Review: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Pearl has been moving around with her mother Mia for her entire life. The pair only stay in one place long enough for Mia to finish whatever art project she is working on, before they pack up and hit the road for another town, another state. When they enter Shaker Heights, however, Mia promises Pearl that it’s the last move, that Shaker Heights will be their new home. Thus encouraged, Pearl befriends Moody, his sister Lexie, and their brother Trip, determined to set down roots and be a normal teenager.

Things are going well for Pearl in this new life. She has friends, the boy she has a crush on seems to feel the same way, and her mother is busy with a project. Amid them, the local media is covering an adoption scandal, where questions over what’s best for the baby lead Pearl to wonder about her own infancy, and her mother’s secrecy surrounding it. As fate would have it, though, Pearl is not the only one who is interested. As amateur sleuthing is undertaken, a series of secrets from the past and present begin to come to light, with an unstoppable force.

Little Fires Everywhere is an addictive read – I worked my way through it in a day, eager for the next part of the narrative to be revealed. On the surface, this may seem to be another coming of age novel of a group of teens, but really, it is so much more than that. Several intricate plots are woven together for a seamless finish, which under the hands of a lesser writer would be chaotic and hard to marry. Celeste Ng has bound heartache and loss with the shadows of taboo and cross-cultural chaos, to bring together a dramatic, polished read which is as absorbing as it is meaningful. Ng gives us a cross-section of the meeting points of different ages, perspectives and beliefs, and it is beautiful.

Little Fires Everywhere is a work of art; the finished product is an effortless delve into a world you’d never have pictured yourself in otherwise, and it is very insightful journey.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng is published by Little Brown Book Group and is available in South Africa from Jonathan Ball Publishers.