| Title | : | Our Missing Hearts |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0593492544 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780593492543 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 335 |
| Publication | : | First published October 4, 2022 |
| Awards | : | Goodreads Choice Award Fiction (2022) |
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university 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 pulled 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.
Our Missing Hearts Reviews
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There are a number of reasons
Our Missing Hearts didn't work for me, but I can sum up my general feeling for the book as being similar to how I felt about
The Testaments and
Klara and the Sun (ironic, perhaps, given that I praised Ng in my review of that book):
Our Missing Hearts is a YA dystopia that I guess passes for literary fiction because of the super clever absence of speech marks.
Let me say that I had started to consider myself a fan of Celeste Ng and will likely seek out her future books.
Little Fires Everywhere and
Everything I Never Told You were relatively slow, quiet character studies, yet they were excellent examples of slow, quiet character studies. The characters felt alive, felt real. Their suburban worries and struggles, hopes and dreams, pulled me in. It is quite wonderful to be so mesmerized by simplicity.
Our Missing Hearts, unfortunately, had all of the slow pacing and none of the depth of characterization. Bird experiences the loss of a parent and the crumbling of justice and society all around him, but he views it detached, as if from a distance, never quite seeming to experience or react to it himself and making it difficult for me to do so as the reader.
Bird's mother, Margaret, also feels one-dimensional. She makes some difficult decisions-- such as abandoning her son --yet I never once felt let inside the emotional turmoil that surely should have caused.
Instead, much of this novel is given over to describing the details and injustices of PACT (Preserving American Culture and Traditions Act). According to the government, the act sets out to protect American values from foreign influence (China is considered especially problematic), but what it really serves as is an excuse for racism and violence against minorities. People are being arrested for even questioning the act; children are being taken away from parents who are deemed bad influences.
I was having a hard time for the first half of the book when we were on Bird's perspective, but I grew even more weary during Margaret's perspective when we were taken on a flashback through how she met Bird's dad and how PACT came to be.
Perhaps I am just burned out on dystopias at this point. A dystopia has to have something unique or have really memorable characters to hold my interest and stand out in this over-saturated genre.
Our Missing Hearts, with its controlling government, banning books, secret resistance and flat characters, was not that. -
HOW DID I MISS THIS NEW CELESTE NG IN A MONTH AND I HAD NO CLUE WHAAAAAAAT
-
“Your mom is a traitor.”
4.5 stars
Our Missing Hearts is a powerful, dystopian novel about love, loss, and the power of a mother’s love.
12-year-old Bird’s life changed when his mother left three years ago. He now lives with his father, a former professor turned librarian, in a dorm. They live a quiet, compliant life as they have no choice as they live in an America where books are banned, cultural and historical-themed internet searches are blocked, people of Asian descent are targeted, and children are forcefully separated from their unpatriotic parents.
When Bird receives a mysterious letter from his mother, he goes on a journey to find her and, in doing so, faces a new America he wasn’t prepared to see.
Told in three parts, the narrative belongs to Bird. He is a compelling character, and his growth throughout is subtle. However, there are also chapters from his mother Margaret’s point of view. Her final act left me in tears.
With an emphasis on libraries, books, poetry, and storytelling, Ng explores the power of words, shared stories, the voices on the margins, and, most significantly, those who have been silenced.
The title holds special meaning.
This is an emotional, beautifully written story exploring complex and timely issues. It is also chilling, as, in many ways, it hits too close to reality.
“What happens now is a choice.”
TW: violence, with one particular scene involivng a dog.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Penguin Group in exchange for an honest review. -
Bird lives with his father in an America governed by laws to “preserve American culture.” He knows not to go far from home or draw attention to himself. When he receives a note in the mail that looks to be from his mother who left years before, he is led on a journey to find her. A moving story ripe for discussion.
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The future does not look perky exciting.
Dystopian or not!
…The children were adorable….
…The dad was an ex-linguistic Professor sorry sad sight…
…The story starts off interesting. Great setting…..
but as we move further into the story, it’s more realistically -disturbing than a Stephen King horror novel.
…Parts were actually slow & dull
…Parts were uniquely moving & impressive.
…The author’s note are personal - deeply affecting — and continue to remain thought provoking.
Overall…. “Our Missing Heart’s” felt a little desperate in wanting to make a profound difference.
I was a tad sensitive to the hard-push feeling — even though I agree with them.
It must not have been an easy book to write….
especially with the issues sincerely important and true.
Issues covered;
….racism, economic inequality, class discrimination, Asian discrimination, bigotry, censorship, protesting, hate crimes, children taken away from their parents for not being patriotic, and social horrific injustice of all kinds!
but
the heavy bleak feeling throughout -started stressing me out. I was ready to move on.
That said ….
I admire and appreciate Celeste Ng’s work. Her talents, passion and
compassion are real. -
i 100% agree with other readers that the execution of this is lacking. while the idea is a good one, its missing the necessary depth to make it effective.
but that didnt stop me from trying to love this regardless. and i think i was pretty successful for part I. bird is a sweet kid and i adored his relationship with his dad. it was interesting seeing him navigate a world that isnt quite real life, but feels like it could be, and try to understand what happened to his mother.
and then i hit part II, its all telling and no showing when it comes to the world-building, which is not the most convincing way to develop a dystopian world. and then part III is just a rush of everything and nothing all at once.
so i totally understand and can empathise with this causing disappointment. but i did actually like the beginning and the concept in general, so im gonna stick with just a middle-of-the-road kind of rating.
↠ 3.5 stars -
4.5⭐
“Once upon a time, there was a boy. Once upon a time there was a mother. Once upon a time, there was a boy, and his mother loved him very much.”
It has been over ten years since the “Crisis” - a period of economic decline - failing businesses, unemployment, poverty and lawlessness - a period of chaos that was attributed to being the result of the manipulations of an Asian country that was thriving during the same period. In the interest of boosting the economy and preserving American culture, PACT -“The Preserving American Culture and Traditions Act”- has been passed allowing for reporting and arrest of those perceived to be “anti –American” and children from families perceived to be guilty of the same have been relocated to state-approved homes and foster families. Books viewed as teaching un-American values have been removed from schools and libraries (destroyed and pulped, recycled into toilet paper as opposed to being burnt!- “Much more civilized, right?”), certain websites have been blocked, web searches are censored and hate crimes are on the rise.
It has been three years since twelve-year-old Noah “Bird” Gardner has seen his mother, well-known poet Chinese-American poet Margaret Miu. Over the last three years Noah and his father Ethan, former faculty in Linguistics and currently employed in the University Library, have kept their head down, avoiding attention and dissociating themselves from Margaret, whose lines from her books of poems “Our The Missing Hearts “ was adopted by anti –PACT activists as their slogan, branding her a “traitor” in the eyes of the authorities. Given the intense Anti-Asian sentiment and discrimination and increasing incidents of violence directed toward East Asians, Bird, who is biracial, is encouraged by his father to hide his Asian roots. When Bird receives a letter with drawings reminiscent of the folktales his mother used to tell him, he embarks on a search for his missing mother- a journey that provides him not only with a greater understanding of his mother and her life as well as insight into the reasons behind his mother’s disappearance but also gives him an honest unfiltered perspective on the reality of the world around him. Needless to say, Bird’s journey as he struggles with his feelings about his mother –his hurt and longing for her gradually evolves into a deeper understanding of his parents’ love for him and a shift in his worldview - is a difficult and emotional one.
Poignant, heartbreaking, disturbing and thought-provoking, Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng is a beautifully –written, powerful and timely novel that revolves around themes of family, love, sacrifice and racially motivated injustice. I finished reading this book two days ago and it’s taken me this long to gather my thoughts and pen a coherent review. This is not an easy book to read and even more difficult to review. The author paints a dark and dystopian picture of a nation where discrimination, racism and injustice are justified in the name of preservation of economic stability, culture and values. Families have been torn apart, innocent children have been forcibly taken from their homes and those working to change the narrative , build awareness and reunite families with their “missing hearts” are constantly putting their lives on the line - activists who openly protest and those who are covertly networking to trace those who been lost. The larger part of the narrative is shared from Bird’s perspective, though we do get to hear the voices of other characters as well. Unfortunately, unlike many dystopian novels, much about this book feels a bit too real at times. The author draws inspiration from past and current events which she discusses in a brilliantly penned Author’s Note. This story left me with a heavy heart.
“When are you ever done with the story of someone you love? You turn the most precious of your memories over and over, wearing their edges smooth, warming them again with your heat. You touch the curves and hollows of every detail you have, memorizing them, reciting them once more though you already know them in your bones. 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?” -
this was breathtaking. i am still in a post-covid review-writing slump, but i'm starting to feel my withered brain slooooowly ticking itself back on, so maybe more thoughts on this soon.
*****************************
this seems a little off-brand for ng, but i will follow her anywhere. #notastalkertho
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This is the second dystopian novel I’ve read this year that is alarmingly close to reality. Celeste Ng’s “Our Missing Hearts” is a story centered around children who have been separated from their parent for political reasons. In Ng’s world, the government can seize children from parents if alleged “subversive” behavior is exposed to children in the home. Ng also adds a xenophobic element of anti-Asian sentiments, especially regarding China. We all know how real that became during the pandemic.
In Ng’s world, “The Crisis” occurred from a worldwide economic breakdown caused by the Chinese, as opposed to the pandemic. Bird Gardner is a twelve-year-old boy, being raised by his father. His mother disappeared after her poetry was deemed provocative against the State. Bird has a best friend, Sadie, who also was removed from her family. Bird’s father does not permit Bird to even mention his mother. All Bird remembers is that his mother loved cats.
PACT (The Preserving American Culture and Traditions Act) is a code of conduct aimed at protecting America. What happens is censorship. Ng shows the slippery slope of government over-reach. She shows how when racism is allowed unchecked, our lives ultimately end in fear for all.
Earlier this year, 2022, Jessamine Chan wrote “The School for Good Mothers” which had a similar theme of government over-reach. Chan’s novel focused on the mothers, how the mothers coped once their children were taken away. In Ng’s story, the focus is on the children, how confusing the world is to children who have their family stability ripped away in the name of politics.
At the end of the novel, Ng wrote that children have been removed from parents throughout history in the name of politics. We are separating children from their parents at our boarders. Social Services can take children away. Indigenous children across the world were taken away and placed in state-run boarding schools. During war, children are separated from their parents.
While there is good reason in many cases when children need protection, especially from physical violence, we as a society must remain vigilant. Ng’s story also shows the impact of racism and bigotry and the danger in allowing those ideals to settle in politics.
A very clever ending involving performance art provided a powerful statement in nonviolent protests. I love Ng’s prose. She uses her voice/pen to improve humanity.
I listened to the audio narrated by Lucy Liu. She did a fabulous job. -
Thank you to Penguin Press for the early copy for review!
Once again Celeste Ng has written a stunning, evocative novel about what it means to be human and how our actions impact the lives of others.
Set in a world very similar to ours, Our Missing Hearts follows a 12 year old boy named Noah "Bird" Gardner whose mother, a revolutionary poet is on the run after lines from her poetry are used to oppose a government policy called PACT. PACT enforces a sort of hyper-nationalism, encouraging American citizens to look out for a report any activity that might be deemed suspicious, particularly focused on actions of Asian-American citizens. In this world, the rise of China as a superpower threatens not only the USA's economy but also their pride and place as a superpower on the world's stage.
Bird lives with his father who is a librarian on a college campus. It's been 3 years since Bird's mother has gone missing when he gets a mysterious letter in the mail one day. From there, Bird sets off on a journey to uncover the secrets of his mother's past and hopefully discover what became of her fate.
Celeste Ng is such a good writer. I could not put this book down! From page one, I was hooked. She blends literary, character-driven stories with a compelling, page-turning plot. I absolutely fell in love with Bird as a character and was so intrigued by the world Ng had created; this sort of near-dystopian world but one that felt all too similar to our own in 2022. It's clear Ng drew from real historical events, much like Atwood did for
The Handmaid's Tale.
The story itself is incredibly interesting. I was so curious to find out more, and the characters you meet along the way really fill out the story in a nice way. I enjoyed them all and was eager to keep reading to find out what would happen.
My only critique is that by the end, I was ever so slightly underwhelmed. I don't honestly know how else she could have ended it, so I am not trying to be overly critical of this fact, because I think it does work. I think, however, in comparison to Ng's other two novels, this one just sort of fizzled out for me as opposed to having a punchy, compelling ending. I do think that over time, there is a lot to think about with this one and I definitely could see myself reading it again in the future. I think that says a lot about the story and writing.
All in all, this was a great reading experience! I have loved, and suspect I will continue to love, everything Celeste Ng has written and cannot wait to see what she does next. -
had one of my all time favorite types of reading experiences with this one: buying a book in an airport and finishing before landing.
+ first book of 2023!
review to come / 4 stars
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tbr review
the title...relatable -
Ms.Ng has written a cautionary tale for our times. It is very obvious that she has poured her heart into this novel and I thank her for that.
I wanted to love this book but there were too many plot holes and other problems that I had with this book.
PROS:
I enjoyed the first half of the book a lot more than the second. I felt hopeful that there was some good change coming in the second half.
I was constantly looking forward to what was going to be the impetus to change things.
I loved the character of Bird. Even when he was young he was always looking for answers as to why his mother had left them. He never gave up his love for her and wanting to find her.
CONS:
They never really did answer "how" this drastic change happened besides mentioning a bill that was passed. I know this is dystopian but I just couldn't envision it.
What exactly was The Crisis? Since this is what changed everything I think there should have been more explanation
How did they brainwash everyone into thinking taking the children away from Chinese Americans would accomplish anything?
One of the biggest questions was never answered -- where are they taking these children? What are they doing with them?
There was a lot of "telling" rather than "showing" especially in the second half.
FINAL THOUGHTS: I think the author has a great message and a reminder to keep watch at what is going on around us. A cautionary tale for sure. Horrible things have happened in the past and we should never forget that!
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through Edelweiss. It was my pleasure to read and review this title. -
I mean, duh. It’s Celeste fucking Ng.
-
"Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason."-Abraham Joshua Heschel
Powerful, prescient, and poignant, this dark, dystopian novel felt a LITTLE too close to reality!
Twelve year old Bird simply goes by Noah now. He hasn't used his true name in many years, because his parents feel it isn't safe. He lives a somewhat solitary existence with his father, a university librarian, after Bird's mother flew the coop (so to speak) when he was 9. As a Chinese American poet who didn't shy away from any subject, his mother Margaret was one of many targets of the PACT-The Preserving American Culture and Traditions Act. This 'new way of life' sprang up as a result of The Crisis, a time of severe economic and social decline...which was been almost solely blamed on China, and subsequently, Chinese Americans have also taken the fall.
This new reality is soulless and lonely, with 'dangerous' books plucked off of library shelves (and turned into toilet paper rather than burned...because this is somehow seen as a better alternative!) and children are constantly being relocated if their family seems too close to the anti-PACT faction. Bird still longs to know what has happened to his mother and when the name of her most famous poem "Our Missing Hearts" is painted by protestors on the street, Bird has a feeling things are about to come to a head...and he's right. He receives a mysterious message with an address in New York and knows that he needs to pursue this lead and discover JUST what happened to his mother...but what will he find? Can he make the journey...and is it worth the risk? Or is Bird simply destined to become the next missing heart?
First off, it's been a while since we've heard from Ng and it's clear she had this book cooking for some time. There are shades of many of the tragedies and injustices that have come to light over the past 4 years in the United States referenced here, and in some respects, this book may have served as an outlet to process some of this trauma. I'm a fan of Ng's, so I'll admit I added this book to my must-read list without having ANY idea of how heavy it is...and it IS heavy. There are basically zero moments of levity throughout...something I can't even say for the Handmaid's Tale (although in and of itself, it's obviously pretty bleak in its own right).
I honestly think you have to be in the right head space to read this novel and to also prepare yourself mentally for what you'll encounter. If you're going in looking for the twisted family dynamics and the murder-mystery type angle you can find in
Little Fires Everywhere and
Everything I Never Told You, you will NOT find that here. Ng makes her focus clear from the beginning, and this book is much more about world-building and what can happen if we let things escalate and continue down the dangerous path they are already headed rather than these specific characters themselves.
This is not to say the characters aren't impactful or lovable in their own way. The first half of the book is dominated by Bird, the second by Margaret, and both characters Make Their Mark...but perhaps in a more understated way than some of Ng's previous characters. The second half of the book apparently omits quotation marks (?) which is something I must admit I didn't even notice until I glanced at a couple of other reviews after I finished reading...so what that says to me is that I was compelled enough for it not to bother me. The pacing drags a bit going through the machinations of how PACT came to be and Margaret's backstory...but for me, the detail and the intricacy was interesting and worthwhile. The last couple chapters from Margaret, in particular, got me wholly caught up in emotion, so whether this plot stands up to the 'typical' dystopian novel or not?
Utterly irrelevant.
Ng hooked me, line and sinker, and I was captivated until the bitter end. To cap it off, Ng has a FANTASTIC author's note that is both detailed and heartfelt, where she explains much of the research she did to write the novel and offers sources for her readers to take a deep dive as well. I don't know as though I'll be emotionally ready to handle it for a while (hence the reason why it took me a while to even sit down and pen this review), but the content is there and ready to be explored.
This is a multi-faceted and thought-provoking book, and PERFECT for discussion. Although it may tread over some territory explored by other authors prior, Ng manages to weave a beautiful and painful tapestry of the fabric of our current world.
...And maybe---just maybe---it ISN'T too late to pull those final, fraying threads.
4 stars
Nominated for Best Fiction in the Goodreads Choice Awards! -
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng is a 2022 Penguin Press publication.
I had such trust in Ng that I downloaded this book without hesitation… and without reading the synopsis. My faith was tested when I finally settled in to read this book. I don’t like dystopian novels. I don’t read much science fiction- which is the way this book is categorized. I cringed, uncertain of how this was going to work out for me. But, I already had the book and this is Celeste Ng, after all, so I soldiered on and hoped for the best...
The story is set in a time after a ‘The Crisis’- after certain laws have been passed to protect America from those being blamed for said crisis. In this world, Margaret, a Chinese American poet, is blamed for stirring up protestors – so for the sake of her son, Bird, she goes into hiding, before they can take him away.
Bird is being raised by his father, who goes along with everything the government requires. He’s lost his position, and his home, and works in a library now. He keeps his head down and does his best to protect his son, by disavowing all his wife stood for.
They shuffle along day in and day out, avoiding conflict or trouble, flying under the radar, until one day Bird gets a message from his mother, one that stirs up memories and longing, and creates an urgent need to find her. His quest is a dangerous one, but it may be the journey that finally sets him free…
My concerns about the categorization of this book were unwarranted. This is an incredible novel- heartbreaking, terrifying, but ultimately empowering. There are silences and complicity- but there is also great strength and courage in these passages.
In a year when every social issue under the sun is crammed inside of every single book- from cozies to romance, to historical fiction, horror, and all points in between, I feared this book might be padded a bit too heavily, and at times Ng did overplay her hand. But the story still serves as a cautionary tale, as a reminder to be vigilant, to be on your guard, to rise to the occasion, though it is not the easiest path to take.
The book is so well-written, with much thought behind it, I could literally feel the oppression leaping off the pages, the fear palpable, but I also felt it ease, as hope eventually settles in, despite the bleakness of the moment.
That said, after reading so many ‘message books’ this year- not by choice for the most part, I don’t think I felt the full impact of this novel as I might have if I’d read it at the end of 2021, or earlier this year. It’s a dark, reflective novel, and one I might revisit someday, after my head is relieved of such weighty topics for a while.
Overall, I can’t say this is my favorite novel by this author- at least not right now- but I appreciate what she was going for, and thought she did a brilliant job at creating the world in which the story transpires and the truths behind the dystopian style fantasy. Ng is a great writer, and once again I walk away deeply impressed with her talents.
4 stars -
Lately it’s felt like the world we’re living in is unstable, with the war in Europe and the lock-down we just had. Reading our missing hearts increased that feeling. I know there are countries where propaganda happens, and the book managed to convey how that might form us convincingly. I liked that we saw the world through Bird’s eyes. It was authentic and increased the unease I felt. It’s also a beautiful description of a mother-child relationship, and the hard choices we can be faced with.
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Actual Rating: 2.5/5 stars
"I'll tell you. But only if you promise to remember. That she was a real person, not a poster. That she was a child. My child."
After a 5-year hiatus following Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng returns with a venture into the dystopian. Being a fan of her contemporary, closeknit family stories, I was highly anticipating what Ng would do with this larger scope and premise. Although the bones of what makes Ng such a great author were there, I found this her weakest work to date. Long review incoming.
The Good and The Story:
Ng imagines a future America frighteningly close to our own. After The Crisis brought financial and- political instability to the country, the American government has responded with the introduction of the Preserving American Culture and Traditions Act (PACT). A law intended to bring back days of former glory, instead lead to the mistrust and repression of cultural minorities and the silencing of their voices in the form of art and writing.
We follow Bird, a 12-year old Chinese-American boy who’s life has been affected by PACT in many ways. Above all, it led to him growing up without his mother Margret Miu, who became a political fugitive after her poem “Our Missing Hearts” sparked an accidental anti-PACT movement. With all her works being governmentally shredded and all trace of her removed, Bird has no way of knowing what faith befell his mother. That is until a letter arrives, containing the first clue into a daring quest to locate her.
It goes without saying that there’s an important topic and message here that deserves attention, and I command any effort to speak up about it. More on this in the Ugly-section however.
There is no way for me to speak to the substantive portrayal of the Chinese-American experience, and I highly encourage reading own-voices reviews for that over mine. I can speak to the way in which the story was told. The thing that stands out most was Celeste Ng signature beautiful writing, that guided us through the story. Unfortunately, her other strengths as a writer were less so on display in this one.
The Bad:
The main appeal to Ng’s previous work was her character work, which unfortunately didn’t live up to standards in Our Missing Hearts. The main characters were flat as a pamphlet on which the books message was distributed. Margaret makes some questionable parenting choices “in favour of the greater good”, but I felt none of her internal conflict about it. Instead, she’s portrayed as a one-dimensional good-character; a reluctant face of a revolution for us to root for.
Similarly with Bird; this 12-year old boy is put through quite the ordeal, yet is all too mature and mellow about the whole thing. For the longest time, there is no resentment towards his mother, no anger, no fear. You can make the argument for keeping a brave face, but with us as the reader being in his head for most of the novel, seeing hist internal struggle would’ve helped greatly to bring these characters to life and make them less of a blank slate.
“Lifeless” is also the (harsh) word I’d use to describe the worldbuilding; although you can tell there was a lot of thought behind it, the world never came to life off the page. Mostly, this was due to a of telling and absolutely no showing. Pages upon pages were filled with explanations and background on the founding and actions of PACT, yet throughout most of the story absolutely nothing occurs on page to back it. This is aggravated by some pacing-issues where the plot doesn’t kick off until about the 50%-mark, only to take up tumbling speed from there on. The disconnect and the slower pace put this book at risk for being DNF-ed before the halfway mark…
The Ugly:
There is no way for me to talk about the true reason this book disappointed me, without broadening the scope to “dystopia’s” in general. The genre has become quite overpopulated lately, with novel after novel piggy-backing off the same themes, whilst bringing nothing new to the table. This started with the Margaret-Atwood-lookalikes a few years ago, but has since spread to include tales of police-violence and racism in America. Where I am all for raising awareness and actually battling these horrid injustices, I feel like that’s no longer what’s happening. Within the last years, these topics have become commercialized and used as “buzz-words” to sell books. That I have a problem with.
It’s also my ultimate problem with Our Missing Hearts. It’s another brick in the dystopian wall; a well-meant contribution to a valiant cause, but a quite commercial and safe one within an already saturated genre. The titular slogan was a perfect example of accidental activism and (intentionally!) echoes real-life examples such as the famous “I can’t breathe”. I wanted Celeste Ng to go there; to have that conversation with us. What I didn’t want was this sanitized, commercialised story, written for the mass-appeal of a bestseller-list, under the veil of “raising awareness”. Authors, readers, anyone… if we want these things to change, it’s time to make a change and rock the boat. Not too rehash and reread the same safe stuff over and over again, whilst making no moves forward in the process.
Many thanks to Little Brown UK for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. -
[3.45] I love the title and theme of Our Missing Hearts - a mother and son's struggle, in a near future authoritarian U.S., to find each other. The power of art and stories is at the heart of this novel. Its reality is chillingly close to home - just yesterday, a headline in the New York Times read: "Most Voters Say U.S. Democracy is Under Threat."
Bird's narrative, at the start of the novel, pulled me right in. But as the focus switched to his mother, it became all backstory and lost momentum. I liked the ending, but at that point, I was no longer invested. Ng at times shows her eloquence and power, but this novel was a disappointment. -
A decade after THE crisis, the USA has installed measures to preserve the security and the US American values allegedly in favor of its civilians. In this dystopian novel, Ng elaborates the implications of the aforementioned by means of a touching story of a mother and a son, who dare the impossible to reunite after a forced separation.
This is not your typical Celeste Ng novel, if you have read “Little fires everywhere” or “Everything I never told you”. Can you expect her eloquent and evocative writing style gushing out from this novel? Absolutely yes! BUT, sometimes, Ng takes it over the top with too many metaphors, regardless of their meaningfulness in a sentence.
Ng was inspired by the Corona crisis starting 2020 and by real disastrous incidents that revolve around forced separation of Mexican families and discrimination against Asian minorities in the US. Her elaborations, however, burst the framework, thus making her writing long-winded.
Btw: I found elements of Fahrenheit 451 in Ng’s novel and was surprised that she didn’t list this book in her references. Anyone else who drew parallels between these books?
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
IG: @nilguen_reads -
Pages 1-142: Bird the boy longing for his mother, where did his mother go, how could his mother leave him, why are certain books banned, WOE IS ME
Pages 143-331: anticlimactic garbage with zero quotation marks (emphasis on anticlimactic)
The characters?
Bird: sucked
Bird’s father: sucked x 2
Bird’s mother Margaret: like honestly idc
Sadie: the only character I gave half of a hoot about
THIS BOOK IS THE PWMOV OF 2022! GIVE US A SPEECH, CELESTE! SPEECH, SPEECH, SPEECH!
I literally do not recommend this book to anyone. If you are breathing, do not read this book, just trust me on this, okay?
Off to go drown in my bookish tears. Toodaloo. -
Who decides? And who is willing to question? That’s what’s at the heart of this book. Who decides what’s “best” for the country when it comes to education, to book banning, for the safety of the populace. When the First Amendment no longer means anything.
This is obviously a very timely book, as many states remove books that make folks uncomfortable. And how far a stretch is it to see the government removing children from parents deemed subversive? It’s a story about how history is doomed to repeat itself if we don't know what’s been done in the past - slavery, The Carlisle Indian School, Tule Lake, Trump’s treatment of families at the southern border But it’s more than just a treatise. It’s a heartwarming story of a boy who has lost his mother because of the government’s actions but is determined to find her. As a Chinese American poet, whose work the protestors took as their motto, she felt forced to flee her family. It’s a story about those who don’t just accept the changes.
The second half of the story flips to Margaret. We learn about The Crisis, which brought about The PACT (Protecting American Culture and Traditions Act) or government approved racism. This section started much drier for me. I felt like I was being told rather than shown. Even though Margaret is of Chinese descent, she feels the crackdown will never affect her. The story works best when the narrative focuses on what the two main characters feel. I was wondering how Ng would end this story, but her ending was perfect.
One of the other issues raised is the power of art, specifically protest art or guerilla art, as Ng calls it in her Author’s Notes. And bravo to the publisher for including those notes.
Lucy Liu did a great job narrating this story. -
When I saw Celeste Ng wrote a new book, I couldn't wait to grab a copy. I loved her last two books, especially ‘Everything I Never Told You.’
Our Missing Hearts, a departure from previous writing; dystopian in nature. It's the story of twelve-year-old Bird Gardner, who lives with his father. The laws of the PACT (laws written to protect American culture) are criticized by his mother, Margaret. When the government learns of her writing, she runs away for fear of Bird being taken away. (No matter how important political views are, abandoning a child is always a bad decision, yet I see it as a theme in recent reads, ex. Olga Dies Dreaming).
Bird misses his mother, as he grows, he learns more about his mother's disappearance through drawings he finds in a letter. Bird goes on a mission to find his mother. Through his Mother, we learn how PACT was formed, and how the Asian community was ostracized. While reading the story, I thought of interment camps of our time as well as those during the World Wars--caged children of Asian decent.
I applaud Ng for bringing to light an important topic and story that deserves attention. Yet, the story missed elements of a distinct plot, focuses more on language symmetry and less on character development.
What Celeste Ng does extremely well--beautiful prose. She writes like a lengthy, stunning poem. Captivating the reader with descriptive language. I felt this book had so much hope, but it fell flat. The storyline moved along like boots in mud, the characters' dry
This book was very relevant, yet overly politicized—like reading a New York Times article--too close to home, too real not to be unreal.
This book will not deter me from reading Ng's future books. However, I did not connect to the story or characters.
I want to rate this book higher, for attempting to address injustices, yet the plot wasn't as strong as I hoped.
3.5/5 stars -
I finished the ARC a while ago but I haven't been able to write/talk about it because it's too upsetting. Which is to say, I could imagine this happening right now (probably because it is), and Celeste Ng did an amazing job creating this terrifying world in which books are not burned (because that would be a bit too on the nose) but pulped into toilet paper, in which a biracial boy is being told by his father to hide his Asian roots. I love the voice of this story, a relatively distant, straightforward third-person POV. Bird is a 12 yr old boy, very innocent yet precocious/insightful. Because he's describing a harrowing world, his relative innocence is both refreshing and frightening, similar to Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun (matter-of-fact narration by an artificial being) and Javier Zamora's Solito (memoir written from the perspective of a 9-year old boy making the difficult journey from El Salvador to the US by himself to join his parents). The themes Ng explores are similar to her previous books--the insidiousness of racism (especially in a biracial family), a mother's estrangement from her family, the impact of that on her children, a small community being torn apart--but this book feels bigger, more political, more an artist frustrated with the world she's living in. I loved this book.
-
This is my first Celeste Ng book, but I did watch,
Little Fires Everywhere which I enjoyed. Whether the show did the book justice or not? I have no idea, but I was really excited to read this one because of newly formed expectations.
I may have not been engrossed in this one the whole time I was reading, but I was certainly intrigued. I don’t read a lot of dystopian novels which I would really like to correct, and this one was quite scary. What made this scary was how these events are a combination of things that have literally happened and yet things that could easily come back in the future anytime people feel like there’s a threat.
Of course with stories like these come courageous people who will stand up for what is right, while yet taking risks and losing the people they love in the process. There were so many characters with good amounts of descriptions and I genuinely found them all so interesting. Each of their stories helps tell the overall story and message that is being conveyed in the book.
I wouldn’t say I’ll be able to recount and explain what exactly happens in this one because of how intricate it is, but I’m so glad I read it! The ending was completely heartbreaking, yet still left a lot of room for hope. -
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng is a Family Fiction Story with a Dystopian Fiction Setting!
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives with his loving yet guarded father, a former linguist who now works at shelving library books. He tells Bird not to ask questions, to be invisible, stay close to home, and never speak of his mother. There are ears and eyes everywhere.
It's after "The Crisis" of a worldwide economic failure and they are governed by laws, known as the Preserve American Culture and Traditions Act. Under PACT, children can be removed from their home, relocated, especially those of Asian descent, and libraries remove books deemed "unpatriotic". This includes books by Bird's mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who left when he was nine years old.
Bird doesn't know his mother's work or why she left, but he can't stop thinking about her because three years is a long time to be without her. When he receives a cryptic note he believes is from her, it leads him on a journey to decipher the mystery of her disappearance...
Our Missing Hearts is told in three parts, through the voices of Bird and Margaret. The topics within are timely and relevant yet terrifying to visualize and emotional to read/listen. It's a dark and threatening story that's truly frightening when pondering the possibilities.
As I began listening, it didn't take me long to remember the flavor and essence of a Celeste Ng story. The diverse characters, emotional tension, family connections, a surrounding crisis, - it's all there, and it carried me away. The audiobook is narrated by actress Lucy Lui who does a phenomenal job bringing this story to life.
Celeste Ng has been a favorite author of mine since reading her debut novel
Everything I Never Told You and her sophomore novel
Little Fires Everywhere in 2019. She fills my heart with incredible character-driven storytelling and now that she's written Our Missing Hearts, a Dystopian Fiction story and one of my favorite genres, I'm in love all over again. I highly recommend!
5 Incredible Stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ -
You often hear people exclaim “I would read anything that (insert author name) writes!” – but when it comes to
Celeste Ng, it really is true for me.
Our Missing Hearts is a dystopian novel, a genre I haven’t really touched since my teenage dystopian phase when I was obsessed with
The Hunger Games and
Divergent. But because Ng is such a skilled storyteller and her writing is so compelling, that really wasn’t an issue for me here. With all 3 of Ng’s books that I’ve read, it’s only taken the first few pages for me to be pulled into the story.
Our Missing Hearts follows 12-year-old Bird, who is now living a quiet life with his white father after his Chinese American mother, Margaret Miu, left them years ago. In the wake of a recent financial crisis, the novel’s conceptualisation of America now operates under PACT (Preserving American Culture and Traditions Act), a government act which sets out to defend American values from foreign influences (especially from China), allowing for arrests and children being separated from their parents if people even dare to question the act.
Bird has never stopped wondering about his mother and where she is, but due to the jingoistic and racist society left by PACT, he has always been instructed to keep his head down and stay out of trouble, mostly by supressing his Asian identity.
Essentially,
Our Missing Hearts is among the slew of Covid response novels which have been released since 2020, offering a clear allegory of the political turmoil and racial tensions during the pandemic, particularly Anti-Asian rhetoric and the myth of the ‘Chinese virus’. (Although focusing on Black people,
Zadie Smith's essay ‘Contempt As a Virus’ on structural racism being the real virus in America would be a great companion to this novel.)
The novel’s exploration of children being removed from ‘unpatriotic’ families echoes both a current and historical tradition in America – ICE separating children from their families at the border and placing them in cages, indigenous children taken away to boarding schools to be ‘civilised’ into Euro-American culture and values, and many more examples.
In this way, Ng’s portrait of America is very much rooted in its history, which alarmingly just makes its ‘dystopian future’ feel not too far away.
Our Missing Hearts is a novel which is lyrically written, incredibly powerful, and disturbingly relevant.
—————————
the queen of literary fiction has done it again -
binged this in two sittings yet the ending has left me wanting to punch a hole in my wall 😂😂😂 leaving off a rating for now until i sit with it more. but to be honest, the subject matter makes it a bit hard to rate.
is this an amazing 5-star book? for me, no. but is it a perfect book club book? absolutely. Reese hit it on the head with yet another pick. you can talk about this books for hours and debate the ending and the topics until you’re blue in the face.
this book was heavy and dark and set in a bleak dystopian future with little happy moments so beware of that going in. if you like ambiguous endings and things left up to individual interpretation, then you’ll enjoy it. if you don’t, then you might be left disappointed.
all that said, this book covers a ton of heavy topics and has so much to unpack. dystopian fiction can be a bit much, and this one was definitely super heavy and emo. if you’re a mother, i think you can connect to this more than non-mothers. simply put, it’s basically about one mother and what she’ll do to protect her child and help make a difference in the world.
it reminded me a bit of A SCHOOL FOR GOOD MOTHERS. so many “wtf” moments that could make you fearful for the future or determined to not let it get to that. lots of current themes to our messy world right now which might be too much for people to read—racism, children separated from families, discrimination, book banning, violence, repercussions if you don’t believe in a specific thing, lack of free info, etc.
oh, and it’s a SUUUUPER slow burn. the first 1/3 was setting the stage. the middle was a bit slow. and the last 1/3 had me super invested—until that final chapter 😅
TLDR; a perfect book club discussion but the ending might make you scream 😂
PS—the audiobook was MUCH better than the physical for this one. the no quotation marks was messing w me too much! -
Our Missing Hearts is a thought provoking book that looks at injustice, community, power, what we are willing to do for our children, using whatever means we can to share our thoughts, relationships, censorship, racism, and survival.
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives with his father who shelves books in a university library. His mother, Chinese American poet, left when he was nine-years old. He knows not to talk about her, to ask about her or to seek out her work.
Bird lives in a time where there are laws to protect the “American culture”. It is a time where children can be removed from their homes and libraries have removed certain unpatriotic books (including his mother’s) from their shelves.
One day he receives a letter with a drawing and seeks out his mother. His journey will not only let him see a classmate who was taken but will see him examining his feelings and his thoughts toward his mother.
This book dealt with a lot of issues and did feel heavy at times. I found it to be well written and thought provoking. I sought out a video on YouTube where the author spoke and answered questions about this book.
* A traveling friends/sisters buddy read.
Read more of my reviews on
www.openbookpost.com -
Why did I tell you so many stories? Because I wanted the world to make sense to you. I wanted to make sense of the world, for you. I wanted the world to make sense.
The Goodreads description for Our Missing Hearts is a very comprehensive summary of the story, so I won’t bother with my own recap.
Our Missing Hearts is written in the same manner as
The Handmaid’s Tale, a comparison Ms. Ng has made herself. It’s a story primarily about two people—Bird and Margaret—that is a vehicle for telling a larger story about American society gone wrong. There is a resistance of sorts, but its size and effectiveness is unknowable. One of the major character’s final fate is unknown at the end of the book. Much of the story is told in flashbacks. And the writing is skillful and evocative, poetic in places as befits a novel where one of the main characters is a poet.
But I wasn’t moved by Our Missing Hearts, and I’ve spent a week trying to figure out exactly why. This book is a character study, and a slow one at that. But the story is not truly about the characters. It is a polemic about the dystopian version of America painted in the book. And the core problem is that this terrible, dark future America described in this book is … barely different from now. Hatred and violence directed at Asian-Americans in the wake of a global crisis? Family separations as a political tactic? A resurgence of book banning? Ms. Ng took events that have happened in our country in the last few years and just made them slightly more overt. The novel lacks the shock value of the slow reveals about Gilead (or many other dystopian stories) and the lingering questions about how such a world could have come to pass. The America in this novel is so recognizable that it doesn’t seem worth the effort to have written about it.
I really enjoyed
Little Fires Everywhere, and still highly recommend it. Our Missing Hearts is not a bad book by any means, and I liked the concept of guerrilla art (such as yarn bombings) as a form non-violent political protest. But in the end I found it to be a bit disappointing. -
The concept and politics behind this dystopian novel were thought-provoking and challenging. But for me Ng's previous two novels using family drama to draw out themes of prejudice and racism were far more powerful.
The narrative for much of this book felt too much like the author wanted to download all her political feelings surrounding race issues in the US into her reader's minds at the expense of building on captivating characters and compelling plot.
Because a large part of the plot was conveyed through conversation explaining retrospective experience it left me a little cold. I couldn't engage with the events of the story as they were shared in quite a spare, summarative way from one character to another. I couldn't find a way into the emotion of it all despite the very sad atrocities of what was happening in this dystopian world and indeed, has sadly taken place in many countries in the real world. Yet, I just felt too distant from it all and found the plot ploddy and uninspiring.
Ng's prose is still beautiful and the use of language is stunning at times, but I didn't enjoy this anywhere near as much as her previous two novels.
This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.
