Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Book Review: 'All the Lives I Want: Essays About My Best Friends Who Happen to Be Famous Strangers' by Alana Massey

To say this book was right up my alley would be an understatement.

All the Lives I Want is an essay collection "examining the intersection of the personal with pop culture through the lives of pivotal female figures," covering everyone from Sylvia Plath to Britney Spears (two female figures I love very much so you could say I was pretty much sold from my first read of the blurb). It's a very interesting analysis of pop culture, specifically feminism (or lack thereof) in pop culture, so as someone who is very pop culture obsessed and always has been, I very much appreciated the overall tone and approach of this book.

I will admit though, it wasn't really what I was expecting. Not really in a bad way, I still enjoyed what it is, but I was expecting a bit more of a link to Massey's own life at times. She does explain her own fascination with certain famous females in some of the essays, but even then, it felt like you had to use your imagination during those times to really get a picture of how these ladies tie into her own life. But then it would go to the other extreme - where she will just drop subtle information about her personal life that the reader is supposed to understand seamlessly, information that somehow functions as both not enough information and too much information. For this reason, I think a lot of the essays are missing a bit of depth, in that they feel like the start of something that should go on longer to include herself in the essays a bit more as the blurb promises. Not that I picked up All the Lives I Want wanting to read all about Alana Massey - I don't know much about her at all; I wanted to read her analysis of female figures and pop culture - but it seems like there was a missing link on more than one occasion. That and she just casually mentions that she once worked as a stripper, had an eating disorder, and had a sexually abusive sugar daddy, elaborating on none of them.

A few essays I enjoyed in particular were the one comparing Lana Del Rey, Fiona Apple and Dolly Parton (there's a surprising connection between the three musical ladies, plus it's just a very interesting look at pop music conventions for women that don't apply to men), as well as the one about Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. According to her essay, the twins were cast on Full House as infants because they were the only babies who didn't cry at the audition - and she traces their success as child stars and later as adults back to a joint career built off of not crying at one pivotal audition. Really makes you think about troubled child stars in a different way, especially considering that Mary-Kate and Ashley have always been among child stars who have surprised people by not being more messed up than they already were.

Overall, I would recommend All the Lives I Want to anyone who enjoys pop culture and analyzing it, because Massey has definitely done her homework and provides some great insight into the lives of important female figures in regard to modern popular culture. 4/5 stars.

Saturday, February 24, 2018

Amy Schumer Can't Win

Amy Schumer can never win.
Full disclosure before we begin: I am a fan of Amy Schumer. I love her. I think she is hilarious, and her sense of humor often overlaps with my own. Whether or not the fact that I am a fan of hers will make me biased in this area is ultimately not up to me to decide, but I will say that the problem I am about to address is not really about Amy Schumer: it’s about the ridiculous bull that solely women endure in the media.
If you know who Amy Schumer is, I’d be willing to bet you’re indifferent to her, or you hate her for reasons such as she’s “too vulgar” or “too raunchy” or other adjectives I won’t use here. And that’s your prerogative to feel that way. People are free to like and dislike who and what they will, and it is important to understand that. I’m not someone who refuses to let someone dislike a celebrity even though their reasons for not liking them are bogus. However, I will acknowledge that people who dislike Amy Schumer because her stand-up comedy is too vulgar are really at the mercy of an ideological and cultural double standard that oppresses female comedians because they joke about their sexuality, their sex lives, their bodies, their body image, or things of this nature. People think comedians like Dane Cook or Russell Peters are hilarious when they make dirty jokes about themselves or the women in their lives on stage, but when Amy Schumer makes a joke about her vagina at the Apollo, she’s too vulgar. That’s it, that’s all, we don’t like her. She doesn’t have any more layers to her than that, and to top it off, she’s too fat. Amy Schumer needs to shut up and go away seems to be the consensus if you search her name on the Internet (in fact, the immediate video results that pop up when you Google her name are videos like “This Is Why It’s Hard to Like Amy Schumer,” “The Worst of Amy Schumer,” or “Proof That Amy Schumer Steals Jokes.” Spare me.)
Schumer’s body and appearance are another contributing factor in this double standard that, quite frankly, makes me want to vomit and move to another planet where garbage like this doesn’t exist. Amy Schumer is not a supermodel. I’m sure she would tell you that herself. But because she doesn’t generally fit Hollywood beauty standards, she is constantly made fun of and called fat by the media in different read-between-the-lines kind of ways. She appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair in May 2016, where she spoke about things like body image and how she’s made a name for herself just like any male comic has done—and has enjoyed the effects of the double standards surrounding it (her jokes have also been called out as racist in the past in further controversies that are just as stupid). It is Schumer’s assertiveness in both stand-up and in Hollywood that has gotten her both a following and a reputation—but reputation for what? Being funny in her own way? Not conforming to your beauty standards? Calling it as it is? Oh, that’s right, for being a woman who is being herself.
But what makes it worse is that people who will openly call bullshit on Hollywood beauty standards and how most supermodels have unhealthy lifestyles in order to remain unrealistically thin for a runway will still imply that Schumer is fat or ugly, at least for Hollywood, and she needs to take her privileged white woman self away from the spotlight. Anywhere you look on the Internet, this seems to be the consensus for the case of Amy Schumer. And frankly it’s not surprising. We like to think we live in a modern world where strong women can be themselves and flip the bird to conventional beauty standards, but we don’t really live in that world, especially when it comes to Hollywood. But Amy Schumer just keeps on doing her thing, continuing to bother people in the process for reasons they sometimes can’t even articulate, and remains stronger for it.

“People feel how they're going to feel. I was just kind of like, I'm a comic. Like, can we just skip this thing where I become famous and then you guys look to burn me at the stake for something? Is there any way we can skip that?”
—Schumer, Vanity Fair, 2017



A few weeks ago, Schumer unveiled the official trailer for her new movie, I Feel Pretty, which is scheduled for release in April. Because she bothers people for being her unabashed self, I know to just expect negative comments when it comes to Schumer being in a new movie or announcing a new project. The disgusting consensus towards her was clearer than ever to me last May, when her mother-daughter adventure comedy Snatched co-starring Goldie Hawn came out in theatres. I thought it looked super funny, obviously because of Schumer also because of Hawn, who made her first film appearance in 15 years in the buddy chick flick. But it felt like everyone I knew was turned off by it. “I don’t wanna go see a movie where Amy Schumer runs around the jungle with one-too-many-facelifts Goldie Hawn, y’know?” I just thought it was rude. Not because I like Schumer, but just because no one reacts this strongly when a male comic comes out with a new movie everyone knows is going to be stupid. Adam Sandler hasn’t had a decent movie in over a decade, yet do people make such a huge stink when his latest stupid buddy comedy flick comes out? Uh, no. But none of the negative comments that I saw when Snatched came out would prepare me for how angry I would be when the trailer for I Feel Pretty was released.

I Feel Pretty stars Schumer as Renee, a young woman who is constantly insecure and dissatisfied with her appearance. Right away, it becomes clear that her character is embodying everything most people think and feel about their bodies but often don’t say out loud because they know they shouldn’t feel that way about themselves, but they do. In a turn of events, Renee hits her head at the gym and wakes up believing she is the most beautiful woman in the world, free of insecurities about her appearance. That was all the Internet needed to know before they pounced—not only on Schumer, but the movie itself. People’s controversial reactions to the trailer immediately trended on Twitter, causing a lot of backlash on (you guessed it!) Ms. Schumer. The media’s treatment towards Schumer aside, it seemed that it was more the premise of I Feel Pretty that bothered people more than anything else—that a woman needs to have suffered a head injury in order to believe find confidence in herself and her appearance. People were immediately angered and started tweeting strongly worded reactions basically saying “women need to stop being so hard on themselves.” One tweet in particular read, “CAN THIN CONVENTIONALLY ATTRACTIVE WOMEN STOP PRETENDING THEY ARE SO FAT AND UGLY AND LIFE IS THE MOST DIFFICULT FOR THEM.” Oh, so now you believe that Amy Schumer is thin and conventionally attractive? After everyone has shat on her not being Hollywood beautiful with the body to go along with it? Now this is an issue for you? Interesting. Schumer most probably took this role because the character and the premise spoke to her, y’know, based on how people like you on social media beat on her for not adhering to your beauty standards, but now it’s an issue of “this movie is disgusting, women need to stop being so hard on themselves, that is NOT how to develop the confidence to succeed, blah, blah, BLAH”? Oh, okay. I see how it works.

Here’s the thing, chicken wing. I know we’d all like to believe we live in a world where everyone is born with this massive sense of self-confidence and we can grow up and live in a world where we are just so strong and so brave and so confident to take on everything. Just like the beauty standards you force on female stars like Amy Schumer, that is unrealistic. Not everyone bleeds confidence. Humans are not born with an immediate sense of confidence in themselves: things like that are learned and developed in different and not always constructive ways. We know we’re not supposed to stand at the mirror and criticize every tiny aspect of our appearance until we’ve convinced ourselves that we’re ugly and not worth anyone’s time or love. We know that we’re not supposed to do that and we’re supposed to have this natural sense of confidence in ourselves, but it doesn’t always work that way. We like to think that Dove and Special K commercials are the key to helping people achieve body positivity, but it’s more complicated than they would like you to believe. Tweeting out that this new movie is appallingly disgusting because “ugh! Women need to stop being so hard on themselves!” is not helping the problem, it’s contributing to the problem. You’re basically telling everyone to just be confident and tune out the haters; because they’re just gonna hate hate hate! Easier said than done, sweet pea. This is why I think it’s a refreshingly interesting premise to have a woman plagued and worn down by negative thoughts of herself and her appearance to actually have something change in her brain to make all those thoughts go away: just think, who would you be without that perfectionist in your head while you brush your hair or put your face on in the morning? I think that’s what this movie is trying to accomplish. I don’t think it’s going to be some “oh poor me” white woman narrative where a “thin conventionally attractive” woman tries to change herself in unhealthy and ultimately unnecessary ways. She hits her head one day and suddenly all of her insecurities are gone. How would you live your life if that happened? I don’t think many of us would be able to answer, because some insecurities are so ingrained in our beings that we wouldn’t know ourselves without them.
But, ultimately, I think the outrage over the I Feel Pretty trailer goes deeper than people being enraged over the idea of a woman having to hit her head to develop confidence in herself. I think the issue circles back around to who is starring in the movie: one Ms. Amy Schumer. People weren’t pleased last year when she starred in Snatched because people believed it was the female equivalent of a stupid Adam Sandler movie, and also, Amy Schumer is sucks and is unfunny. Okay. Then this year, she will be starring in a comedy that tackles important themes and issues such as body image and self-confidence, two things that are unfortunately huge in our world but oh wait—no, it’s problematic, it’s disgusting, and it makes people so angry. So you shit on her when she does stupid adventure comedy movies, running through the jungle with “one-too-many-facelifts” Goldie Hawn, you shit on her for being too raunchy and vulgar in Trainwreck (her 2015 comedy in which she wrote and made her film debut in a leading role), and now that she’s starring in a comedy addressing issues that you seem to have with her, it’s outraging? Disgusting? Makes you so angry you want to punch a wall? Again, interesting.
Damned if she does, damned if she doesn’t: Amy Schumer can’t win. She’s too fat, too raunchy, too vulgar, and not funny. And yes: I think it has a lot to do with her being a woman. I know it bothers people. I know it does. I know it bothers people to see a woman grab her own crotch during a stand-up routine, or appear on television or in a movie not appearing like other women in Hollywood. I know it bothers people. But, in a way, it’s good that it bothers you. Maybe by bothering you, it will start to tear down the double standards we all like to pretend aren’t there.

Saturday, February 10, 2018

33 Songs That Deserved Better



We only speak the truth here.

1. “A Little Work” – Fergie

Fergie’s depression and mental illness anthem is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. The 11-minute music video is well worth the watch. Strange, but worth the watch.
2. “All You Had to Do Was Stay” – Taylor Swift

The best song from 1989 and that’s all there is to say about THAT.

3. “Sledgehammer” – Fifth Harmony

I am not generally a fan of Fifth Harmony, but this song is amazing.

4. “Run Away with Me” – Carly Rae Jepsen

‘80s influenced pop greatness that everyone needs in their life.

5. “Make Me Like You” – Gwen Stefani

Gwen Stefani’s last album from 2016 was a bit too bubblegum pop for some of her fans, but I love almost every song.
6. “Unbroken” – Demi Lovato

Demi’s entire Unbroken album is among my personal favorites of hers. Deserved so much better.

7. “You Are the Only One” – Emily Osment

Did you know that Emily Osment from Hannah Montana and the Disney Channel sang for awhile when pop rock for teen stars was in? She can sing, y’all. We shouldn’t have let her flop.

8. “Thinking of You” – Kesha

I will blast this song in the car and will not care who watches me sing every word. Kesha’s Warrior album also deserved so much better.

9. “High Maintenance” – Miranda Cosgrove feat. Rivers Cuomo

iCarly wasn’t a great vocalist and only did the singing thing for a while because she was a hugely bankable teen star from Nickelodeon, but this song is good. Very good.

10. “Life Goes On” – Fergie

Fergie’s solo musical comeback after all those years made it feel like 2007 again. LISTEN AND APPRECIATE.

11. “Venus” – Lady Gaga

Gaga’s Artpop album is quite controversial—you either love it or you hate it. I’m not a fan, but “Venus” is a bop. Should have been a single.

12. “Primadonna” – Marina and the Diamonds

Marina and the Diamonds is one of the greatest artists of this generation and you all NEED to stop sleeping on her music. Her second album Electra Heart is a must-listen.

13. “Sober” – Selena Gomez

The best song on Revival. Should have been a single so “Same Old Love” and “Good For You” wouldn’t have been overplayed to death.

14. “It’s All Your Fault” – P!nk

I miss pop rock, don’t-give-zero-fucks P!nk! She will always have a special place in my heart.

15. “We Got Something They Don’t” – Shania Twain

One of the only songs from Shania’s latest album that reminds me the most of the old Shania Twain from the late ‘90s and early ‘00s.

16. “Big Girls Cry” – Sia

I feel like songs like “Chandelier” completely overshadowed Sia’s ability to deliver raw, nuanced songs like this one that tackle heavy subjects.

17. “In My Blood” – The Veronicas

I will be dragged off to a psychiatric hold screaming, “Why does no one else appreciate and listen to The Veronicas???”
18. “My Heart is Open” – Maroon 5 feat. Gwen Stefani

is Maroon 5’s best album. Fight me.

19. “Human” – Christina Perri

Everything about Christina Perri is beautiful and underrated.

20. “Heat” – Kelly Clarkson

This better be a future single from Clarkson’s Meaning of Life album because I’m mystified as to why no one else is talking about this song?

21. “Piano” – Ariana Grande

100% hands down the best song from Grande’s debut album. Why it wasn’t a single is beyond me.

22. “Rock N Roll” – Avril Lavigne

You either blast this song as loud as you can or you don’t listen to it at all.

23. “Better” – Britney Spears

Without a word of a lie, every song from Britney’s Glory album could have been a single. It’s almost as if the title of this song predicted its future: it deserved BETTER.

24. “This Kiss” – Carly Rae Jepsen

A bop that delivers disco and Funkytown vibes.

25. “Here We Go Again” – Demi Lovato

I love reliving timeless rock classics.

26. “Stuttering” – Fefe Dobson

Should have been a worldwide number one hit.

27. “Stone Cold” – Demi Lovato

Studies show that listening to Demi’s high note in “Stone Cold” adds about 5 years to one’s lifespan.

28. “Black Magic” – Little Mix

Little Mix is superior to just about every other girl group in pop music right now.

29. “Two More Lonely People” – Miley Cyrus

Miley’s entire Can’t Be Tamed era deserved oh so much better.

30. “No Mozart” – Natasha Bedingfield

I miss Natasha Bedingfield! I know she just had a baby, but is she ever gonna make new music again?

31. “Your Love” – Nicole Scherzinger

I don’t know why we let Nicole Scherzinger flop as a solo artist. She’s the whole package.

32. “Fragile” – Prince Fox feat. Hailee Steinfeld

Pure perfection and Hailee’s best collaboration.

33. “California King Bed” – Rihanna

I haven’t liked Rihanna since 2009 but hell if this isn’t one of those songs that makes you pretend cry and miss an ex you never even had, I don’t know what is.

For your listening pleasure, I also made a Spotify playlist for this list so you may educate yourself (with the exception of "High Maintenance" by Miranda Cosgrove, which strangely isn't available to everyone on Spotify).

Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Book Review: 'From This Moment On' by Shania Twain

You know those books that you have wanted to read since they came out and you remember when they came out but you just never got around to reading them for whatever reason? Shania Twain's autobiography was one of those books for me and 2018 is the year that I finally got around to reading it, which is good, considering it came out in 2011... 7 years ago. It was even the first book I added to my to-read shelf when I first joined Goodreads in 2015. Better late than never!

I remember when From This Moment On came out in 2011 because that year was the start of a new beginning of sorts for Shania Twain, who had retired from performing in 2004 from a weakened singing voice and at one time believed she would never sing again. On top of already suffering from a weakened voice and choosing to give up performing, Twain's longtime husband and producer Mutt Lange was infamously revealed to have been cheating on her with his assistant and Twain's close friend; they divorced in 2010. She later underwent intense vocal rehabilitation, some of which was chronicled on the OWN miniseries Why Not? with Shania Twain in 2011. This was the year that it seemed like Shania Twain was getting back on her feet: she remarried to the ex-husband of her ex-best friend (isn't it funny how things work out?), did the series on OWN, released her first single in 6 years ("Today Is Your Day," which she wrote to cheer herself up), and published her autobiography. I remember this year fondly because even though I never got around to reading From This Moment On until now, Shania Twain was the first singer I ever loved, so I have always followed her career closely and was happy to see that she was getting back into performing after having more than her fair share of vocal and personal pains.

From This Moment On will be entertaining and interesting to any Shania Twain fan, especially those who were already familiar with her rough childhood and upbringing (of which she goes into significant detail in the first part of the book), but it's not a memoir: it's an autobiography. I've seen it described as both, and it's definitely not a memoir. In fact, I probably would have enjoyed it much more as a memoir, because even though I loved getting insight into the life of the first singer I ever loved, it got boring and dragged at times because the book is literally her life story from birth until 2011. It might have been a little more interesting if it had been in memoir form, with chapters being dedicated to different stories from different periods of her life, like most celebrities do in memoirs. It also would have made it a little shorter; 416 pages isn't outrageously long, but it took awhile to get through it. But, you can tell that writing From This Moment On was therapeutic for Twain in many ways; she emphasizes the importance of telling the story of your life in the introduction, whether it's for people to read or just for yourself to get a sense of how far you've come in life. So I appreciate that and what this book hopefully brought her in terms of achieving some inner peace (I also hope she's sought a lot of therapy since reaching adulthood because, jeez, rough childhood and upbringing is a huge understatement).

I'm also happy I chose to read From This Moment On when I did, because last September also happened to be when Twain released her first studio album in 15 years, Now. Even as I was happy that she returned to performing in 2011 and seemed to be getting back on her feet, I for one was eagerly waiting to see if new music would ever come. And especially since she discusses her vocal difficulties in the book, it made me appreciate the Now album in a different way. I wasn't blown away by the album but accepted what it was as something enjoyable enough (full review here), because it's not like someone like Shania Twain, one of the best-selling artists of all-time, needs to prove herself anymore. But a lot of people, myself included, were just trying to make sense of her new music, because it's nothing like she's ever released before (it's also her first album where Twain has assumed an integral role in its production, and the first since her 1993 debut album to not be produced by her longtime producer and ex-husband Mutt Lange). So you had to know it wasn't going to be the same, for several different reasons. Twain has since disclosed in interviews that it was difficult to make music without Lange, since it was the material he produced that she valued and was what made her a star, and that she has had to learn to accept that she is never going to be able to sing like she used to. So in that sense, I appreciate the Shania on Now as one who has seen the light at the end of the tunnel, found the rainbow after the storm, and producing and releasing what she describes as her most personal music ever. From This Moment On helped offer me insight into how she got to where she is today, for which I am grateful regardless. 4/5 stars.

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Album Review: Camila Cabello - 'Camila'

I've never been a fan of Fifth Harmony, and I didn't know very much about Camila Cabello until recently, but you know what? I love this album.

Because I don't like Fifth Harmony (multiple reasons for that - I found their live TV performances to be a bit much and a lot of their songs to be really anti-feminist, which bothers me a bit), I wasn't really all that intrigued when Camila Cabello left the group to pursue a solo career. Okay, good for you, best of luck, whatever. It didn't phase me. I also wasn't blown away by her debut solo single, "Crying in the Club," and wasn't sure if I was a fan of her voice or not. "Havana" didn't phase me much either when it came out last summer, but I thought it was a bit catchier and unique than "Crying in the Club" which, after listening to it several more times since Camila came out, is so obvious that Sia wrote and worked on the song that not only does it sound like a Sia song, but if you listen carefully, it almost sounds like Sia is the one singing at certain points... SUSPICIOUS.

Initially, Cabello's debut solo album was to be titled The Hurting. The Healing. The Loving. with "Crying in the Club" as its lead single, but following the large success of "Havana" on the charts, the album's original release was delayed and several songs that Cabello had worked with Sia, Ed Sheeran and Charli XCX on were scrapped, "Crying" included. Word on the street is that while "Crying" performed modestly on the charts and some critics were impressed, others thought it was pretty generic material for what was to be Cabello's debut solo album, which isn't exactly the best thing to hear when you're working on a debut (and they pretty much hit the nail on the head - "Crying in the Club," while catchy, is pretty generic and a little too reminiscent of the sound of popular Sia singles such as "Never Give Up" or "Cheap Thrills"). As a result, work on Cabello's album continued until November 2017 when she confirmed that they had finished recording and her debut solo album, now titled Camila with "Havana" as the lead single, would be released in January. A few songs were released ahead of the album as promotional singles, including "Never Be the Same."

In any event, I was interested in giving Camila a listen. I didn't listen to Fifth Harmony enough to know if her solo music would be any different, but I must say, I was pleasantly surprised. "Never Be the Same" is probably my favorite song... The entire album is just GOOD pop music so, honestly, check your baggage because this flight is full. A few people seemed to be disappointed and were looking forward to an album more like "Crying in the Club," but that album was scrapped and I'm glad it was. With some Latin influences for the Cuban-American Cabello, it works really well. It's also interesting to listen to Cabello's solo work because, even though I'm not a Fifth Harmony fan, a lot of passive-agressive diva-ish comments seemed to be passed around in the media last year between Cabello and her former bandmates, mostly with Cabello taking shots at how she didn't think there was any balance while recording with them or didn't like what they said about her in interviews. I was the first to roll my eyes and say tell it to the hand, Regina George ("Can I just say we don't have a clique problem at this school, and that some of us shouldn't have to take this workshop, because some of us are just victims in the situation?") but since listening to Cabello's solo music, it seems to me that she perhaps would have been better off with a solo career right away: after all, Fifth Harmony formed while they were all contestants on the second season of the American X Factor in 2012, so there might have never been a chance for Cabello to prove herself as a solo artist until now, and I'm intrigued to see where she'll go from here. I believe "Real Friends" captures this essence the most.

A recurring complaint among other listeners seemed to be that it's a good album but too short (only 10 songs with a radio edit of "Never Be the Same" as a bonus track), and to that I will say quality over quantity. Camila is also her debut studio album, after all. Cabello might have proved herself talented enough for pop music while part of Fifth Harmony, but she will still have to work her way up to a longer album as a solo artist in my opinion. But rest assured - her debut is very good. One critic commented that they disliked the use of auto-tune on the album because Cabello has proven herself talented during live television appearances... To that I say read my think-piece about the use of auto-tune in pop music here.

Often times, if I like an artist or an album enough, all of the songs will start to grow on me, and that's what happened with Camila. I wasn't huge on "Havana" until the album came out, and now I love it. I also love how it's become heavy in radio play since the album's release and it's now THAT song that middle-aged moms like to complain about when it comes on because "it's so annoying!" or "mumbling and repeating 'ooh nah nah' isn't really singing!" (I may be quoting my actual mother on one of those). It is singing though, and it has that Latin vibe which gives her music a little bit of an authentic edge, but any song will become THAT song if it's overplayed enough so let them complain. Cabello is talented, Camila is a good album, and that's all there is to say about that.

Jeffrey's favorite tracks from Camila: "Never Be the Same", "Into It", "Havana" and "Real Friends"

Monday, February 5, 2018

Book Review: 'Little Fires Everywhere' by Celeste Ng

Image result for little fires everywhere
I really don't think I was prepared for how much I was going to enjoy this book.

I love stories that take place in suburbia, because it's such an easily relatable setting for so many people who either grew up in the suburbs or find themselves living there. Even though society has grown since the picture perfect image of suburbia that captivated Western civilization around the 1950s, the mindset and subtle conformity still endures today. This setting and these themes are ones that are of particular interest and appeal to me, not only in entertainment that I seek out but also in fiction writing of my own. This might be why I've seen every episode of Desperate Housewives at least five times.

Little Fires Everywhere takes place in Shaker Heights, Ohio in the late 1990s and follows the Richardson family as a mother and daughter named Mia and Pearl become the latest tenants in a house the family owns. For someone who's looking for a fast-paced, high-stakes suburban thriller here, I'm going to have to stop you right here, because this book is the 100% complete opposite of that. To someone who prefers fast-paced drama, one might think Little Fires Everywhere is really about nothing at all for at least the first 150 pages. But if you take a closer look - like we have to in most situations, especially in suburbia - it's about everything that transpires between Mia and Pearl and the Richardsons. As much as they play nice and teenage Pearl makes friends with the Richardson teenagers, the battle lines are drawn very quickly between the social classes of the two families, and draws subtly but quite vividly on themes such as white privilege and how ingrained things like that have become in white middle America. It isn't until the issue of a white, middle-class American couple in the community wanting to adopt a Chinese baby that the battle lines between the families intensify, with Mia on one side and the Richardsons, for the most part, on the other.

Celeste Ng's writing style is heavenly, but also wasn't super easy to read. Again I feel the need to stress that Little Fires Everywhere is not a fast-paced, easy to read suburban thriller. It's a slow-paced novel of fiction that focuses on American suburbia and middle class ethics that often requires more attention when reading to make sure you pick up on every subtle detail. So Ng's writing style works well here, because even as it requires more attention from the reader than other books might, it really makes you appreciate the small details that make up a large bulk of the story. It almost reads like a fairy tale at times, with the wife of the Richardson family almost always referred to as Mrs. Richardson, which was a bit strange at first but totally goes with the aesthetic of the writing and the story.

Setting the story in the late 1990s was also a clever move on Ng's part, as I'd like to believe some of the issues surrounding white Americans adopting foreign children has become a bit more open-minded since then, so setting the story in American suburbia 20 years ago made the issues more prominent. But issues brought about in the story such as white privilege and close-minded ideologies associated with white middle America are still relevant today, so it made Little Fires Everywhere especially interesting to read in today's context and political climate. But don't be fooled - as much as the story is a poignant portrait of issues surrounding white middle American suburbia, there is still some soapy elements in the storyline that, by the end, reminded me greatly of Sunday nights in front of the television, listening to Mary Alice Young narrate the lives of the women of Wisteria Lane on Desperate Housewives.

Little Fires Everywhere is an exceptional work of fiction that plays on several themes which anyone who's ever experienced the conformity of suburbia will enjoy. Highly recommend. 5/5 stars.