Little Fires Everywhere
"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." (pg. 1)
I stumbled across Celeste Ng's "Little Fires Everywhere" almost by accident while scrolling through one of those end of year wrap-up lists that tell you everything you should have read during the previous year. I wasn't sure what to expect from it-- the title gives little away, and the cover didn't either. It is winter break for me, however, and I was desperate to get my hands on something worthwhile that was not demanded by a syllabus or professor. And this book is certainly worthwhile.
"Little Fires Everywhere" is quite new; the book only came out this past year, and it has been well-received (for good reason) by critics and readers. The plot follows two very different families: the Richardsons, epitomizing upper middle class suburbia, and the Warrens, artistic vagabonds who arrive in their town. The relationship between the two is that the Warrens rent their apartment from the Richardsons, and as the lives of the two families become more entangled by series of events, Ng really allows the reader to read between the lines of the way each live. The core of the book is this contrast between these lifestyles-- not as enemies or foes, but as simultaneously appealing deeply flawed in different ways.
This is a short review, because it is a difficult plot to explain without spoilers, and I would never do that to you. But if my recommendation means anything to you, dear reader, give this one a chance. It won't disappoint.
"She would spend months, years, the rest of her life looking for her daughter, searching the face of every young woman she met for as long as it took, searching for a spark of familiarity in the faces of strangers." (pg. 336)