Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

12 reviews

pheebabeeba_'s review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The first half of the book I found a bit too slow to my liking, although I did enjoy the contrast of the two families, the Richardson’s and Mia and Pearl Warren. 

The main conflict; the case of Mirabelle/ May-Ling appeared close to the halfway point of the story. It introduced one of the main themes of the story: motherhood. 

The theme was very well written and thorough. Nothing about it felt black and white.  Admittedly, I didn’t care for a lot of the characters views on things,(the adoption, the surrogacy)but I understood them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Xenophobia, Abortion, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Car accident, and Death

Moderate: Misogyny, Terminal illness, and Cancer

Minor: Sexual content, Vomit, and Alcohol

sunflower7skull's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Beautiful book. I really enjoyed analyzing it and I definitely would look into more books by Celeste Ng in the future!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Grief, Infertility, Abortion, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pregnancy, and Racism

Minor: Toxic friendship, Rape, and Sexual content

thesecretsapphic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Abortion, Sexism, Alcohol, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, Child abuse, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Classism, Death, Pregnancy, and Emotional abuse

zoe_archambault's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion

Moderate: Grief, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Racism, Alcohol, and Child abuse

Minor: Miscarriage

minniepauline's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Medical content, Miscarriage, Infertility, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Sexual content, Car accident, Alcohol, and Fire/Fire injury

evagrace_j's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I read Everything I Never Told You by author Ng last year and was blown away by the complex characters and compelling storyline. Little Fires Everywhere was no different. One of my biggest draws to a story is realistic characters. I love truly understanding and engaging with people, seeing their motives and flaws and fears. This is where Ng truly excels, and why I love her work so much. Little Fires Everywhere deals with some difficult topics but never demonizes specific individuals, rather sharing why they think the way they think in a writing style and timeline that allows each character and situation the space to be fully explored. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Sexual content, and Miscarriage

Minor: Abandonment and Alcohol

alisonfaith426's review against another edition

emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Child abuse, Classism, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Kidnapping, and Racism

Moderate: Alcohol, Death, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Car accident, Cancer, and Cursing

luananki's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

way too many things i loved about little fires everywhere that i can’t put into words right now but one of the aspects i appreciated the most was that it is a book written with so many teenage characters in it where it wasn’t all about sex and alcohol. 
also the writing!! and the characters and the topic itself made everything just so much more real and relatable and i loved it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Abortion, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Pregnancy, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Grief, Car accident, and Alcohol

dtierra's review against another edition

mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Infertility

Minor: Alcohol, Car accident, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, and Toxic friendship

Ng’s prose is absolutely beautiful and most of the book is woven beautifully. That said, I am disappointed by Ng making the choice to hinge so much of the story of the

disputed custody of Chinese-American baby on the white Richardson family.

The limited storylines we see of Asian/Asian American characters is nowhere near as fleshed out as the Richardson family which is largely disappointing. The book approaches incredibly important nuance on the topic of transracial adoption and well meaning white women. While some adoptive parents may dislike this book, I think Ng delivers the hard truth about transracial adoption. I truly wish that Asian characters such as Bebe and Mr. Yang were able to be more fleshed out, it would have added to a compelling narrative.

annchmn's review against another edition

hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

So much happened… There was a ton of story lines and backgrounds. It was interesting to see each character’s perspective built off their upbringing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Classism, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Abandonment and Vomit

Minor: Abortion, Alcohol, Miscarriage, and Infertility