Little fires everywhere by Celeste Ng

In the placid and progressive suburb of Shakers heights, everything its meticulously planned from its lawns to its residents, local Elena Richardson knows this firsthand and has built her entire life around playing by the rules until Mia an enigmatic artist and single mother arrives with her daughter Pearl, and causes a slight uproar with her disregard for the rules.

When all four Richardson children become attached to the mother-daughter pair, and the Richardson’s friends attempt to adopt a Chinese baby, dividing the town into half, Elena becomes determined to look into Mia’s past and unearth her secrets.

But with the truth will come devastating consequences, and a ripple effect that will affect Elena’s family as well as Mia’s.

While Celeste’s first book did far better commercially, it is little fires everywhere that made a fair more poignant statement, both about the dangers of expecting rules to control everything, and the control long-held secrets have over us.

She writes with precision, unapologetic and concise, knowing exactly what she wants to say, and how to say it. She wastes no time on prose, or elongated metaphors, fluffed up or otherwise. Instead, she drops right into the heart of Shaker Heights in a way that makes it seem familiar and well-known.

Elena and Mia are two opposing sides of the same coin, acting on their maternal instincts, and the deep pull of their separate belief systems, but it’s the Richardson children who are diverse and dynamic, with each of them representing certain elements of being a teenager, with Pearl rounding them up.

Admittedly, the ending seems clear, as does the fate of all the characters, but it is far from it, and the last few pages leave you with quite a few surprises, enough to make you want more.