Calling it now: This book will be the big book club read of the year. The conflicts here are so local, but loom so large, that everyone will have an opinion on this one. What I love about Ng's work the best is the complicated characters and intense family bonds-- add to that a few kept secrets and you've got an un-put-downable novel (read this in just a few sittings).

What an amazing book! Found myself looking forward to getting back to the story constantly and sneaking in reading time whenever I could. Fantastic storytelling, great 3D character development. Have already recommended it to many people, library patrons and friends.

Please go out right now and reserve this book from your library or bookstore. It was so good!! You might remember Celeste Ng from Everything I Never Told You, a bestselling debut. Her sophomore effort is also A+! I loved it even more. Set in Shaker Heights, where everything from the color of your house to the length of your hair seems to be dictated, Little Fires Everywhere starts with the burning down of the Richardson family home. Immediately everyone suspects Izzy, the youngest of the 4 siblings and the black sheep of their otherwise perfect family. Of course things are not always what they seem, even to those in the middle of the drama. I loved loved loved this layered story, all of the characters were so beautifully drawn and so believable. Definitely one of my favorites so far this year. 5 stars.

Absolutely phenomenal. I was hooked from the first paragraph, although this book turned out to be quite different than I was expecting. I went into it thinking it may be a chick-lit / mystery mashup, but it is much more a modern fiction, dark chick lit meets drama than anything else. The "mystery" of Mia and Pearl's origin was fairly easy to guess at, but that wasn't the point of the story. Celeste Ng's ability to create not one, not two, not even five, but a whole cast of deeply detailed, flawed, and human characters is what sets this book above many others I have read. I also loved her nontraditional weaving of future details into the story, similar to what Lauren Groff does (also, totally coincidentally, a book featuring a character with a deep love of print photography - I'm also currently reading Arcadia). I finished this book so full I could burst, and simultaneously with a need to read as much as possible further because it was THAT good.

Ng's sophomore novel, after the highly acclaimed Everything I Never Told You, totally lives up to and builds upon its predecessor. It's set in Shaker Heights, Cleveland, in the late 90s, and centers on two families who end up intertwined-- teens and adults both (I was a high schooler around this time and appreciated the appropriate period references, as well as the occasional Pittsburgh references). It is also the story of a fraught inter-cultural custody battle and how that heightens all the tensions of the town. Maybe that makes it sound boring but it's beautifully written and totally compelling--I also loved all the art talk. Really a very strong second novel, very recommended. A.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! Like so many, I loved Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng's debut novel. Since then, I've waited anxiously to hear from this talented author again. She does not disappoint. Little Fires Everywhere is absolutely stunning in its perfection. I love how Ng is able to bring such depth and complexity to a story, weaving sensitive, important issues seamlessly into the novel. We learn right away how the story ends on a shocking note. Then Ng takes us back to the beginning, the story-line unfolding to make sense of the seemingly senseless. This is one of those novels I will fervently recommend to library patrons. Celeste Ng is proving herself to be one of the great writers of her time.

Phenomenal. A story of family relationships, mothers and daughters, and what makes a family. There were so many beautiful, complex stories interwoven into the overall story of Mia and Pearl moving into the Richardson's rental. Highly recommend.

A single mother, Mia Warren and her teenaged daughter, Pearl, arrive in the perfectly planned suburb, Shaker Heights of Cleveland, OH where they meet the Richardson's. Next, follow along as the two families intertwine, upending one families perfection while anchoring one teenager's belief in what a family should be.
Ng uses foreshadowing in the first few pages of the book and spends the rest of the novel explaining through different points of few, how we got there. Mrs. Elena Richardson has grown up in Shaker Heights and came back after college in order to begin her family. Mrs. Richardson believes the town is perfect and so is her family. But when the two newcomers arrive, renting from the Richardson's, introducing chaos and imperfection into all of their lives, we see just how fragile and imperfect those lives were.
A beautiful novel of misplaced anger, mother-daughter relationships and the bonds of family.

Richardsons : Izzy, Trip, Moody, Lexie
Mr Mrs Richardson
McCullough
Baby Mirabelle/May Ling
Mia, Pearl
Bebe

Three of Richardson children and their mother wore to find their Shaker Heights home on fire. The cause was found to be a series of small fires intentionally set in each of the three children's rooms. Since the youngest daughter, Izzy, was missing it was assumed that she had started the fire.

The other family members including Mr. RIchardson all watched their home burn to the ground. They also discovered that MIa and Pearl, a mother and daughter, who had rented an apartment from them in another part of town, had left as well.

The story then reverted to the time that Mia and Pearl arrived in picture perfect Shaker Heights, an upper class planned suburb near Cleveland, OH. Mia was an artist whose medium was photography and who also supplemented her income by working part time jobs. Pear, her teenaged daughter, quickly became friends with Moody Richardson, who was in the same classes as her in high school. Soon Pearl was spending her free time with all 4 of the Richardson teens at their sprawling home.

However when Mrs. RIchardson offered Mia the job of a part time housekeeper, the two families lives became further entangled.

Mrs. Richardsons had a close family friends, the McCulloughs, who were in the process of adopting a Chinese baby left at a firehouse months before. Before the adoption was finalized, he natural mother, Bebe, decided she wanted her child back. Mia worked with Bebe and helped Bebe get media attention and eventually an pro bono attorney who was also Chinese American.

The case of who should get the baby was a major news story in the area with friends and neighbors taking sides as to whether the affluent, childless McCulloughs or the single impoverished Bebe should get the child. Bebe's attorney argued that the McCullough could not give the baby her cultural heritage. Mr. RIchardson, who represented the McCulloughs, argued that Bebe was not emotionally or financially fit to care for the baby.

Mrs. RIchardson, a news reporter for a local paper, discovers that Mia had influenced Bebe and felt betrayed . So she decided to search Mia's mysterious background for clues about Pearl's father. The search leads to Mia's parents in PA and we then learn why Mia led a nomadic lifestyle as long as Pearl had been alive.

The ending of the story is both happy and sad. Some mothers in this story lose their children, other find their children, and some continue searching for their children. Bittersweet....

I absolutely loved Celeste Ng's "Everything I Never told you" and I loved " Little Fires Everywhere". The reason I gave this novel 4 stars and not 5 stars is the ending left a few loose ends. However, I still strongly recommend this book. Because this novel is so well written, I was hooked from the first page and did not want to put the book down. The depth of the characters and the interactions among all the characters was very impressive. I just wish she had ended the book differently.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

This book will capture you in the first pages and simply not let you go. We learn the ending in the first few pages: a family named Richardson come home to find their house burning to the ground and a mother and daughter quietly leave their rental across town, leaving the keys in the mailbox. The story that unfolds to explain this ending is full of twists and turns and a panoply of developing point relationships between all the players.

The story takes place in Shaker Heights, Ohio. A singular community with a long history of taking planning very seriously (their motto: “most communities just happen, the best are planned”) the residents are also very proud of their openness and diversity. The Richardson family is a good representation for Shaker Heights: a traditional family with four high-school age children, they are attractive, friendly, and open-minded. Single mother Mia and daughter Pearl rent the top half of a duplex from the Richardsons and slowly get drawn into their orbit. In the meantime, they all become embroiled on different sides of a difficult moral situation between adoptive parents and a poor immigrant who has changed her mind about giving up her baby.

The book includes a fascinating and detailed discussion of Shaker Heights as well as an elegant portrayal of Mia as the artist, including deep dives on her endeavors - photographs taken of complex projects that are months in the making. It also includes a multi-faceted discussion of what it means to be a mother in every possible incarnation from those for whom motherhood is the ultimate goal, to those who choose abortion, to those who give up their children for adoption. Race and cultural identity play a big part in the story as does the importance of reflecting on the morality of ones actions.

Great for fans of Ann Packer, Lee Smith, and Ann Patchett.

This is remarkable book, and one that I believe will put Celeste Ng firmly into the public eye. More expansive and ambitious than her previous novel, Little Fires Everywhere is a story of family dysfunction, the difficulties of money (whether you have it in abundance or not at all), and what we owe each other as humans. This is one of those books that sucks you in, involving you deeply in its world.

This book was seamlessly and flawlessly written. I loved the interconnectedness of all the characters and storylines. The character development was excellent!

I loved this book! This novel should appeal to anyone who is or has been a mother or a daughter. Ng explores all aspects of the complex mother/daughter relationship. All voices ring true and I felt I really knew each character.
Little Fires Everywhere (which by-the-way is a great title) reads like a can't put down mystery, but is essentially a character-driven novel that delves deeply into what really matters and what exactly makes a family.

Fans of Ng's breakout debut Everything I Never Told You will not be disappointed by her sophomore novel. Little Fires Everywhere opens with a house fire in 1990s Shaker Heights, a planned community in the Cleveland suburbs. Beneath the veneer of acceptance and tolerance in this purposefully integrated community, tensions begin to simmer after a nomadic single mother and her daughter rent a house from the well-to-do Richardson family. When a wealthy white couple enters a custody dispute for an American-born Chinese infant, this quiet community is forced to face uncomfortable issues in the court of public opinion.

Thank you for making this title available. Unfortunately, the further I read, the more I was convinced that this was not the kind of book that I would enjoy. This is no criticism whatsoever of the plot, characters, writing style, setting, or the author. Merely a statement of my own preferences.

First off, I LOVED Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng, which told the story of a teenage girl from a Chinese-American family who commits suicide (not a spoiler; the first line of the book is “Lydia is dead.”). So I was pleased to receive an advance copy of Ms. Ng’s new book, Little Fires Everywhere, from Penguin Press and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

This book was SUCH a good read. At the start, we learn that “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…”. So we’re introduced right away to the gossipy planned community of Shaker Heights, the Richardson family, and a little girl with some confusion about her name.

A lifelong resident of Shaker Heights, Elena Richardson embodies the spirit of Shaker Heights: following the rules, behaving in acceptable ways, and guiding her family and (as much as possible) the community down the proper path. Her four children include Trip, the high-school golden boy athlete, Lexie, the star student bound for Yale who has a touch of the rebel in her relationship with her African-American boyfriend, Moody, the nerdy but lovable boy, and Izzy, the alleged firestarter. Into the mix come Mia and her daughter Pearl, a couple of vagabonds who who come to town and rent Elena’s inherited duplex. Mia is an artist who marches to her own drummer, and Pearl is a sensitive girl who instantly bonds with Moody (but has a mega crush on Trip).

Elena is so rigidly living her life that she can’t handle Mia and what she represents. “She had…done everything right and she had built a good life, the kind of life she wanted, the kind of life everyone wanted. Now here was this Mia, a completely different kind of woman leading a completly different, life, who seemed to make her own rules with no apologies.” The families become intertwined and involved with a co-worker of Mia’s, who left her infant at a fire station but has turned her life around and now wants her back, although Elena’s close friend and her husband are on the cusp of adopting little Mirabelle (or May Ling). The legal wrangling of the custody battle involves Elena’s husband, an attorney who represents the upper-middle-class couple who want to keep Mirabelle, and Elena makes it her mission in life to get into everyone’s business while she isn’t quite seeing what is going on with her own family. In the legal fight, Mia and Elena are on opposite sides, and there are strong feelings on the part of the adults and the children.

I loved this book. Highly recommended. Great characters, excellent look at cultural appropriation and the issues around mixed-race adoption, as well as a good plot that starts with the Richardson house burning down then goes back and tells the story of what led to that event. I was glued to the book from start to finish. Good for sharp YAs and book clubs. Five stars.

It was hard to put this book down between chapters, as I felt attached immediately to the characters. The two families at the heart of the story could not be more opposite; the Richardsons, with their perfect house and their four children, living in Shaker Heights, while the Warrens, Mia and her daughter Pearl, always on the move living in a rental apartment. Juxtaposed throughout the book is a variety of clashes, between different mothering styles, different cultures, art vs. practicality. Highly recommend this novel, written with depth and great characters.