Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

38 reviews

clalaure's review

dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Grief, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Police brutality, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Death of parent and Sexual assault

emilypancake13's review

challenging dark emotional 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

Oh my God. A must-read if you live in Florida in this political climate. Eye-opening. So well-written, visual and emotional and needs to be read by anyone and everyone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Police brutality

cakrolik's review

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Police brutality, Racism, Violence, Racial slurs, and Hate crime

daydreamdarling's review

challenging emotional informative 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Kidnapping, Blood, Classism, Death, Murder, Police brutality, Violence, and Vomit

tarabrynn's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Hate crime, and Kidnapping

kappafrog's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Animal cruelty, Blood, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Animal death, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Violence, and Abandonment

Moderate: Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Cursing, and Deportation

Minor: Alcohol, Chronic illness, Medical content, Rape, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Islamophobia, and Slavery

katrinky's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.0

not an easy book to read. imagine the handmaid's tale, but about anti-asian racism and xenophobia. the book touches on linguistics, guerilla art, including yarn bombs, and folklore, so of course I was compelled from start to finish. read it in 1.5 days, both of them work days, so that tells you something about the pace and the ease with which I got invested in bird, his mom, margaret, and their lives under PACT ACT America. chilling, maybe hopeful? mostly wary, and clear-eyed about America's worst propensities.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Colonisation, Deportation, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Child abuse, Grief, Racism, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, and Hate crime

Moderate: Blood, Death of parent, Death, and Abandonment

kellyofcali's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

4.5

Admittedly, I was trapped on a plane when I read this, but I also read ALL of it in one plane ride - I found it really haunting and timely and beautiful. The author does a wonderful job painting a world close enough to ours where it's quite frightening - it feels like a place we could easily go from where we are now - yet also instilling hope, and hope that comes so much from peace and art, which sings to my soul. Hard, difficult, and yet not totally crushing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Xenophobia

Moderate: Bullying, Violence, Racism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Forced institutionalization

goodreads_connoisseur's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

Our Missing Hearts marks a departure from the painstakingly brilliant character development that made Ng's first two novels so impactful. I might have been contented to pass my disappointment off as me not being smart enough or otherwise chalked the lack of color up to a stylistic choice to emphasize the crush of fascism--had it not been for Sadie. From Sadie's replacement family's desire to chemically relax her hair being characterized as "well intentioned" to the throwaway mention of Indian residential schools in the author's note, this book was a bit of a shortsighted mess.

That being said, this book is a really important testament to the violence people of Asian descent face in America and highlights the real intent of anti-China policies like the proposed (and some unfortunate cases, actual) TikTok bans. Two other important things Our Missing Hearts did get right: Lucy Liu as a narrator (she's absolutely fantastic) and portrayals of librarians as superheroes (they are). 

Justice for Sadie!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Kidnapping, and Hate crime

heatherjchin's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, Hate crime, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Racism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Trafficking and Kidnapping

Minor: Pregnancy, Blood, Gore, Animal death, and Bullying