I gave this book 1 star, as I am amazed the author was able to get this published. The other star is because I was able to finish the book.

The writing is simplistic and stilted. I found it to be a very slow read but I kept thinking the story was going to become more meaningful. It didn’t.

It was difficult to develop any feeling for the characters as they were poorly developed and the story line just was not that interesting to me.

Hotel Cuba touched upon many topics that are close to my heart.
The diaspora of Jewish Lithuanians to Cuba is a very interesting historical subtext. The Immigration Act of 1924 prevented Jews from entering the US, thus some Jews at that time landed in Cuba. Even during the Holocaust, the US was turning Jewish immigrants away. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 changed most of that.
Being Jewish and married to a Cuban, I also felt the author did a great job of describing historical Cuba, NYC and the garment sweat shops as well as Detroit.

I was over 100 pages into this book and then lost it. I am truly heartbroken!

I was so quickly drawn into this story. The author had an amazing ability to describe the reality and hardships of 1950s Alaska. The characters had so much depth that I cried with and for Marie.

I don't want to read any other reviews because I don't want spoiler alerts, but I can't wait to finish this book.

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.

Take My Hand is an easy to read novel about a little known time (at least to me) in American history where eugenics was practiced by the United States government on African-American, poor white, mentally ill, and disabled women.

The book is loosely based on the true story of the Relf sisters and the legal case that ensued against the US government. The sisters, who were 12 and 14 years old in 1973, were involuntarily sterilized by a federally funded family planning clinic in Montgomery, Alabama.

Take My Hand would be a great book for a book club discussion. It raises so many ethical topics such as disparities in health care, economic inequalities and the history of dubious practices based on "helping others".

Overall, I found the book confusing. The time changes back and forth and from woman to woman with little cohesiveness made me feel like this book may have been better done as a collection of short stories.
I felt her description of present day Miami and Cuba fascinating and would have liked more insight into that. Also, I'm not sure how the Salvadoran immigration experience fit into the Cuban immigration story.
I did feel the last chapter was excellent and finally presented depth of character to Carmen. Even at the end of the book, I was wanting more depth from Jeanette's character.

2 stars: 1 for the author who did manage to get this published and 1 star for myself— a perfect waste of reading time but I managed to finish the book.
Most stories, no matter how shallow, tend to give us insight into something we have no or little knowledge about. This story took us on a tour of the US, but only for us to learn about weird, out of the way tourist stops (which were probably visited only on-line by the author) and the state motto. The state mottos had nothing to do with the plot.
The book was completely unbelievable. It had a weak plot and poor character development. I read to the end, hoping the crazy story would come together, but it didn't.
What the book did do was pique my interest in how do cover blurbs come to be. Well, as you can see from these cover blurbs, they are advertisements and not reviews.
Buyer beware, this book is a waste of your time.