Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng 3 Stars [Trim]

[Jeremiah]

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
3 Stars - Audiobook
Trim the TBR Book #34
338 pages

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother – who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the alluring mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When the Richardsons' friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town and puts Mia and Mrs. Richardson on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Mrs. Richardson becomes determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs to her own family – and Mia's.

How do you define family? Is it blood, a sense of belonging? Does it change over time?

This was my first time to read a novel by Celeste Ng. This particular novel had been on my list to read for a while after it was the Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction in 2017. There were certainly parts of the book that were extremely enjoyable, but overall the book was just mediocre.

Ng created a story that I wanted to be captivated by but failed to execute in a way that actually made me emotionally invested in the characters or the story. The characters had huge potential, but I never became emotionally invested in any of them. Bebe Chow was one character I particularly wanted to feel tied to. I wanted her story to be gutwrenching and heartbreaking. However, in the end the story fell flat and actually left me angry with this character.

The only character that did actually draw an emotional response out of me was (view spoiler)[Elana. Unfortunately, the only response was anger. As the book went on I hated her character more and more and really just wanted someone to stand up to her and put her in her place. In the end though, Ng seems to hurriedly and falsely recreate Elana. This really was a sticking point for me. I just can't believe that one photograph would actually change the way Elana saw the world. (hide spoiler)]

As for the structure of the book, Ng uses a lot of flashbacks to fill in the story. I thought for the most part these were well constructed and effective for giving the story depth. While Ng executed this portion of the structure fairly seamlessly I did not feel the same way regarding the transition between points of view. I felt like the moves from Mia, to Elana, to Pearl, etc. were often clunky and certainly caused me to have to catch back up with how the stories fit together.

Overall, this was not a poorly written book. It has depth, it has interesting characters, the plot is intriguing, and the overall question of the book is excellent. Unfortunately, it failed in the execution of putting all of these wonderful parts together into a truly special book.