Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - Little Fires Everywhere

i hate this book, i read it for book club and it was such a slow and bothersome read. the characters are introduced as stereotypes which was already annoying but i thought maybe that the author was trying to make a point about how the town is obsessed with the law and following rules, NO

ALL THE CHARACTERS ARE JUST ANNOYING TROPES THAT DONT GET BETTER!!

the author tries to write character development but half of the characters (trip, izzy, moody, etc) don’t really matter in the book and are tied to important characters like mia or mrs richardson but they don’t change or are only used to progress others.

i didn’t enjoy the personalities of the characters or the plot of the book, it was very bland even when the baby trial was happening. the best part of the book was mia’s childhood, but other than that i found it somewhat boring to read.

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lynssss's review

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emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

This story is an engrossing one that reads more like magical realism than contemporary fiction. I would best describe it as a modernized American fairy tale or folk legend. "What if your cleaning lady was the Virgin Mary?" If you will. While the cast of characters are diverse and the topics and themes the book touches on are interesting to dive into, at the end of the day it seems to answer these questions with moral platitudes and wrap it up with a pretty bow. I also thought it was odd that the book didn't really discuss how taboo mental illness was at that time despite alluding to it several times. Maybe in that sense it stayed very on theme by not mentioning it. At the end i did rush to finish it because I wanted to see how things would all turn out for everyone that we don't really get to know all that deeply but at the end you are left with an anticlimactic and somewhat vague ending. I don't feel that any of the characters did grow at the end of the book, or if they did, it's because they are magically converted to Mia-ism through their past contact with her and her quiet sermons she passes on to them. On the other hand I'm interested to look into the show and see if there is any differences in the adaptation. 3.25/5 stars.

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telemesmerism's review

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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wends_nblw's review

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

i hate white people. /hj
im a little sad about the ending.

Spoiler

i mean, how did mrs. richardson react to lexie being the one who had an abortion? what happened to izzy? how did pearl leaving affect trip? how does this affect how the family operates?

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kkalicky94's review

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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gillbethkinder's review

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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lastsilversunset's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

5.0

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sourpatchsoph's review

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I finished Little Fires Everywhere in one day. It was engrossing - the twists and turns gave me whiplash at times - but also achingly beautiful, and I already know I'm going to have a hard time thinking about anything except Celeste Ng's characters for the next week or so. Some of them are really unlikeable - because they're irritating or childish or patronizing, or all three - but my chest hurts for them anyways because of how well their internal conflicts and complexity were written. I've never read a novel that left me hoping for better, more hopeful endings for characters I didn't even really like.

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