Alex's Reviews > Little Fires Everywhere

Ng follows up her debut best-seller, Everything I Never Told You, with another take on 1990s family drama, focusing on familiar themes of motherhood, teenage angst, suburban culture, and issues of race and racism. Although I found the style a bit too commercial Ng does manage to pull all the threads together and finish everything with a very satisfying bang. I give Ng credit, because she has things down to a formula (without being too formulaic) and one cannot claim she doesn't deal with weighty themes. She is able to give readers a weighty book with a touch of levity that doesn't burden us with obtuse writing or neglected plots. Similar to her previous book, Ng manages to capture the hallow feelings of failed suburban parenthood quite brilliantly, leaving the reader feel a bit uncomfortable at the end yet eager for more. So although I didn't feel it was quite a 5 star read (although I was tempted at the end), Ng will be an author I'll pick up whenever she publishes a new book and clearly lots of people feel this way since Little Fires Everywhere went up the best seller charts quite quickly.

In the end, very good book and worth picking up.