The #1 New York Times bestseller!Now a Hulu original series starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington.“I read Little Fires Everywhere in a single, breathless sitting.” —Jodi Picoult“To say I love this book is an understatement. It’s a deep psychological mystery about the power of motherhood, the intensity of teenage love, and the danger of perfection. It moved me to tears.” —Reese … danger of perfection. It moved me to tears.” —Reese Witherspoon
“Extraordinary . . . books like Little Fires Everywhere don’t come along often.” —John Green
From the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You, a riveting novel that traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives.
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned—from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors 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 teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.
When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town—and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.
Little Fires Everywhere explores the weight of secrets, the nature of art and identity, and the ferocious pull of motherhood—and the danger of believing that following the rules can avert disaster.
Named a Best Book of the Year by: People, The Washington Post, Bustle, Esquire, Southern Living, The Daily Beast, GQ, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Audible, Goodreads, Library Reads, Book of the Month, Paste, Kirkus Reviews, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and many more…
Perfect for book clubs! Visit celesteng.com for discussion guides and more.
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Good, not great. Interesting and compulsively readable, though.
This was a hard book to categorize because it didn’t unfold or follow the typical story structure, but it was still very good and well written.
This was a book I didn’t think I would love as much as did after reading it. I didn’t want it to end. The summary of it doesn’t do it justice. It is so real and the author makes all her characters come to life. Great read.
I read this book as a book club selection. I’m still processing, but I loved the book. The only disappointment I have with the story is that I want more. I’m left at the end with this empty and full feeling you get at at a book that really evokes emotions and leaves you a little raw from the dysfunction of broken and delicate human relationships. I’d love to have a sequel to see what happens next, though I understand it’s not that type of book. The writing is fabulous. Melodic and lyrical. Gentle and abrupt. Characters were well “characterized” without the reader ever having to really get to know any of the characters deeply.
Great popular fiction selection.
Riveting storyline. I can’t wait for more from Ms. Ng.
How easily things can be misinterpreted with lasting consequences. A thought provoking book.
So on the 4th of July I can sit and read for guilt-free hours. I just finished Celeste Ng’s “Small Fires Everywhere,” and this is a writer unsurpassed at just TELLING A RICHLY DETAILED STORY. There aren’t car chases or hugely dramatic courtroom scenes – although the adoption battle in this book is pretty good. But the author’s attention to detail is so spot-on, so brimming with imagery and fascinating bits of color.
The story is tri-generational, moving back . . . and then back again. But all the characters are interesting and fleshed-out: a wealthy suburban family of six interacting, both sweetly and violently, with a bohemian mom and her high school daughter. The dramatic motif is about who-should-get-this-baby, and Ng blends two distant stories into a fascinating and eventually compelling conclusion.
What I like the best, beyond the pure readability of her work – “Everything I Never Told You” – is equally fine – is the poetic gems she drops in with her uniquely observant eye. Here are samples:
“Her Lexus glided down the wide driveway, a golden pocket of coolness in the hot summer air.”
“Mr. Richardson loomed in the background, solid and impressive and important, like a mountain range on the horizon.”
“She asked the question that ran below all the other questions like a deep underground river. ‘Was I wanted?’”
“Subtle implications and subtexts tended to bounce off the fine mesh of her brain.
“Each room had been painted a different color, and the overall effect was of stepping into a box of sunlight, even on a cloudy day.”
I generally read (and review) from a Christian POV, and this is a decidedly secular book: some teen sex, an abortion, and a few F-bombs, especially toward the close. But it is not a prurient work, and even believers will find their sensitivities challenged. Reading this book is definitely worth your time, holiday or no.
Outstanding. Couldn’t put it down.
Characters that come alive and keep you interested!
This is a very compelling story, well written with a very different style. I am recommending it to my book club as a group read; we should get a good discussion out of it.
Two families: One has everything and follows the rules, the other doesn’t and how these two families interact and adapt to their life choices is interesting.
This is NOT a who dunit, it is a why dun it. Ng makes you care for and recognize the good and bad parts of all her characters, while presenting minority views that the readers focuses more and more on. Never preachy, recognizes there are sometimes no steadfast rules, no absolute right or wrong, there is just a way. You must choose your way.
I avoided this book for months, even though it had been on the NYT bestseller list for 28 weeks. When circumstances led me to it, I began it grudgingly, but was soon enthralled by the characters, how their lives intertwine, and especially the artist, Mia. Excellent writing.
It’s a great book! The author does an excellent job of exposing the noblesse oblige that many – in the 60’s and even now – still exhibit. They mean well, but have never tried to see the underpriveledged through a lens other than their own.
Have you ever thought that, if you do all the “right” things, life will be perfect? The protagonist of this book thinks so. This isn’t The Great American Novel, but it kept my interest in wanting to know what would happen next. There’s enough material here to make it a book club read.
an interesting take on cross cultural adoption and cultural identity.
Best book ever
The story about two families colliding didn’t truly take off until about 50 pages in, but the characters being introduced kept me reading until then. There were a few unrealistic pieces that still don’t sit quite right in my mind, but otherwise, Ng does a lovely job crafting a domestic life saga with great suspense to keep the pace moving. I only wished the mom would have learned the full truth about her older daughter–I wanted her to be brought down off her high horse.
“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.”
This book starts out in the first chapter with a fire, but its a mystery of who started it. The story then goes back in time and progresses forward until you reach that point again.
I was worried this was going to be just another book about a dysfunctional family, but there were more characters and more depth than that. I found it slow moving at times, but the characters and their personalities are very well developed. I felt like I knew them personally.
This would be a good book for a bookclub because there is a lot of controversy to discuss; different race adoption, teenage sex, what makes a mother, abortion, raising kids, careers, etc.
**There are a few curse words, abortion, and sex.
This is not the typical book genre that I read, but it was recommended to me so I thought I’d give it a try.
I loved the complexities of the characters. All the back stories intertwined. It isn’t really a happily ever after book, but it leaves lots to discuss and think about at the end.