
But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating costġ0 Little Fires Everywhere Book Club Questions Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. When old family friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town – and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.Įnter Mia Warren – an enigmatic artist and single mother- who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenage daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons.

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned – from the layout of the winding roads, to the colours of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. This means that if you choose to purchase, I’ll make a small commission.) Little Fires Everywhere SynopsisĮveryone in Shaker Heights was talking about it that summer: how Isabelle, the last of the Richardson children, had finally gone around the bend and burned the house down. If your book club also managed to watch the Hulu series, based on the novel, be sure to discuss the questions comparing the book and the show! This Little Fires Everywhere discussion guide also includes a synopsis of the story, selected reviews, and 3 related reads. These Little Fires Everywhere book club questions will support readers as they wind through the streets of Shaker Heights and sit with some challenging stuff. There are some parts of our past we can’t outrun, no matter how hard we try there are things in our lives that even a scorched earth restart can’t fix. It is about the human fascination with the “other”, and the hard truth that the best intentions don’t matter if the impact of our actions is dangerous. The story takes the complexities of race, class, and motherhood and confronts the challenging issues head-on–it’s a novel about art, truth, and the concepts of belonging and possession. This novel was an instant book club favorite but it isn’t an easy book to discuss.


Celeste Ng’s bestselling novel Little Fires Everywhere reminds us that perfection is a veneer, and that the ideal life, the ideal family, and the ideal neighborhood are all unattainable fantasies. Behind the veil of how we present ourselves, there is always more to the story.
