Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng ~ Book Review

Shaker Heights is an upper middle class suburb of Cleveland where the Richardson family live.  Elena is the Mom of the family, a journalist, who is very involved in the lives of her children.  She thrives in her rule driven world and wears her self righteousness with pride.  The only thing seemingly out of control thing in her perfect world is her youngest daughter, Izzy.     When Mia Warren, a spontaneous artist,  enters the picture with her daughter, Pearl, and rents an apartment from Elena, the sense of order and planning is upended.  All four of Elena's teenage kids are drawn to either Mia or Pearl for various reasons.  Izzy especially is taken with Mia's artistry and free spirit, everything her mother isn't and her son develops a crush on14 year old Pearl. When Elena's good friend wants to adopt a Chinese/American baby that was left at a fire station, Mia puts herself into the middle of it in defense of a co-worker and throws chaos into the ordered community where people feel they must take sides.  Thinking Mia has ulterior motives, Elena uses her journalist background, contacts and skills to start digging into Mia's past.  But in doing so, she stirs up a whole lot of unexpected results.  The more Elena tries to control her world, the more out of control it becomes and she starts to heap justification upon justification for her actions.  But in trying to expose someone else's secrets the secrets of her own family start to come to light.

I found parts of this book gripping and emotional yet in other parts the writing style was slow and seemed to wander.  There is much description and at times I would catch myself thinking "Let's just get back to the actual story".  I was hooked from the first scene of a fire burning down the Richardson's home with the supposition that Izzy started it by setting little fires throughout the house.  She is rebellious, after all, and is nowhere to be found.  It then goes back in time to see what led to fire. It's a story that leans a bit toward stereotypes to make it's points, but ultimately is a story of motherhood and family relationships, friendships, and the perceived notion of the perfect life. It also examines how our actions and decisions, even though done in the best of intentions,  can set in motion things we ultimately do not want.  I was really drawn into the moral dilemma of the adoption that started to split the family and the neighborhood into camps of for and against.  Trigger warnings for teen s*x and abortion.

Rating:  7.5/10

2023 Reading Challenge Goal Met:  Read What I Own:  cover color green