Book Review: Little Fires Everywhere



My Rating: 4

I stayed up waaaaay past my bedtime to finish this one last night, but once I got about 40% in, I literally couldn’t put it down.

Voted as the best book of 2017 by Goodreads, I knew that I was going to have to check this one out as soon as I could. Pushing it to the top of my list thanks to the raving reviews, I didn’t really know what to expect when going in, but honestly, that’s just fine with this one.

On the surface Little Fires Everywhere is the story of a suburb in Cleveland, Shaker Heights, that was founded on very strict and planned principles which trickled down to the society and residents who currently lived there, including the Richardsons and their four kids. All of that would change, however, once Mia and her daughter Pearl moved to town, disrupting the order of everything.

Deeper down, the book is a complex character portrait that displays the intricacies and gray areas we all have, no matter how hard we try to hide them. It brings forth tons of questions about right and wrong, relationships and motherhood, friends and enemies, and most of all, how we follow rules or follow the little voice of passion inside. There are tons of characters in the book, and the author puts you in all of their heads at some point, showing the thoughts behind their actions and the reasoning behind their words. At first I didn’t think I would like jumping around so much, but the author did it wonderfully and it ended up adding that much more depth and compassion to the story.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and understood why so many people suggested it. It started off a little slow for me in the beginning, but as I got into the groove of the author’s style and became more connected to each character, I simply couldn’t stop eating it up. This is definitely one that people will be talking about for years and I guarantee this blaze won’t be extinguished anytime soon.



-Busy Brunette 

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