ShelbySalerno

~ No spoilers are in the following review ~

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Shelby Salerno (@salerno_book2book)

“I rate this book 2.5 stars out of 5.0 stars!

Little Fires Everywhere is a dynamic and interesting novel, however my expectations simply weren’t met.”

This is the first novel we chose for the Brilliant Women’s Book Club (a family book club made to combat COVID blues – hehe yes, we finally picked a name!!). This book was recommended by one of our members because she found the television show to be entertaining and addicting, so why not start there?

None of us, however, finished the book feeling entertained or addicted to this version of the story. Note: According to others, the book and show are vastly different. I will have a look at the show in the future and let you know more about this!

Our club checked in over text message once everyone was finish with chapter 12. Sadly, I was the only member who had found the book to be enjoyable at that time. The rest of my book club wasn’t impressed. They found some of the main characters to be unlikeable, the plot to be messy, and the story overall to be boring.

I disagreed…..until about halfway through.

After Pearl and Tripp developed an unexpected relationship and Tripp’s sister had to make a life or death decision, I started to question what I was reading. My face was twisted into a constant expression of puzzlement and I was beginning to feel frustrated.

I don’t dislike this book but it’s far from my favorite for sure.

First of all, I expected Izzy to be the main focus considering that the book opens up with her having committed an illegal crime. I was sorely disappointed. Izzy is hardly even in the book, though to me she seems to be the most interesting character out of all of them what with her being alienated by her family along with her teenage misfit attitude (and…you know…the intrigue behind why she would go and commit a crime) . She makes the biggest statement in the novel and yet the less interesting characters are made to be the focus.

The other problem I have is that the plot of this novel consists more of multiple subplots rather than a single main idea. Ng jumps from event to event (and character narrative to character narrative) and though I believe I understand what she was trying to do (create little fires perhaps?) I hardly listened to the end of the book because I no longer cared. I could keep track of each person’s story, but after a while I couldn’t see how they were all relevant to one another nor what the motive was behind some of the characters drastic actions.

I craved a single narrative to rely on and unfortunately I never got one.

I don’t want to be harsh but I also don’t want to be overly nice, I’m so sorry Ng!! Celeste Ng is a wonderful writer, her word choice and detail are lovely and intriguing, however this book just didn’t hit the mark. Perhaps I’ll try another of hers and have a better review to give next time!

I rate this book 2.5 stars out of 5.0 stars!

Little Fires Everywhere is a dynamic and interesting novel, however, as a reader, my expectations simply weren’t met.