I don’t know if I was ever really planning to read Little Fires Everywhere, but it’s been so popular and I want to watch the tv show, so I decided to give the book a chance, and I’m so happy I did because I enjoyed it quite a bit.
I didn’t know what the story was about before I started reading it, but it’s a multi-family drama that’s at its core about what it means to be a family. The children latch on to their friends’ parents instead of their own, and the mothers have to make some hard decisions. I think this book was a great commentary about family.
I didn’t expect to be when I first started the audiobook but I was hooked throughout the entire story. I would have finished it in one day had I not needed to go to work because I wanted nothing more than to know what would happen next. The plot is truly engaging.
Interestingly, the story is written in a third-person omniscient perspective, which is unusual to see. I found this point of view to be necessary, however, to see into the minds of all the characters and see how all their emotions and thoughts interconnected and to help the reader understand information that we would know no other way. I thought this was a smart writing technique here; it wouldn’t have worked in all books but it definitely worked in this one.
I wonder how much of what is said about Shaker Heights is true. It is such a strict, rich suburban town, and I can see it all being true, but also it does seem a bit over-exaggerated. I was surprised to learn Shaker Heights is actually a real town, and I kind of want to go visit it now.
One criticism I do have is that I kept getting Izzy and Lexie mixed up. I don’t know if their names were too similar-sounding or what but I had to think really hard about who was being referenced whenever one of their names came up in the audiobook, and a couple of times I thought one of them was doing something when it was actually the other one. The confusion didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of the story too much, but I do think the names could have been more distinct from each other.
I liked Little Fires Everywhere a lot. I was interested in all the people and their stories and how they intertwined with each other. Pearl was my favorite. I can’t pinpoint exactly why I gave this book four stars instead of five; there was nothing that I didn’t like, but for some reason it just wasn’t a five-star read for me. I still really enjoyed the story though and was swept up in everyone’s lives, and I was very pleased with the ending. I’m even more excited for the show now, and I would definitely recommend checking out the book before the show’s release.
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