begin to explain. Very clean, straight forward writing that kept me captivated the entire time.

But I think that mostly had to do with the characters. The chapters skipped through multiple POV while the author gives us a deep dive into each character, even side/unimportant characters. It was so interesting and well thought out.

It might sound like a waste of time but I wasn't bored at all. I wanted to know these details. It's crazy to explore the histories of people who seem like they aren't that important to the bigger plot.


Little Fires Everywhere was an examination of things like privilege, race and motherhood.


Celeste Ng wrote the hell out of this book and I can't wait to read more of her work.



Thoughts on audiobook:
The narrator was brilliant. I was kept entertained and engaged. Highly recommend listening to this.

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Pre-Read
I need a distraction from the current state of the world and what's better than reading about the problems of fictional characters?!