Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng is completely different from most of the books I have read in recent years. Once you enter Shaker Heights, you inevitably begin to question everything — including your own judgment. There is no simple right or wrong here. At the end of the day, every decision matters, and every choice carries consequences for everyone involved.

Shaker Heights is an idyllic suburb of Cleveland, where everything appears perfect at first glance. The lawns are trimmed with almost mathematical precision, house colors are carefully regulated, and the people living there seem to embody the ideal image of family life.

At the center of this community is Elena Richardson, a woman who has built her entire life around rules – rules that, in her world, should never be broken.

Her complete opposite is the newly arrived Mia Warren, an artist and single mother raising her daughter Pearl. The two move into one of the Richardson family’s rental properties, but soon become much more than tenants. Elena tries to “fix” Mia and make her part of the community, but Mia’s free spirit and quiet defiance reveal her complete disregard for the carefully maintained status quo. When close friends of Elena attempt to adopt a baby, and Mia takes the side of the biological mother, the tension between them turns into open conflict.

The deep psychological approach Ng uses to create her characters – the way she explains their behavior and inner contradictions – makes the reader feel like part of the story. Elena, Mia, Pearl, and even Bebe feel so alive that you almost expect them to step out of the pages.

It is not difficult to become emotionally attached to the story and its characters, or to feel impatient to reach the final chapter in order to discover their fate  or perhaps their new beginning. This book is a small masterpiece. It is no coincidence that Little Fires Everywhere was selected by Reese Witherspoon’s book club and later adapted into a television series starring Witherspoon alongside Kerry Washington. I won’t comment on the adaptation here, but it is worth watching preferably after reading the novel.

BOOKLOVERS Rating: 5/5

This was the first novel I read that managed to make me question my own sense of right and wrong to such a significant degree. And that feeling remains just as strong seven years after I first read it.