Little Fires Everywhere: Reviews by 2018 Reading Challengers

[Winter, Group Reads]

Tell us what you thought of the book! You can leave your review here. Even if you read the book outside of the group, please feel free to let us know what you thought of it.

Please make sure to mark your spoilers by typing "[spoiler]" at the start and [/spoiler] at the end but replacing the []s with <>s.

[Shanna]

★★★★
This is the kind of story that wraps you up and envelops you into the lives of the characters. I was taken in right from the start. The tangled interconnections amongst the characters made for a good story but required some degree of suspension of believability.

[Catka]

I liked this book very much, for several reasons.
I think Celeste Ng is an excellent writer. She just needs few words or few sentences to describe a place or a feeling and I can see exactly how a place looks or what a person feels or thinks. This also allows her to write with a precise focus about relations in families, between parents and children, especially dysfunctional ones (even though they might not seem that at a first glance).
This book also presented two very interesting moral dilemmas, which I guess are quite common themes for everyone to deal with at one time or another:
1. "What made someone a mother? Was it biology alone, or was it love?” - this was repeated over and over and of course was the main focus of the trial concerning the parentage of May Ling/Mirabelle. At first, I did not want to take a stance in this case, to be honest, but the longer the trial went, the more I was convinced she should actually go to the parents that were able to give her a good chance in life in addition to love. (But I have to say I am not a mother and I cannot even imagine how it feels to give up one's child, so I understand it is a damn difficult choice.) And I actually felt I was manipulated to the other side by the author (view spoiler)[because both of the stories of questionable parentage ended up the other way around. Mia took her daughter who should have belonged to someone else and disappeared and Bebe did the same. I did not feel this was right and I also felt it was presented as the right choice. (hide spoiler)]
Here was also the discussion around the upbringing of a Chinese origin child in a different culture, but I really do not want to go into that. I found it a little strange.
2. The second dilemma, which I have found much more interesting and relevant to me was the choice Mother Robinson and Mia have made about their lives. The choice between following your own passion and leading a comfortable secure but somewhat empty life. I can very well understand both of them for making their own choices. However, I am not really sure how responsible it was towards the children they had. Were they happy with the lives their mothers chose for them? How did it influence their future own lives?
I don't have answers here, everyone has to find them for themselves, but the book took an interesting picture of them and made me think and focus on these topics and did it in an excellent way. So it was time well and pleasurably spent.

[Kendall]

I really liked this book. I liked that we got to know many characters and a the family’s as a whole. I liked that I felt like I lived in their town with them.

I am frustrated with the ending and I wish that there was a second book. A follow up of Pearl and Izzy’s lives. Does the town change? Could Izzy’s family change how things are after her mom realizes that the structure doesn’t keep her from losing her daughter? Could there be a reconciliation with Mia’s family?

[Octothorpe Reader Leora K]

##/5
I found the story and characters hollow and unsatisfying. The ending also didn't make sense to me :(

[Megan]

Just finished Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. I really enjoyed the writing! Add to that it was set in a high school in the late-90's, which is when I was in high school, and she did a great job of portraying it! Characters were interesting and complex, and I didn't find the story to be predictable. Definitely worth reading! 5 stars

[Megan BG]

Megan wrote: "Just finished Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. I really enjoyed the writing! Add to that it was set in a high school in the late-90's, which is when I was in high school, and ..."

Me too, Megan! :)

It helped me relate to the characters a little better because I pictured myself back in high school!

[Megan]

Megan BG wrote: "Megan wrote: "Just finished Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. I really enjoyed the writing! Add to that it was set in a high school in the late-90's, which is when I was in hig..."

I was totally having my Alexa play TLC and Mighty Mighty Bosstones while I was reading those sections:)

[Megan BG]

Oh! Good idea! I wish I'd thought of that!

[Heather]

I like the book, thank you to whoever picked it. It kind goes to show you can't plan for everything in life, that things just happen, I kinda wonder what is going to happen to Izzy and did Mia tell her the scorched earth thing, thinking that she was going to take it literally?