Reviews with content warning for Hate crime - Our Missing Hearts

This novel is about a dystopian future where an unspecified crisis occurs, then the government becomes especially authoritarian and anti-China in response. The story revolves around a Chinese child and his mother.

While its focus was anti-Asian racism, the novel was good at addressing anti-Black and -Indigenous racism and how sometimes different racial groups are pitted against each other by white supremacy, while other times in resistance to that there can be beautiful acts of solidarity between different groups.

I found the nature of the "Crisis" frustrating.

Spoiler

It is basically a cost of living, job, housing crisis that lasts for several years where the author specifies that there was no known cause. Basically all businesses shut down, everyone loses their jobs, and no goods and services are available. It appears that rich people are affected by the Crisis too, but they are at least able to be holed up in their comfortable homes and can afford to order their goods and services from abroad because they can afford them and delivery fees.

I find this unrealistic given how capitalism operates. Capitalism relies on workers working to generate wealth for the capitalists (while it also relies on a certain proportion to be unemployed to maintain the competitive nature of securing a job, this proportion cannot be so high as to stall industries)- so barring some external crisis like environmental disaster, pandemic etc. it is unrealistic that basically everyone loses their jobs and industries just shut down. And while the author does discuss how rich people are better off in the Crisis than middle class or already poor people, I don't think she makes it explicit enough that rich people actually benefit from wealth inequality (and if there is a financial crisis to the point where society collapses and it affects their lives negatively, then the mega rich people are literally the ones with the resources who would rectify the crisis so their normal lives can continue).

I also find it unrealistic that in such a crisis with no external cause or end in sight that people would not revolt. Perhaps it would not be successful, but the author doesn't make any mention of such activity. She basically describes society turning hyper individualistic and dog-eats-dog, but I find it hard to believe that there wouldn't be large mutual aid efforts going on, probably alongside efforts to revolt against the government. Again, capitalism operates by keeping the status quo comfortable for enough people to avoid a mass movement for revolution, so it comes back to why I found the nature of the Crisis unrealistic.

Overall the writing style was nice and literary and quite good, although it didn't feel completely natural at all times. And the section from the boy's perspective in particular felt quite immature and young adult. It makes sense given it is from a child's perspective, however it is possible for a story geared towards older audiences to be from a child's perspective while still giving the reader additional context so as to not feel immature.

Because of the above points, I would consider the book to be better for younger audiences, as it discusses important themes of racism in a transparent and clear-cut way. But for older audiences I think it is important for such themes to be examined alongside other forms of oppression related to issues of class.

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tarabrynn's review

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challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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brdietz08's review

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emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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kappafrog's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.5

How eerie reading this in between seeing headlines about book bans in Florida. This was a compelling dystopian novel. I agree with other reviewers that the second half struggled at times compared to the first half.

Spoiler

The conceit of Margaret narrating her whole life to Bird didn't always work when she was going into intimate details which were great for the reader but made less sense as dialogue with her son. I was also disappointed in the lack of information about the aftermath of Margaret's plan. We got a few flashforward glimpses but no information on the political fallout.

The writing was really beautiful. I liked seeing the world through Bird's eyes, a child's perspective in a novel aimed at adults. I enjoyed the use of folktales, etymology, and gardening through out. There were many horrifying bits in the book. I can tell it will stay with me for a long time.

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taroroot's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

i liked this in the sense that i liked reading 'Harrison Bergeron' in school. i'm not really sure how else to react to it.

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