Review of "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng

“Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng tells the story of Mia and her daughter Pearl upon moving to a utopian, ultra-perfect, and always-happy town in Ohio called Shaker Heights. The book starts with a prologue showing Elena Richardson’s house completely engulfed in flames. And it all started when Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl moved to Shaker Heights.

The Richardson family rent Mia and Pearl their second house when they move. Both families become keenly interested in the lives of the others. Pearl becomes fascinated with the Richardson household, first becoming friends with the son Moody Richardson, who shows her around her new town. She also develops a close friendship with Lexi Richardson, the older sister, and develops a crush and eventual relationship with the other Richardson son, Trip. The youngest Richardson daughter, Izzy, is teased by her older sisters and mother, Elena Richardson, for being different, snarky, and not conforming to the rules of the town.

However, Pearl is not the only one fascinated when the new families meet. Elena Richardson offers Mia to become a housekeeper in the Richardson household, which Elena feels is a kind and welcoming gesture, but has a profound racist implication that Elena did not even consider. Mia’s work in the Richardson house helps her develop a close friendship with Izzy because both of them have never really fit in. Mia is a photographer and artist, and Izzy notices a strange photograph in her house one day when she visits. She mentions the photograph, seemingly photographing Mia, but when she was much younger, to her mother. What started for Mrs. Richardson as an off-hand promise to Izzy to investigate this photograph eventually turned into a full-fledged obsession and fixation on figuring out Mia’s mysterious past and the secrets of Pearl’s birth.

I do not want to spoil Little Fires Everywhere because it is truly a masterpiece thriller. The arrival of Pearl and Mia stirs Shaker Heights in a way Mrs. Richardson, a perfectionist herself, certainly never intended. Attempting to save Shaker Heights from being shaken too much, she feels she must uncover their past, but some secrets are better left unsaid. Too much curiosity, too much trust, and too many secrets, and sometimes, too many tensions that are silenced to not disturb a utopia can spark little fires everywhere until the whole world bursts into flames.