Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - Our Missing Hearts

Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

118 reviews

knkoch's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I listened to the audiobook version of this, narrated by Lucy Liu, and it worked well for me in that format. It’s fast-paced, urgent, measured, well-structured, and contains no superfluous elements. The political dystopia it depicts feels extremely relevant, and the warmth of resistance throughout was well-executed. I would have gotten to this much sooner if I’d known it had this darker, urgent tone. Some of the fault lies with me never reading summaries, but the cover image (the feather on a pale blue background) also feels jarringly off. It gave me the impression this was a light, frothy story.

Celeste Ng is a master, unsurprisingly!

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bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Immediately pulled in! I loved Ng’s two other books and she’s definitely an auto buy author now.

I did have to get used to the lack of quotation marks. I also found that the chapters could be a little long for my personal taste, but sometimes the story held my focus that they went by quickly. The story itself is Heartbreaking and inspiring! I loved the complex characters and getting to know them throughout the novel. I also loved Ng’s prose as always; there were plenty of lines I was struck by, reread, and wanted to highlight (but couldn’t because I read a library copy)!

Although the events of the book are fiction, there were a lot of parallels to what we have seen both in the past and the present. I highly recommend Our Missing Hearts if you enjoy dystopian novels, literary prose, and/or complex characters!

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tltorrez's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Like everything Celeste Ng writes it’s beautiful but it’s incredibly sad. Her books always have an element of hope but this one feels much harder. This is a dystopia in the near future. Too near really. Definitely a must read if you’re a fan of her work.

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haunted_jackalope's review against another edition

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challenging emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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swiftlyjo's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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seethinglloron's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

What a beautiful story of love earned and love lost, of a war waged in silence and in public, of a mother and how dangerous she becomes when her child is in danger. Incredible. I cried and cried and cried, a statue standing alone in the street.

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alimackenzie's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

3/3.5 stars. I may change this as I sit with it more, but right now this is how I’m feeling. It’s unfortunate as the subject matter is so important and timely, and I LOVED her other books, but this one just felt “meh” in the end for me.

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