Everyone 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.
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. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.
Enter 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. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than just tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.
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. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at an unexpected and devastating cost . . .
Little Fires Everywhere is about community, family, friendship, and what happens when those bonds are tested. The novels below have similar themes.
If you haven’t had a chance to read Little Fires Everywhere you can put a hold on a copy through our catalog or on Libby/Overdrive.
The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy
A group of new moms who all gave birth in the month of May gather twice weekly at the park to offer support and companionship before one of the babies is shatteringly abducted, subjecting his traumatized mother to invasive questions and prompting the others to go to increasingly risky lengths to help.
The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger
A previously happy group of friends and parents is nearly destroyed by their own competitiveness when an exclusive school for gifted children opens in the community. This deliciously sharp novel captures the relentless ambitions and fears that animate parents and their children in modern America, exploring the conflicts between achievement and potential, talent and privilege.
The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
Enrolling in a project that allows them to live in safe homes between alternate service months spent in prison, a homeless couple is threatened by troubling events stemming from the wife’s involvement with another project member.
The Art of Crash Landing by Melissa DeCarlo
Broke and knocked up, Mattie Wallace she drives from the Florida Panhandle to her mother’s birthplace, the tiny town of Gandy, Oklahoma. There, she learns that her mother remains a local mystery, a happy, talented teenager who inexplicably skipped town thirty-five years ago with nothing but the clothes on her back.
The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
When a bizarre phenomenon causes the cataclysmic disappearances of numerous people all over the world, Kevin Garvey, the new mayor of a once-comfortable suburban community, struggles to help his neighbors heal while enduring the fanatical religious conversions of his wife and son.
The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson
In a community of wealthy Bay Area families, Molly Nicholl, a replacement teacher from a poorer, scrubbier version of California, arrives in the middle of the school year and soon becomes intrigues by the hidden lives of her privileged students. These teens are all navigating in a world in which every action may become public — postable, shareable, indelible — a world Molly finds both alluring and dangerous.
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Vampire Slaying by Grady Hendrix
A South Carolina women’s book club must protect its suburban community from a mysterious stranger who turns out to be a real monster. Hendrix’s latest novel, possibly his darkest yet, addresses racism, sexism, and the mistaken belief that housewives are dull.
Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li
A working family that has built a busy life running a beloved Maryland Chinese restaurant is forced by youthful recklessness and a tragedy to confront interpersonal conflicts and the limits of what parents are willing to sacrifice for their children.
Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
In the New York suburbs a lifelong friendship and love blossoms between neighbors Kate Gleeson and Peter Stanhope, born six months apart. One shocking night their loyalties are divided, and their bond will be tested again and again over the next thirty years. Heartbreaking and redemptive, this is a gorgeous and generous portrait of the daily intimacies of marriage and the power of forgiveness.
Family Trust by Kathy Wang
The Huangs are faced with unexpected challenges that upend them and eventually lead them to discover what they most value in this compelling tale of cultural expectations, career ambitions and our relationships with the people who know us best.
The Mothers by Brit Bennett
Set within a contemporary black community in Southern California, this emotionally perceptive story about community, love, and ambition begins with a secret. In entrancing, lyrical prose, The Mothers asks whether a “what if” can be more powerful than an experience itself. If, as time passes, we must always live in servitude to the decisions of our younger selves, to the communities that have parented us, and to the decisions we make that shape our lives forever.
Libby/Overdrive