Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Our Missing Hearts

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Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

52 reviews

nerdy_reader_9571's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

While I absolutely adored this book, I will say that it is a very American story. The historical events mentioned and the trauma that those events and their aftermath caused characters are all very real and very specific to the American experience. Yes, the Crisis is fictional, but the rest of the story is very realistic. I’ve heard and read other reviews that characterize this book as dystopian, but I didn’t think the story as a whole was one that I would characterize as dystopian. It felt too close to America’s current and very recent realities to be characterized as such.

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angelkisses's review against another edition

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inspiring reflective sad fast-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

4.5

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dananana's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

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kimmag92's review

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challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

This is one of the best and one of the scariest books I’ve read in a while. In Our Missing Hearts Ng has created a near-future America where after the Crisis Asian Americans are targeted with hate and violence, children are removed from their homes for their parents having “un-American” values, and books that feature Asian characters and/or are deemed un-American are banned. In the vein of A Handmaid’s Tale, Ng holds up a mirror to our own world exposing the hate and fear people feel towards Asia and the lengths they’ll go to protect their “values”. This novel could not have come at a better time in our history as the current attempts to ban books and the rise in hate crimes towards Asian people are very similar to what Ng lays out.

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kelly_e's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective 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

3.75

Title: Our Missing Hearts
Author: Celeste Ng
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 3.75
Pub Date: October 4, 2022

T H R E E • W O R D S

Contemplative • Forceful • Moving

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in Harvard University's library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve "American culture" in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic-including the work of Bird's mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who left the family when he was nine years old.

Bird has grown up disavowing his mother and her poems; he doesn't know her work or what happened to her, and he knows he shouldn't wonder. But when he receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, he is drawn into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of librarians, into the lives of the children who have been taken, and finally to New York City, where a new act of defiance may be the beginning of much-needed change.

💭 T H O U G H T S

I had been hesitating on picking up Our Missing Hearts since it's release last fall, mostly because dystopian novels aren't ones I typically gravitate towards. And while, I don't regret reading it, it is certainly my least favourite of Celeste Ng's books.

I must start off by saying, as always, Celeste's writing is absolutely beautiful! It's complex, layered and deeply evocative. And while, this book tackles a lot - including themes of family and sacrifice, as well as library resistance, racially motivated injustice, and the removal of children as a means of political powers - this dystopian novel tis an ode to motherhood.

When it comes to the characters, I'd have liked significantly more character development. Each of the characters felt very one dimensional, verging on young adult. Additionally, I didn't necessarily connect with the mother at all, even though I found her sacrifice to be selfless. I did have a soft spot for Bird as he'd gone through so much at such a young age.

When it comes to style, one of my biggest pet peeves is when no quotation marks are used, which was the case here. I know this is a stylistic tool used by authors, but it's just one I cannot get behind as I find it disrupts the flow of my reading. For this reason, I had to switch to mainly the audio (where you don't notice this fact), and the audio is very well done.

At the end of the day, Our Missing Hearts verged on being a little too political for me at this point in time. It is a beautiful reflection on motherhood, and a book to spark discussion and shift perspectives. Overall, the premise was certainly intriguing, but the execution was lacking. And yet, I'll continue to read everything Celeste Ng writes simply because her writing is a gift.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• readers who enjoy stories of motherhood
• Celeste Ng fans
• bookclubs

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"If we fear something, it is all the more imperative we study it thoroughly."

"Who ever thinks, recalling the face of the one they loved who is gone: yes, I looked at you enough, I loved you enough, we had enough time, any of this was enough?"

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