Little Fires Everywhere is the story of rich and poor colliding.
The Richardson family is happy and settled in Shaker Heights, America’s first planned community, where the houses follow a colour palette and the community rules ensure garbage is never in sight and noise never hits a certain level. Their three children are top in class and have strong, confident personalities.
The Warren family (Mia and her teen daughter Pearl) are basically modern-day gypsies who travel America and never stay settled for long. Mia is an artist and works odd jobs to pay for rent and food. Pearl is crackerjack smart and easily adaptable to new schools and homes. Mia and Pearl move into the Richardson’s rental duplex and quickly turn heads.
The Richardson’s are not the rich family here. They are certainly rich in terms of house and lands, but they are each limited by emotional or environmental constraints. And they are each deeply affected by the relationships they have with Mia and Pearl.
It all comes to a head when longtime friends of the Richardson’s try to adopt a Chinese-American baby who has been left at the town firehall, and the birth mother turns up to claim the baby. Class hierarchy, racism, and pro-American ideologies are brought to the forefront, which divides the Richardson family and forces Mia and Pearl to uproot again.
I found this book to be a compelling page-turner about breaking and bending the rules, and why we need to think about the identity we create for ourselves and when it’s time to let it go. Little Fires Everywhere is smart, funny, and insightful. Most of the characters are very likeable, despite how devastating the consequences of their actions are.