“Perfection: that was the goal, and perhaps the Shakers had lived it so strongly it had seeped into the soil itself, feeding those who grew up there with a propensity to overachieve and a deep intolerance for flaws.”
When Mia and Pearl move to the community of Shaker Heights, they bring with them secrets known and unknown that will affect everyone they meet. Pearl, a young teenager, befriends a teenage boy named Moody, who shows her the ropes in the town and school. Moody has an older brother and sister and a younger sister. Pearl becomes a fixture at Moody’s house, although she has her eyes on his older brother. Then, Moody’s mom hires Pearl’s mom to clean their house to help pay for rent since Mia’s an artist and needs time to focus on her art. Then, Moody’s little sister Izzy starts helping Mia with her art and the lines between the two families start to blur.
I saw Little Fires Everywhere promoted in Bookpages magazine and the plot looked interesting, so I added it to my to-read list. It took a few months for it to become available through the library’s ebook hold list. I have not read any of Celeste Ng’s other books.
WhileLittle Fires Everywhere mainly focuses on Pearl, the true focus of the story is the relationship between mothers and daughters. Pearl gives her mother distance instead of trying to find the answers to the questions about her past. Mia doesn’t have contact with her own parents. Moody’s mother has a different relationship with her youngest daughter than her other three children. Then, there is a couple in town who adopted a baby found at a fire station. But, her mother finds out months later and wants her baby back. Is it love or blood that means the most when it comes to a parent and child?
Little Fires Everywhere was a very interesting book and I had trouble putting it down. It’s definitely for adults as it has teenage romance and pregnancy, abortion, lies and arson. The relationships between the characters are all very complex.
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