Review of Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng (ISBN: 0735224293)

Synopsis

Boy Scout Troop 801 is on a weekend camping trip to Joshua Tree National Park in California. It is a very normal trip, with very normal activities, very normal kids, with very normal parents, in a very normal camping area, with very normal results.

On Saturday morning, one of the kids suggests that they have a fire-making competition with the Girl Scout troop camping near them. To do this, the child, George, distributes matches, lighter fluid, sticks, and dead branches to all of the camp sites. He soaks the sticks and branches in lighter fluid, and then introduces his idea to the scouts.

After gathering all of the children together, he presents his idea. There is stunned silence, and then finally a roar of cheers. All of the kids grab matches, and go back to their camp sites to make fire. Within a few minutes, there are little fires everywhere, as per the title of the book.

When the parents and park rangers see the fires, they immediately descend on the camp sites and begin to shovel dirt on the fires. As many fires as the parents put out, the kids light more. They light fires on cars, on rocks, in the middle of roads, and in Joshua trees and Yucca trees.

George declares that the Girl Scouts have won the competition, and they celebrate by making s’mores.

After gathering up the scouts and tying their hands together, one of the parents then reads the Count of Monte Cristo as a way of keeping the kids occupied while the police figure out who is to blame for the disturbance.

Review

This is a book about a Boy Scout troop and a Girl Scout troop run amok. Parents are nowhere in sight for most of the book, but do come to the rescue at the end by delivering low French culture to the kids in the form of 19th century serial fiction (complete transcript is included).

This book will go down in my memory as the one which finally got me to read the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo. Somehow, after enjoying the capers of the scouting troops, and then realizing that they were really just little felons in training, I felt that I needed to humbly sit and listen as a parental figure recited Victor Hugo’s masterpiece. There was a slight implication that somehow the parents were going to exact revenge, and I wanted to be in those characters’ good side when that happened (a sequel, perhaps?).

Overall, this was a disturbing, yet somehow fulfilling experience.

Conclusions

If you have kids who are considering joining Scouting, are in the midst of teenage angst, or have previously lit fires in your house, you should avoid this book.

Otherwise, if you need something to give you a reason to read a long, boring, classic French book in a modern politically correct translation, try this one out.

I’m giving this book one and a half stars, but don’t let that scare you away. I just really thought the book stunk.

Thanks for reading,

Cyril Martinelli, for Novel Premise book reviews