Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Little Fires Everywhere

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Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

27 reviews

thegardenlesbian's review against another edition

emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

This is a story about mothers: what does it mean to be one, who can be one, who gets to define it, the lengths one will take to be one. The writing is fantastic and I loved the pacing —very slow at first, like watching a street on a Sunday. Nonetheless, it builds up and then goes quite fast. As a daughter (and an eldest daughter of an eldest daughter), it made me think a lot about motherhood, what they go through, what they sacrifice, what they long for, what they think could have been. The class and race aspects of the book give it an added profoundness, intersecting the questions above with them and creating new ones (can motherhood be revoked?, can it be bought?). In conclusion, it's an amazing novel, one I'll probably re-read sometime.

Content Warnings

abitbetterbooks's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really enjoyed this audiobook! I’m not really a person who enjoys mysteries or thrillers, so I really enjoyed this book that was mostly careful plot reveals and character study with just that little edge of drama and unease seeping in at the edges.

I really liked the narration and storytelling; generally I’m a fan of a very close, singular 3rd person style, but I fell in love with this 3rd person that was constantly changing and evolving in perspective. One moment we’re seeing things how Pearl saw them, but the next sentence we’re shown something different in what Mia picked up on in the same situation. I enjoyed how the curtain was peeled back, even momentarily, on even the perspective of a side character, so that each person in this community felt like a full and distinct individual.

I can definitely see why it was picked up to become a limited series— with the number of intertwining storylines and perfectly scaffolded tensions growing, it grabs your attention and there definitely is so much to work with on both a plot and character level!

I don’t think this book is like, one of my favourite of all time or something that I really connected with on a profound level, but it was really good and is what I would consider the perfect book club book- lots of pieces to untangle and talk about, with decisions to dissect both artistically by the author as well as the decisions of the characters we are trying to understand. I really appreciate how Celeste Ng played with these ideas and assumptions around motherhood, complicating the notions of ethics and ideology of what is “best” for a child. I love when you leave a book without clear answers of who is right and wrong, and the author forces you to confront you personally might interpret as the good or bad choice.

Content Warnings