The book Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng is an interesting character study about a suburban family with four teenagers in Shaker Heights, Ohio. The book works through some perhaps common themes of items such as suburban ideals versus deviant rejection of these principles, but does so with intriguing story telling.
One of my favorite things that Ng did in this book was unravel the story in a way that almost carelessly (but clearly intentionally) dropped hints along the way of future parts of the story while keeping the details locked up -- early on the book outlines an event with a fire, talks about a town controversy, details a mother and daughter leaving town in the middle of the night, and some interpersonal challenges between a group of four siblings. What is it all about you ask? And the book lets the intrigue unfold one question at a time.
In addition to Ng's story telling, she also does a great job of demonstrating an understanding of people. The characters she creates generally seem reasonable and believable. These may be characters but they not only seem believably but also reasonable archetypes on a suburban community.
As on of my book choices for 2018 (12 books in 2018 goal), this was an enjoyable selection and addition, not to mention, pleasantly intriguing.
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