Devi Nair
🎧 Listened in audio 📢 Narrated by Jennifer Lim ⏱ Duration: 11 hours 🏷️ Publisher: Penguin Audio and Penguin Press (12 September 2017) 📚 Read as a part of May Book Club reads
Book clubs everywhere were raving about Little Fires Everywhere, and I went in ready for family drama, moral complexity, and that Celeste Ng magic everyone kept mentioning. but by 60%, I was still feeling like I had wandered into a beautifully written maze with no exit sign. The audiobook also didn’t help me connect in a way that kept me invested, and that’s usually a dealbreaker for me when a story leans this heavily on atmosphere and character tension.
What frustrated me most was that I kept asking the same question: where is this going? I could see that the novel was reaching for themes like privilege, motherhood, rules, control, and identity, but the emotional pull just never landed for me. This one had all the signs of a strong book club conversation, and I can absolutely see why it works for readers who like slow-burn literary fiction, but in my case, the pacing and structure left me detached instead of intrigued.
🎧 Listened in audio 📢 Narrated by Jennifer Lim ⏱ Duration: 11 hours 🏷️ Publisher: Penguin Audio and Penguin Press (12 September 2017) 📚 Read as a part of May Book Club reads
Book clubs everywhere were raving about Little Fires Everywhere, and I went in ready for family drama, moral complexity, and that Celeste Ng magic everyone kept mentioning. but by 60%, I was still feeling like I had wandered into a beautifully written maze with no exit sign. The audiobook also didn’t help me connect in a way that kept me invested, and that’s usually a dealbreaker for me when a story leans this heavily on atmosphere and character tension.
What frustrated me most was that I kept asking the same question: where is this going? I could see that the novel was reaching for themes like privilege, motherhood, rules, control, and identity, but the emotional pull just never landed for me. This one had all the signs of a strong book club conversation, and I can absolutely see why it works for readers who like slow-burn literary fiction, but in my case, the pacing and structure left me detached instead of intrigued.