Little Fires Everywhere Book Club Questions

Book Club Questions for Little Fires Everywhere Header

Joining or starting a book club is a great way to meet other readers from different walks of life and share the experience of reading a thought-provoking book.

New York Times bestseller Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng is a great choice for a book club read, with its wide array of themes. You can talk about identity and heritage, as well as transience and assimilation.

What really makes your identity? Is it easy to find or discover? These questions and others make for a reflective discussion with your reading group! 

What Are the Themes of Little Fires Everywhere? 

If you haven’t read the book yet, here is a little background to help you along. The story revolves around two families. The Richardsons live in an affluent suburb, and rent out a home to single mom Mia and her daughter Pearl. 

But the peace in the community is shattered when the Richardsons get involved in a case, where their friends are fighting for custody in the adoption of a Chinese-American baby. This opens up a whole can of worms for socio-economic and racial questions, while also exploring the world of motherhood and what it means to be a mom.

20 Book Club Questions for Little Fires Everywhere 

If you are leading a book club discussion of Little Fires Everywhere, check out some of these questions you can use to fan a discussion into flame (pardon the pun!). 

Note: If you haven’t read the book yet, these questions may contain spoilers! 

  1. How would you describe and compare Mia and Mrs. Richardson as mothers? How do their choices affect their lives? Why do you think Mrs. Richardson is always addressed with the formal “Mrs.” while Mia is addressed by her first name? How does this intentional distinction affect your view of the two women?
  2. Mrs. Richardson believes it’s the duty of the elite to share with the less fortunate, and thinks of herself as an open-minded and generous person. Would you agree with her self-assessment? 
  3. Describe the four Richardson children and their relationships between them. How does their financial background affect their views of life? Do any of them have a more sympathetic view than the others? 
  4. Describe Pearl. How do you think her experience of being frequently uprooted affects her perspective of life? Why is she drawn to the Richardsons? 
  5. How do the Richardson children respond to Pearl? How does Mia feel about Pearl’s relationship with the Richardson family? 
  6. Why do you think Mrs. Richardson seems more critical and impatient with Izzy than her other children? Why do you think Izzy is described as almost a “lunatic” right in the first paragraph of the book? What do you learn about her as the book progresses? 
  7. Why do you think Izzy and Mia are drawn to each other? How do you explain why Izzy and Pearl seem to feel more comfortable in the other mothers’ homes? How would you describe their mother-daughter dynamics? 
  8. What do you think about the case surrounding the adoption and custody battle? Whom do you side with? Why do you think different people chose different sides in the issue? Notice that some people wavered in their own opinions. Did your own choice change throughout the book? How, and why? 
  9. How do the differences between the two mothers affect their stances on the adoption issue?
  10. What do you think about how Mia handled her pregnancy with Pearl? How do you think she should’ve proceeded? 
  11. How does the book treat class and race? How do you think it impacts what happens in the story and how the characters act? 
  12. What do you think about Shaker Heights being touted as “a little bit of heaven on earth?” Would you like to live there yourself? Why do you think the author chose a place like that for the setting of the novel? 
  13. How does the setting being in a planned community affect the plot of the story? And why do you think the custody battle had the power to tear the community apart? How do you think the story would have unfolded if it had happened in a more urban setting? 
  14. Why do you think the author chose to open the book with the fire incident? How do you think this choice in structure affected the way you understood the story? 
  15. How does the fire affect Mrs. Richardson? What does she realize about Izzy? How do you feel about Mrs. Richardson at the start of the book, compared with the end? 
  16. Are you happy with the ending? What would you like to think happens to Mia, Pearl, and Izzy?
  17. Why do you think the book is titled Little Fires Everywhere? What kind of symbolic little fires do you see throughout the book? 
  18. The book is set in the 1990s. How do you think the same story would have played out differently if set in the present day?
  19. Do you think Mia and Mrs. Richardson have transformed as mothers by the end of the book? If so, in what ways and why? 
  20. The book has been adapted into a TV series, where Kerry Washington plays Mia. Do you think Kerry’s being a woman of color will affect the story? 

Download and print these discussion questions to share with your book club.

Leading Deep Book Discussions 

Discussing a book with a book club can help you dig deep into key issues and themes, sometimes more than you could on your own. Reading clubs allow members to share different perspectives without being judged. 

So what are you waiting for? Get your club together, plan your discussion questions, gather your food and drinks, and start delving into the important issues in this book. You’ll have a more enriched reading experience by exploring different points of views! 

Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!

 

If you enjoyed this post, then you might also like:

The post Little Fires Everywhere Book Club Questions appeared first on TCK Publishing.

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