Currently Reading...

 Little Fires Everywhere

by Celeste Ng

Penguin Books, 2017

Summary from Goodreads: 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.

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 Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the 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 old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town - and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia's past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating cost . . . (Goodreads).

I picked this book because it was on the NYT Bestseller list for awhile and Barack Obama added it to his recommendations list that he publishes every year. I really like mystery, so I thought it might be fun to read and then watch the television series that was created based on the book. Now that I'm a little ways into the book, I am enjoying the different characters and learning each of their stories through flashbacks. It's interesting that once I'm feeling a little put out with a character or not understanding why they're doing what they're doing, the story will switch perspectives and give me a little more backstory to help me understand them, and I usually end up liking them more as a result. The most interesting part of this book is the beginning - the story starts at the end, with the fires, and then the entire book is written with you, the reader, trying to understand who is really at fault and why they started the fire in the house that most of the book is set in. I feel like I'm on their side, but I'm excited to find out if I keep that perspective as more and more is revealed. I'll let you know...

Happy Reading!

- C