In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned - from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.
Enter Mia Warren - an enigmatic artist and single mother - who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardson's. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the alluring mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.
When the Richardson's' friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town and puts Mia and Mrs. Richardson on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Mrs. Richardson becomes determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs to her own family - and Mia's.
*** [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] ***(Little, Brown Book Group, 12 September 2017, ebook, 352 pages, bought from Amazon, Popsugar 2018 Reading Challenge, a book from a celebrity book club)
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This book featured in Reese Witherspoon's Book Club in September 2017. I really enjoyed Little Fires Everywhere (I love the title by the way, it fits the story perfectly). The novel opens in intense and dramatic fashion, pulling you right into the story. I enjoyed the way the novel is structured, moving back to the start of the events that led to the first and working towards that point when it all fell apart. The characters are fantastic. They felt like real people. I got mad at them, felt their pain and wanted to hug or slap them at certain times. I felt so sorry for Isabelle. Mrs Richardson has her heart in the right place but makes terrible choices that hurt so many people. I cried a lot. I really loved Little Fires Everywhere.
