15 Challenging Little Fires Everywhere Book Club Questions
Reading Little Fires Everywhere with your book club? These Little Fires Everywhere discussion questions will get the conversation going!
Released in 2017, Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng proved to be a smash-hit novel. Later adapted into a TV show starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, it’s a challenging story that is the perfect pick for a book club.
Little Fires Everywhere is the tale of two very different families. First, there are the Richardsons: Elena, a reporter for the local paper, successful defense attorney Bill, and their three teenage children.
The Richardsons live an idyllic life in Shaker Heights. It’s an ordered life – predictable, reliable, orderly.
But their world is upended when the Warrens – photographer and artist Mia, and her quiet teenage daughter Pearl – come to live in the Richardson’s rental home.
The Warrens live a nomadic life, the kind of life that Elena cannot comprehend for herself.
In the background, a custody battle rumbles on. When a baby is abandoned on the steps of a fire station, local couple Linda and Mark McCollough happily take her in.
They name her Mirabelle, and it seems like fate that she would end up with them. But what happens when the baby’s birth mother comes back onto the scene?
It’s an interesting tale, full of conflict and complex family dynamics. If this novel is your book club pick, here’s a list of Little Fires Everywhere book club questions to get the discussion going!
Please note there will be spoilers ahead for those who have not yet read Little Fires Everywhere.
Little Fires Everywhere Book Club Questions
Firstly, let’s talk about foreshadowing.
(1) Early in the book, Pearl asks Mia if she was wanted. Mia, after a bit of thought, responds ‘Oh, yes. You were wanted. Very much.’ (p.51)
Did you see the twist about the surrogacy coming? Did you pick up on any other hints about the big secret Mia was hiding?
(2) Some of the Richardsons seem to take ownership of Pearl in different ways, with Lexie, Moody, and Trip perceiving her in different ways.
How does each child react to Pearl, and what does that say about their personalities and biases?
(3) Elena seems to force her good deeds upon Mia. When Elena offers Mia a job, Mia observes that ‘when people were bent on doing what they believed was a good deed, it was usually impossible to dissuade them.’ (p.79)
Do you think Elena genuinely wants to help people, or does she perform good deeds for another reason? How do you think you would respond if you were in Mia’s shoes?
(4) Elena has many negative thoughts about her youngest daughter Izzy. It seems to stem from her difficult pregnancy and birth.
Do you think that their relationship would have been different if Elena had received help in processing her own feelings after Izzy’s birth? Do you think the same situation would happen today, or do you think awareness around postnatal mental health is better?
(5) Izzy seems to want to interrupt the status quo. She is unafraid to ask difficult questions, and she reacts strongly to what she perceives to be an injustice.
What do you think the motivation is for Izzy’s behaviour?
(6) The Warren’s nomadic lifestyle has an obvious impact on Pearl. She doesn’t feel rooted to her past. Mia thinks about her one rule: ‘Don’t get attached. To any place, to any apartment, to anything. To anyone.’ (p.138)
How do you think Mia copes with this lack of connection with others? What are the implications of this when it comes to Mia and Pearl’s relationship?
(7) Shaker Heights sounds idyllic to some: a neat, ordered, predictable town where everything runs like clockwork. Shaker Heights has a huge impact on Elena – it has ‘infused her to the core’ (p.179).
How has Shaker Heights shaped the Richardson family? How do you think it has impacted the children to live such a stress-free, idyllic lifestyle?
(8) During the court battle, lawyer Ed Lim questions Linda McCullough about Mirabelle’s (or May-Ling’s) Chinese heritage. He ponders the idea of representation in books, toys, and other media for children.
Do you think Mirabelle (or May-Ling) would have had enough of a connection to her birth culture had she ultimately stayed with the McCulloughs? Do you think representation has improved in recent times?
(9) Little Fires Everywhere explores the concept of motherhood and the secrets mothers and daughters keep from each other.
What did you think of Elena and Mia’s contrasting parenting styles?
(10) On the surface, Elena and Mia seem like completely different people. However, there are similarities – for example, you see some of Elena’s journalistic tendencies in Mia when she researches the Ryan family during the surrogacy process.
Are Elena and Mia similar in other ways?
(11) There are plenty of fire metaphors throughout the book, culminating in Izzy’s final act. We know the fate of the Richardson house from the first chapter of the book.
Did you like knowing the final outcome right at the start? Would you have preferred to have the fire unveiled at the end?
(12) Izzy contemplates her family as she prepares to set the house on fire. She seems to have a damaged relationship with everyone. After the fire, she sets off, armed with information about Mia’s past. (p.372)
What do you imagine happened to Izzy, in the end? Do you think she would have found the Warrens eventually?
(13) At the very end of the book, Elena contemplates her ruined relationship with Izzy.
Do you think they will repair that relationship eventually? How could Elena begin to make things better with her daughter?
(14) Quietly, Bill begins to have doubts about the custody battle. He contemplates Elena and her fondness for categorizing everything as either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.
‘In fact, most of the time there were simply ways, none of them quite wrong or right, and nothing to tell you for sure which side of the line you stood on.’ (p.310)
What did you think about Bill’s character? Was he as well-developed as some of the other characters in the book? Would you have liked to see more from Bill’s perspective?
(15) And finally, the obvious question. Celeste Ng explores a complicated issue with the custody battle. You have to feel sorry for both Linda McCullough, who deeply loves and cares for the baby.
However, the pain that Bebe feels is almost unbearable to contemplate, too.
Izzy thinks about this as she watches Bebe break down after the final verdict: ‘If a soul could leave the body, she thought, this is the sound it would make: like the screech of a nail being pulled from old wood.’ (p.340)
If you were a resident of Shaker Heights, watching this custody battle unfold, which side of the argument would you land on? What do you think would be the best outcome for May-Ling/Mirabelle?
I hope these questions can help to facilitate a juicy book club discussion! If you want to chat about Little Fires Everywhere online, leave a comment below with your answers to the questions.
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