Another square on my library Book BINGO card has been crossed off – reading while on “vacation” (I had to count the 4th. That counts, right?) – with this July book club pick. It is also my second book in a row that I checked out from my local library, which makes me really happy.
Book 26:
Little Fires Everywhere
by Celeste Ng
Genre:
Contemporary, Fiction
Published:
September 2017
Synopsis According to Mandi:
Without spoilers, Little Fires Everywhere is about the disruption of a desperately planned and “perfect” neighborhood, Shaker Heights. In Shaker Heights, there are rules, there is structure and there is an ideal image to uphold, but all the planning in the world can’t stop the craziness of life from seeping in. New residents, a single mom and daughter with an interesting past, beg the interest of other residents. Another family’s questionable adoption situation splits the town in half. And then the model family, the Richardson’s house burns down. It seems in just one year, Shaker Heights gets quickly shaken up.
Favorite Quote(s):
“Sometimes you need to scorch everything to the ground, and start over. After the burning the soil is richer, and new things can grow. People are like that, too. They start over. They find a way.”
– Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere
Awards (based upon my brief research):
Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction (2017)
Goodreads Nominee for Best of the Best (2018)
NAACP Image Award Nominee for Fiction (2018)
Book of the Month Book of the Year Award Nominee (2017)
Pages:
338
My Overall Rating:
4 – For the first 150 pages, I could not see what the hype was about over this book. The reading was going quickly, but the book felt like it was going nowhere. Then, all of a sudden, we zeroed in on a serious plot that got real deep, real fast and made the first half of the book worth it.
The book reads fast enough that you won’t give up on it, and then it gets engaging enough that you won’t want to set it down. It hits hot-button topics on both sides with characters you will care deeply about, but…
Jumpity jump, jump, jump. I can’t give a 5 – not because of the first half, I could see past that – because the story bounced all over the place. Some people love this writing style. For me, it is a struggle at times. You have to figure out whose story is being told and in what time frame multiple times even within the same chapter. Whew!
