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There are currently 22 member reviews
for Our Missing Hearts
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Amy A. (Buffalo, NY)
Is This Our Future?
Our Missing Hearts describes the racial tension, especially of Asian Americans, book banning, conspiracy theories replacing science, broad social divides, and the removal of children from families deemed unfit to raise their own children. All of this occurring in the not very distant future of the United States. Dystopian? Maybe yes, maybe no.
To me, the story was frightening to read but rang true with many comparisons easily made to our present time. The characters are well developed and Ng's use of public art displays, rallies (where innocents are murdered), poetry, and folk tales to spread the messages about the past and the future added depth to the story.
Spoiler alert, this is not a book with a happy ending; instead though, the ending does leave one hopeful that humanity will persist.
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Susan C. (Little Silver, NJ)
A Real Life Picture of Paranoia in America
When I read the first few pages I thought, I can't read this too difficult and frankly frightening and then just before I hit Part 2 when Bird left home in search of Margaret his Mother in NYC I was hooked. It isn't a coincidence that I finished it during the celebration of Banned Books week. I also reviewed on Good Reads and talked about all the story lines that are being played out every day in our country - the Asian Americans being treated as scape goats for the pandemic, banning books, separating immigrant children from their parents. "Our Missing Hearts" will live with me for a long time and I am happy I finished and hope that the message Margaret desperately tried to deliver through her bottle cap speakers is heard.
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Lesa R. (Joliet, IL)
Dystopian Future in the Eyes of a Child
Although I could not relate to the subject matter of this new, sure to be a hit, Celeste Ng novel, I generally always can appreciate a story told through the eyes of a child. This is not a feel good tale. It is relevant and fierce and leaves you burning through the pages as you anxiously await for the fate of Margaret. I sometimes prefer to read certain books a second time almost immediately after reading it for the first time and this is one of those books. Maybe I felt I had a "time limit" since this review was pending. It left me feeling compassion for Bird and his hard knock life but also feeling like maybe something was missing.
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Eileen F. (Media, PA)
Bookmarks
Once again Celeste Ng gives us a compelling story about a family. The characters grab you and keep you interested. The subject matter is heavy and depressing. At times , I found it difficult to keep reading but the characters push you on.
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Nanette C. (Sarasota, FL)
Dystopic World with Strong Basis in Reality
Celeste Ng is clearly unhappy with the way things are going in our country. "Our Missing Hearts" is a family drama of sorts, but that's where the resemblance to her other novels ends. The world Ng envisions is one in which the United States suffered an extended financial crisis that is blamed on China. The Preserving American Culture and Tradition Acts (or PACT) is passed. It's a law that promises to "protect American values" by making citizens promise to "watch over each other." What this law means in practice is frightening in the extreme. Books deemed suspect are banned from schools and libraries. People of Asian descent are similarly shunned, deemed un-American purely due to their ethnicity. But it gets worse. The government is protecting its youth from Chinese sympathizers by removing children from families with parents found to be promoting values deemed un-American and placing them in pro-American homes.
Bird is a 12 year old boy whose mother is Margaret Mui, a Chinese American poet. She keeps her head down during the crisis, thinking it has nothing to do with her. But one of her poems includes the words "our missing hearts," and those words become the rallying cry for those fighting against the new regime. Mui flees so that Bird can at least stay with his father. But of course that's not the end of the story.
"Our Missing Hearts" is a powerful story about a world that bears a strong relationship to what's happening in our country today. It's not an easy book to read, but it is a book I'll put in other people's hands.
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Helen P. (Lynn, MA)
Dystopian but feels familiar
This book's likeable characters, story, and great writing drew me in; however, the Asian discrimination and government interference disturbed me. The title, OUR MISSING HEARTS, captures how society could allow removing children from parents... and yet, that happens in this novel. Bird, the son, lives with his loving Dad but his mother is somewhere else. She wrote a book that was censored by the government. It wasn't "in line" with the pro American PACT passage. Bird sets out to find his mother. So many themes that resonated while reading such as divisions politically, economically, culturally, religiously; how government interference can frame restrictions over freedoms. As I keep thinking about this book, I will recommend to my book club. I welcome discussing differing perspectives on these themes.
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Karen S. (Epping, NH)
Our Missing Hearts
I would like to thank Bookbrowse and Penguin Press (imprint of PRH) for an Advanced Readers Copy of Our Missing Hearts.
I'm very conflicted. This book was a bit of a departure from the author's previous two novels and I was taken aback at first. I loved both previous novels so much! On the other hand there is a very important message here that this very popular author can use for the greater good in our country. We need more authors writing books that bring to us a voice for the voiceless. This book discloses the racism and hate that has been bubbling to the surface in the United States for years and where it may lead in the near future.
I'm conflicted because I was expecting something along the lines of Little Fires Everywhere and boy was I caught of guard with this dystopian novel. I'm not usually a fan of dystopian fiction. But this novel held my attention and I suspect will be a big bestseller. The more readers pick this up I hope the message is heard loud and clear and there is no better author than Celeste Ng to do just that!
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