A review by thegardenlesbian
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

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.
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