Title- Little Fires Everywhere
Rating– 5/5
Genre- Women’s Fiction, Literary Fiction
POV- Third person, past tense
Trope- Family drama, suburbia, adoption, secrets, high standards/perfectionism, teen pregnancy, favoritism
Comps– The Last Thing He Told Me, Where the Crawdads Sing
My emotions- Captivated
Characters–
Elena- perfectionist mother of a suburbia family
Mia Warren- free-spirited mother
Plot/Blurb-
In Shaker Heights everything is planned—from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.
Enter Mia Warren—an enigmatic artist and single mother—who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.
When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town—and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.
Best part-
Mother/daughter relationship theme and their inner growth through the journey
What I’d change-
Provide the audience with a trigger warning for miscarriage. Also, the TV show had more racism aspects compared to the book. I’m wondering the author’s intent was for that, if she purposefully avoided the topic when determining the race of Mia and Pearl or not?
Prose-
Beautiful
Quote-
“Sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground, and start over. After the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow. People are like that, too. They start over. They find a way.”
Pacing- Perfect
Cassie Swindon 