Little fires everywhere

It's hard to describe what this book is about. At the beginning you're dropped in dramatically, a family mansion is burning down, and we don't know what happened. But in flashbacks, we learn. It's a family drama story about a poor single mom, Mia, and her teenage daughter, living as tenants of the wealthy Richardson family in 'perfect' suburbia. But Mia has secrets from her past, and she soon clashes with Elena Richardson. It's predominantly a book about women. About growing up as a woman, motherhood, tough stuff like abortion, and the mean things women do to each other. Male characters play side-roles, but this book is really not about them. The writing is quite excellent, once it grabs you, there's no letting go. I enjoyed myself quite a bit.

Exquisitely crafted tale that starts as dozens of smoldering embers that find enough oxygen to become a full on conflagration that burn to the nearly infinite possibilities of motherhood into the reader’s heart. I loved almost everything about this book, except Mrs Richardson, whose almost villainous role felt at time overly moralistic and flat. Highly recommend!