Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Our Missing Hearts

Celeste Ng exquisitely crafts a horrifying authoritarian world which forces readers to hold a mirror to their own community and privilege – when do we decide we can no longer ignore the injustices around us? What does it look like when we are no longer complicit? Ng argues the importance of the singular person to impact communities and structural power. Told in heartbreaking prose through the eyes of a child and his mother, readers watch these “ripple effects” from the actions of individuals: Margaret, the librarians, and eventually Bird; all who are striving to preserve the memory of those the larger community has conveniently discarded. Our Missing Hearts reflects our world’s racism, xenophobia, and distrust, and imagines how these are dismantled through individual hope and action.

Things I liked: prose, themes (memory, family, trust), world-building

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msbarnesela's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

5.0

A dystopia that feels terrifyingly present and real. I could see the path between our current world and this kind of world. Although some of the characters were easy to criticize, I could also see myself doing the same as each of them in the same situation.

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lishmo's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

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whatwentsent's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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atomicbritt's review against another edition

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dark informative sad medium-paced

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

2.75

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swaanderer's review

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? No

5.0

Beautiful, heart-wrenching, disturbing, hopeful. And Lucy Liu's audiobook narration was perfect.

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javafenn's review

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emotional informative reflective sad slow-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

4.0

This book was haunting and incredible. Figuring out what happened to Bird’s mom but then also grappling with the fact that there is this whole anti-Asian, nationalist background permeating the entire story makes everything feel so tragic. I don’t want to say too much more because it gives everything away but it’s a great book, albeit very sad. It may just be a story but it feels like it was written as a modern day non-fiction. My only qualm was the narrator, Lucy Liu, spoke way too fast. It felt like she was frantic and most of the story was frantic.

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