Celeste Ng's 'Little Fires Everywhere' is an easy read but not a keeper

The Richardson family is an attractive, middle-class one living in a large, comfortable house in Shaker Heights, a progressive, picture-perfect suburb in Cleveland, Ohio. Mrs Richardson owns a small walk-up in a less affluent section of that suburb and her newest tenants are photographer Mia Warren and her daughter Pearl.

Mia is as unconventional and eccentric as you’d expect any artist to be ... or is she? When she moves from town to town, refusing to put down roots and form ties, is it to do with the relentless call of her muse or is Mia running from something? Whatever the case, she tells Pearl that they are staying put this time. Mia understands that her daughter needs the stability that her life has thus far lacked: Pearl is near the end of her time in secondary school and will soon have to think of college entrance exams and applications.