LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE, by my estimation, rates three or four stars out of five. I’ll give it four.

It starts out dull, a book about suburban teenagers. I’m an adult; teenagers bore me nowadays. But this book eventually turns out to be about adults, too. So it gets better.

As a matter of fact, it’s hard to say who the main characters are; there are several possibilities. LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE is a mystery told from the points of view of different characters, both teenagers and adults.

Blurbs I read call this book a thriller, but it’s not. I think some people use the words “thriller” and “mystery" interchangeably. LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE is a mystery: Who lit the little fires everywhere? And the phrase ”little fires everywhere" is treated both literally and nonliterally in this book.

The story starts out with the fire, then it’s flashback. Different mysteries go on then, all leading up to the fire.

The flashback begins with Mia and her teenage daughter who come to Shaker Heights, Ohio with all their belongings fit into their VW Rabbit. (There’s another mystery for you: that VW Rabbit is 20 years old, and they’re still driving it cross country. Really?) The landlady of their apartment they settle in also lives in Shaker Heights in a beautiful home and has four teenagers of her own. If I had to pick the main characters, they would be these six people.

Everyone has secrets from one another, and sometimes the secrets are mysteries to the reader, too. Some of the secrets come out and the mysteries are resolved. My criticism of this book, though, is that I had too many questions in the end. At least we learn who lit the little fires everywhere.