Little Fires Everywhere
Celeste Ng, 2017
Contemporary fiction Literary fiction
A planned suburb where everything is arranged just so, two mothers who each know what is best for a child, and a house on fire. Neat suburban streets and gossipy neighbours, told in a warm, witty voice with a quiet tension running underneath the order.
Feels like curiosity and tenderness. About family, ambition and memory.
Who it’s for
You may like this if you enjoy family dramas where mothers, teenagers and neighbours all get their say, and small decisions carry weight. Be aware that the story moves between many households and shifts back in time, so the fire from the opening pages stays in the background for long stretches.
Why read it
It gives you a close look at how people justify their choices about children, class and belonging, and lets you see the same argument from several sides.
A page from the book
The particular relish a town takes in one family's catastrophe.
Everyone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down. All spring the gossip had been about little Mirabelle McCullough—or, depending which side you were on, May Ling Chow—and now, at last, there was something new and sensational to discuss. A little after noon on that Saturday in May, the shoppers pushing their grocery carts in Heinen’s heard the fire engines wail to life and careen away, toward the duck pond. By a quarter after twelve there were four of them parked in a haphazard red line along Parkland Drive, where all six bedrooms of the Richardson house were ablaze, and everyone within a half mile could see the smoke rising over the trees like a dense black thundercloud. Celeste Ng.Ng was raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio, the planned Cleveland suburb her novel dissects — a town whose real architectural review board has a say in what colour you paint your house.
Books that feel like this
More by Celeste Ng
Everything I Never Told You
Celeste Ng, 2016
A meticulous portrait of a seemingly perfect suburban life where unspoken tensions threaten to shatter everything.
Where to get it
Some of these links earn us a small commission, at no cost to you. It keeps BookFeed free.
Questions readers ask
- Is Little Fires Everywhere for me?
- You may like this if you enjoy family dramas where mothers, teenagers and neighbours all get their say, and small decisions carry weight. Be aware that the story moves between many households and shifts back in time, so the fire from the opening pages stays in the background for long stretches.
- What is Little Fires Everywhere like?
- Neat suburban streets and gossipy neighbours, told in a warm, witty voice with a quiet tension running underneath the order. Feels like curiosity and tenderness. About family, ambition and memory.
- What should I read after Little Fires Everywhere?
- If you liked Little Fires Everywhere, try The Red Tent (Anita Diamant), The Vanishing Half (Brit Bennett) and Carrie Soto Is Back (Taylor Jenkins Reid).
A taste of the feed
A father pretends not to care about the cameras. His daughter knows better.
My father shakes his head. “Lo dudo.” He barely moves his lips when he talks, his eye consciously avoiding the camera. I have no doubt that tomorrow morning, my father will open the paper and scan the sports pages looking for his photo. He will smile to himself when he sees that he looks nothing short of handsome. Although he lost weight earlier this year from the rounds of chemo he endured, he is cancer-free now. His body has bounced back. His color looks good.
Carrie Soto Is Back · Taylor Jenkins Reid
A place at the table, handed down whether or not you asked.
My father has asked me to be the fourth corner at the Joy Luck Club.
The Joy Luck Club · Amy Tan
What parents quietly pack away, and never mention afterward.
She suspects that, to be a good parent, she must pack away the mothering part of herself into a box and gently close the lid on it. She had not realised this is what would be required of her, had not seen it coming. And yet she will do so willingly. Would you lay down your life for your child? the world silently asks. Yes, she’s done this. But she hadn’t known there would be a second reckoning, where this would eventually mean laying down the arms of motherhood: caution, foreseeing, checking, reminding, nurturing, openly caring.
The Names · Florence Knapp
Read pages from books like this, one at a time
Keep reading in the feed