Brief Summary: 

Little Fires Everywhere takes place in Shaker Heights, Ohio, in the 1990s. Shaker Heights is a very strict neighborhood that has rules and regulations for every little thing, even the exact place where to keep the trash bin. Elena Richardson is one of the main characters. Due to inheriting her grandparent’s wealth, she now comfortably works as a journalist while raising her four children, Lexie, Trip, Moody, and Izzy. Elena owns a duplex at Winslow Road, and she rents it out, not for money. Instead, the type of tenant was what mattered to her, and she chose who got to DESERVE the house based on it. Mia Warren and her daughter, Pearl were the family who Elena chose to rent the second floor. Mia seemed like a responsible woman and Pearl looked brilliant. 

While Lexie and Trip were typical Shaker Heights students—self-confident and proud of themselves— Moody and Izzy were different. Especially Izzy, who always made trouble at school, and sometimes acted rude and unexpected. Moody, on the other hand, was more quiet and curious. He enjoyed going out and riding his bike around the neighborhood. One day he just happened to listen to his mother talking about the new tenants, and suddenly drove his bike to Winslow Drive. That’s how Moody and Pearl first met, when Pearl caught Moody peeking at Mia and her outside the street. Since Pearl had been moving around often due to her mother’s art projects, she never had a close friend, and Moody became the first one.

After Pearl visits Moody’s house, she starts to admire Richardson’s life. Living in a big house with both parents and siblings, she thought that Moody lived a perfect life unlike hers. She didn’t know who her father was. In fact, she didn’t even know if she was wanted or not. She started to spend more time with Moody and Richardsons. She stayed at their house longer than her own house at Winslow Road, and her mom wasn’t too happy about it. 

Elena Richardson had a friend, Linda McCullough. Ever since her marriage with Mark McCullough, they wanted a child. However, it wasn’t as easy as they thought. After time passed, they got a contact that there was a baby left in the fire station, and they could adopt her if they wanted. Even though she was an Asian baby, race didn’t matter to them. They named her Mirabelle McCullough and cared for her with much love. After a year passed, they decide to throw the first Birthday Party for Mirabelle, and of course Linda invited her best friend Elena and her family.

Lexie was telling Pearl about Mirabelle, how she was so adorable and tiny, how she was picked up at the fire station, and all those things after she visited the birthday party. Mia’s heart started pounding when she heard that Mirabelle was found at the fire station. She had a coworker at the Chinese restaurant Lucky Palace named Bebe Chow, who told Mia about her story that she got abandoned by her boyfriend when she got pregnant. Without any money or hope, Bebe had to leave her baby, May Ling, in front of the fire station, and she added that she regretted her choice. Mia desired to tell Bebe about Mirabelle. She wanted to help her. 

Elena Richardson was very angry at Mia after she realized she was the one who started the custody case that made her friend, Linda, fall into strong feelings of loss and depression. She was a journalist, who believed that she could discover anything. So Elena decided to visit Mia’s house and investigate her past as revenge for her friend, which was already proven to be suspicious after she found out Mia’s last name was Wright, not Warren.

Personal Review:

I really enjoyed reading this book, especially because it showed that every person has good and bad sides. Characters each have their own reasons to act certain ways, and it was detailed enough for me as a reader to understand why they decided to do that, regardless of the right or wrong of those actions. Pearl was a caring and kind friend to Lexie, but at the same time, she was lying to the rest of the Richardsons. She was a good girlfriend of Trip, but a poor friend to Moody. Mia was a savior to Bebe, but shattered the peace of the McCullough family as well. Though McCullough was a perfect mother for Mirabelle, in Bebe’s perspective, she was a person who stole her dear baby. The story seemed more realistic with each character’s own stories. 

It was fun to read as I understood the deeper personality of the characters. For example, Elena is the type of person who self-justifies every action of hers. She also tends to be jealous of Mia, who seems to be more free and doesn’t care about what others think. She had the feeling of inferiority because Mia had traits that Elena didn’t have, as she grew up in a bird cage called Shaker Heights. It was also interesting that as the story goes on, Lexie imagined her being a daughter of Mia, who loved her daughter unconditionally, while Pearl imagined her being a part of Richardson’s family. They admired something that they didn’t have. Lastly, I learned from the book that there is something everyone has to carry out through their own life, no matter how painful it might be. It could be anything, like wrong choices you’ve made in the past, medical history, or even a family. 

Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)

Written by Chloe Ko 

Edited by Sarasi Rout