Little Fires Everywhere
Book Review - Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
It seems like EVERYONE (at least in my book community) was reading Little Fires Everywhere back in 2017 when it first came out. I didn’t have time to fit it into my schedule back then, but when I got a free book from Book of the Month (thanks to those of you who are signing up!) I selected this book so I could finally read it. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by this one - I think it lives up to the hype!
What I wasn’t expecting was that this is kind of a study in motherhood. All types of mothers are represented in this book including single mothers, mothers of nuclear families, working mothers, stay at home moms, young mothers, older mothers, mothers of adopted children, surrogate mothers, rich mothers and poor mothers, etc. At the heart of this book is the question: what makes a mother? Is it blood relation? Love? The financial ability to care for them? So while this theme of motherhood threads the story together, there are also many other relationships forming including friendships, romantic relationships, mentorships and more. As I try to capture the synopsis of this book I’m realizing more and more how complex the story was.
I listened to this book via audible and the performance by Jennifer Lim - she did a phenomenal job narrating this book. I say this almost every time I review a book I’ve listened to, an audiobook narrator can make or break a book for me. It is risky to review a book based on the audiobook performance because it is sometimes hard to tell if it is the author’s writing or the narrator’s performance that I love (or didn’t love!) Somehow, with this book, it was clear that the way the story unfolded was purely the author and the way the story came to life was purely the narrator. I really enjoyed listening to this book…and I kinda want to hear more about Pearl and Mia! Good thing Hulu is coming out with a series based on this book! Yay!