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wordsofclover 's review for:
Little Fires Everywhere
by Celeste Ng
In Shaker Heights, planning is everything. And Elena Richardson has everything in her life planned out from her college boyfriend turned husband to her four (almost) perfect children. Everything turns upside down for Elena when artist Mia and her teenage daughter Pearl arrive to rent out her apartment. Soon, thanks to Mia, the community is involved in a paternity battle involving a fostered baby and her Chinese mother, and everything perfect is beginning to burn up in the flames.
This book is set in the 90s I think which I quite liked but also kept forgetting until I realised no-one seemed to be using modern technology. I wasn't sure why the author decided to have it set in the past, but I did like some of the points brought up about the importance of identity, heritage and seeing yourself reflected back to you in your surroundings - and how, 20 years later, we are still having the same conversation. Things are better but not perfect!
Little Fires Everywhere is a book I flew through but I wouldn't say it's a book I actively enjoyed. I had a lot of conflicting feelings about what was going on in this book and the conversation and opinions expressed by characters. There's a lot of gray areas here about the rights a mother has to her child but also a really great discussion into what makes a parent? Does it all come down to blood and biology or should it be more than that - the ability to provide for a child and raise it in a home where it will want for nothing.
I didn't like any of the characters in this book but I don't think I was suppose to. Even Mia, I found a little bit self-righteous and I struggled with some of the decisions she made that seemed to mess with people's lives - in the past and in the present. Elena Richardson was definitely a bit of a 'Karen' character all round. The teenagers in this did my head in a bit too be honest - mostly Izzy - but I'm not sure if this was the fault of the book or just the media I'm consuming this week which seemed to be full of stroppy teenagers (Sweet Magnolias on Netflix!).
The writing did grip me and I found this book really easy to read, and I liked that it made me think a lot and challenge myself with some of my initial thoughts I had from the start of the book to the end,
This book is set in the 90s I think which I quite liked but also kept forgetting until I realised no-one seemed to be using modern technology. I wasn't sure why the author decided to have it set in the past, but I did like some of the points brought up about the importance of identity, heritage and seeing yourself reflected back to you in your surroundings - and how, 20 years later, we are still having the same conversation. Things are better but not perfect!
Little Fires Everywhere is a book I flew through but I wouldn't say it's a book I actively enjoyed. I had a lot of conflicting feelings about what was going on in this book and the conversation and opinions expressed by characters. There's a lot of gray areas here about the rights a mother has to her child but also a really great discussion into what makes a parent? Does it all come down to blood and biology or should it be more than that - the ability to provide for a child and raise it in a home where it will want for nothing.
I didn't like any of the characters in this book but I don't think I was suppose to. Even Mia, I found a little bit self-righteous and I struggled with some of the decisions she made that seemed to mess with people's lives - in the past and in the present. Elena Richardson was definitely a bit of a 'Karen' character all round. The teenagers in this did my head in a bit too be honest - mostly Izzy - but I'm not sure if this was the fault of the book or just the media I'm consuming this week which seemed to be full of stroppy teenagers (Sweet Magnolias on Netflix!).
The writing did grip me and I found this book really easy to read, and I liked that it made me think a lot and challenge myself with some of my initial thoughts I had from the start of the book to the end,