4thace reviewed Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Review of 'Little Fires Everywhere' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
The novel is a character-driven story which uses a child custody battle in somewhat conventional terms to provide the tension at its center. The traveling photographer character Mia and her antagonist, Mrs. Richardson, are given the fullest treatment, the secondary characters drawn in broader strokes. At times, though, it was a little unclear how much the characters were supposed to pick up on from one another and how much was obscured to them. I chose to listen to this audiobook because of a podcast interview with the author who talked about Mia's backstory, her childhood and school years, which is told in a section a little after the midpoint of this book. I did like this flashback section the best, but it was quite separate from the rest of the novel, which concentrates on the events and characters in Shaker Heights, Ohio years afterwards. While I did enjoy the descriptions …
The novel is a character-driven story which uses a child custody battle in somewhat conventional terms to provide the tension at its center. The traveling photographer character Mia and her antagonist, Mrs. Richardson, are given the fullest treatment, the secondary characters drawn in broader strokes. At times, though, it was a little unclear how much the characters were supposed to pick up on from one another and how much was obscured to them. I chose to listen to this audiobook because of a podcast interview with the author who talked about Mia's backstory, her childhood and school years, which is told in a section a little after the midpoint of this book. I did like this flashback section the best, but it was quite separate from the rest of the novel, which concentrates on the events and characters in Shaker Heights, Ohio years afterwards. While I did enjoy the descriptions of what it was like to live there, a place I knew mainly from knowing college friends who came from the area, one aspect felt did confusing to me. I did grow to dislike the Mrs. Richardson character by the end because of her reliance on privilege, which maybe hits harder now than when this book was being written. The author seems accomplished so I assume the habit of hopping between viewpoints in an omniscient fashion, often within a single scene, was intentional. There were sections where the narrative felt a little slack to me, such as the courtroom drama at the center of the book. At the end, with most but not all of the narrative strands tied up, I did feel a little let down again when I didn't get all the confrontations I hoped to see. A bunch of the most interesting characters just slipped off into mystery then.
This was an easy book to read in audiobook form, and started with a good premise to grab the reader's attention with a home fire tying in with the title right away. The narration of the book by Jennifer Lim was decent, especially when portraying the younger characters in a convincing way. I think I would like to watch the TV series based on this book judging from the many favorable mentions of this I've read. I would also be willing to pick up one of the author's other books if I am in the mood for family drama sometime.
