Little Fires Everywhere

(It came, over and over, down to this: What made someone a mother? Was it biology alone, or was it love?)

I'm not sure if there was a more loved book in 2017 than Little Fires Everywhere. It had been on my to-read list for some time, but the stars aligned in January as the new book club I discovered (yay!) picked it as February's to-read right at the time that my hold was finally coming due from the library. That plus a long plane flight gave me ample time to settle in to the story. 

Little Fires Everywhere an enjoyable read, and likely one that gains depth and nuance with each retelling. Ng explores the areas of tension that arise when two family's paths cross - the messy spaces where structure and planning collide with an artist's wandering natures, where teenagers fall in love and lust, and where secrets are created and unearthed in surprising ways. More than anything, what I loved about this book was the exploration of what it means to be a mother, and to be mothered - and of course, there's no clear answer, but Ng does an incredible job of drawing out the various relationships, always with love and complexity. This is the kind of book where it's truly the characters driving the action, and not the action driving the characters. I especially loved the relationship between Izzy and her mother - which I won't go into detail about why, because I cannot do it justice the way Ng does. 

My biggest piece of critique is the storyline of Mirabelle, who is introduced in the beginning and then her thread is dropped until it picks up speed again (and fast) in the last third of the book, where it felt a little jarring to me. I had actually forgotten about her and had to take a beat to remember who was being reintroduced and why. Other than that, this was a lovely read, and I'm very  much looking forward to discussing it in depth at book club next week!

4/5 stars.