We are blessed with a very strong list of new literary fiction this fall. Books by Marianne Wiggins, Dani Shapiro, Elizabeth Strout, and others have had a profound impact on me. But rising above all of them is Celeste Ng's brilliant, brave, and devastating new novel, Our Missing Hearts. Set in the near future the novel draws on our shared histories of the removal of children from their families, of repression of speech and attempts to repress thoughts, of cowardice in the face of public opinion, and of the concomitant bravery taken on by individuals who attempt to fight and change these destructive prevailing forces. In the hands of a loss talented wrier, this story could have devolved into hackneyed caricatures and false sympathies. But Ng deftly avoids all that, producing a book that I could not put down and yet did not want to end. It will take the most cynical among us not to be moved by All Our Missing Hearts. I, for one, will carry much of Ng's prose and all of her stories in my head and in my heart.

Celeste Ng’s magnificent, devasting novel, Our Missing Hearts, is the perfect book for our times, in the best possible way. It’s like Ng took all of my worries about the world and validated them without offering false hope (change is going to take work). This book is one I’m going to be pushing into readers’ hands for months (if not years) to come.

Bird Gardner lives in New England, sometime in the not-too-distant future. He once had a mother but now only lives with his dad, who constantly repeats rules meant to keep the shrunken family together: don’t talk about his poet mother to anyone, avoid trouble at all costs, and don’t question the PACT (Protect American Culture and Traditions Act). These rules are troubling, of course, but what’s even more troubling are PACT’s ripple effects throughout American society. Bird isn’t the only one trying to avoid trouble because the powers that be have figured out how to control all dissent. To keep people quiet, take away their children.

In her afterword, Ng points to historical precedents for governments taking children away from parents who are, somehow, a challenge to the majority’s status quo. Governments in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other places took indigenous children from their parents to “civilize” them. The Trump administration separated children from immigrant parents. It is a terrifyingly effective tactic. In Our Missing Hearts, Bird slowly learns why his friend, Sadie (who was taken from her activist parents), burns with fury at the adults around her who keep her from going home, why everyone seems so afraid to voice their thoughts, why so many books have been removed from the libraries and schools, and, above all, why his mother had to leave.

Our Missing Hearts is narrated by Bird except for a middle section in which Bird’s mother, Margaret, gets to tell her story. She takes us back to an economic collapse so awful that it eclipsed the Great Depression. The collapse—called the Crisis—was blamed on China, where Margaret’s parents emigrated from. People of Asian descent (Chinese or otherwise) were attacked or shunned by white Americans. (Ng references the racially motivated murder of Vincent Chin in the afterword.) Margaret tells us how she survived the Crisis and found Bird’s father. Their love story is beautifully told and had my heart aching long before Margaret gets to the part where she explains how one of her poems became a flashpoint in the anti-Asian/anti-PACT movement.

One thing that really jumped out at me about Our Missing Hearts was the use of art to protest PACT and the complacency of white Americans. Because the fear of losing one’s children is so strong, activists have gone underground instead of staging mass protests or more forceful responses to oppression, people will create guerilla works of art that can’t be traced to anyone but that remind anyone who sees them that children are being stolen. Margaret’s eponymous poem is often quoted. Librarians also get a shoutout as part of the resistance, which pleased me greatly.

This book was an incredible read. Ng plays the emotions like a virtuoso and I was close to tears more than once because of the beauty Ng invoked for the power of art, Margaret’s love for her family, and Bird’s awakening to the world around him. It also had my clenching my hands in fists at the way that PACT stole so many freedoms in the name of a little security against future economic and social turmoil. Ng does all of this without making anything too easy and without preaching. It works as fiction unlike a lot of books I’ve read that have sᴏᴍᴇᴛʜɪɴɢ ɪᴍᴘᴏʀᴛᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ sᴀʏ. This book is phenomenal.

Twelve-year-old Bird has limited memories of his mother, a Chinese American poet who went missing three years ago. But he's not the only person wondering what happened to a loved one after a law was passed encouraging Americans to report their neighbors for "unpatriotic ideals", particularly those of Asian descent. When Bird receives a curious drawing he believes is from his mother, he goes on a dangerous journey to find her.

Completely and totally stunning. I was drawn in from page one and never wanted this book to end. It's quite different from Celeste Ng's other books, more dystopian and frightening, especially considering how closely her story tracks with the real-time dissolution of our democracy and humanitarian crises. But it's masterfully crafted, perfectly weaving together political fear, magical folktales, and complicated family dynamics. The last few chapters are some of the best writing I've read in a decade. I will return to this story again and again.

Thank you to Penguin Press and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

Our Missing Hearts is a beautifully written cautionary tale of a potential version of reality in a world in which personal liberties are stripped in favor of protecting "American culture." In this dystopian view, anyone of Asian descent is particularly suspicious, and most aspects of life that may have a connection to Asia (books, food, languages, etc.) have been removed from easy access to most people. Anyone who dares to question these policies is deemed dangerous and lives in fear of their children being removed from their homes.

For me, the book had a bit of a slow start, but as pieces of the puzzle start to fall into place, I became engrossed in following Bird's journey to find his mother. In particular, I found Margaret's position of being thrust into "the cause" through no deliberate choice of her own and her subsequent choices compelling. However, while I can't imagine that there could be a "satisfying" conclusion to the book, I felt that the ending was rushed and incomplete.

Overall, this book was very well written and provided a chilling look at a possible future that would benefit many to contemplate.

This is one of those books that I can't stop talking about! Ng's America is startling in its Orwellian atmosphere, but similar enough to things that are actually happening to make it feel terrifyingly possible. The writing is beautiful, the story is heartbreaking on both global and personal levels, and I just cannot stop thinking about. Definitely one to hand to just about anyone who wants a book that makes them THINK and FEEL.

It is rare that a book is both beautifully written and a captivating story, but Our Missing Hearts is one of those rare books. The characters were believable yet compelling, and I loved how the details of how stories and poems transport and fortify us were woven throughout. Loved it!

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Press for the opportunity to read this book prior to publication. I was eagerly looking forward to Celeste's new book, as I adored her previous works. This new one is dystopian! Bird and his father live in Cambridge, where his dad, a former linguistics professor, works at the library at Harvard. PACT laws preserve American culture in this world, where Asians are not to be trusted, children can be removed from dissident parents, and unpatriotic books are removed from circulation. Bird's own mom had to flee the family due to PACT, and the rest of the story involves Bird's puzzle to find her again. The setup took a while, but about about 30-40% in I could not put this down and finished the rest in one day. I loved the discussions of linguistics, storytelling, poetry, and bad-ass librarians. This book is terrifying and heart wrenching, and I will be thinking about this one for a long time.

This was a departure from Ng's previous novels, and I really loved it! I found myself tearing up in the autoshop while I waited on an oil change - so good and moving and I love what it says for libraries and mothers and poetry. It does feel, as so many novels do now, to be political in spirit and I wonder if that will split the readership or if people won't really mind because the story is so good.

Definitely my favorite book of the year… beautifully written and heartbreaking. I loved everything about this books - the beautiful words, the characters that she brought to life and the story that I can’t stop thinking about. I am recommending it to everyone who crosses my path. Ng has created a story of what our country could become if we allow it. This novel represents what world would be created if our fears are given into. I will be thinking about this book for a long time.

Also this novel gets major bonus points because librarians are heroes in this book “Librarians, of all people, understood the value of knowing, even if that information could not yet be used.”

Every time I read a book by Celeste Ng, I feel like the characters become a part of my life. In this case, it is like she took the seeds that were planted during the recent pandemic, watered them, and made them grow into a terrifying totalitarian future where books are banned and children taken from parents who are seen as not “Preserving American Culture and Traditions”. The fact that most of them are “Persons of Asian Origin” dredges up memories of Japanese internment camps and boarding schools established to assimilate Indigenous children into “mainstream” American culture. This is a beautifully written, compelling read and while it is frighteningly close to a possible reality, it does leave you feeling hopeful that the good in humanity will prevail.

I really love Celeste Ng's writing style, so it was hard for me to put this book down. I really liked the young protagonist, and the mystery in the first half of the novel was extremely engaging. The perspective switch midway through and the unraveling of many of the mysteries felt appropriate. The story of the dystopia in which our characters find themselves is frightening in the banality of its onset. Ng is drawing from real-world events throughout, rhyming the formation of PACT with other events in US history, including various regimes of family separation and outbreaks of anti-Asian xenophobia and violence. Although I felt the ending fell a bit flat and it seemed like it was grasping at the idea of collective (rather that individual) action, I thought this was a well-told story of family and connection in a hopeless world.

As a librarian, I love the role that libraries, books, and librarians play in the story. Family separation is a hard topic and while it was handled well, I wouldn't have minded a longer book to reach a wider resolution. Really appreciated the source material at the end of the book.

A beautiful, but frightening tale that warns of a future not as impossible as we would hope.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy to read and review. All opinions are my own.

A fictional America that sadly could be the future of the country, PACT is created to "protect" American culture and prevent children from "anti-American corruption". Bird grew up watching children get transplanted from their birth parents to "more American-positive" families, and his own family is threatened by the treaty as his mother is Chinese. After she posts a book of poems that are unintentionally connected to the movement against the PACT treaty, she removes herself from her family to protect Bird. But Bird doesn't understand why his mother left and so when he receives a mysterious letter, he goes to find her, which much help from a group of librarians.

I could not put this book down! It was different than other Celeste Ng's books, content wise, but similar in that I get very attached the the characters. Very relevant for what is going on in the world today. I'm not a parent of a tween/teen, but if I was I think I'd be even more attached to this book. It was an extra plus that librarians were a feature in the story :) Thanks for the ARC!

A fascinating dystopian story that is full of heart -- and heartbreak. The fact that it mirrors much of what is currently going on in our society makes it even more compelling and engaging. A great choice for book groups. Very different from Little Fires Everywhere -- readers looking for more of the same from this author won't necessarily find it, but they will find a great new story.

Not my cup of tea. I loved Celeste Ng's previous books, but unfortunately this missed the mark for me. While I appreciated the imagined near-future dystopia, the stakes seemed to drop pretty rapidly to a very lack-luster ending.

This dystopian novel might be a bit jarring for Ng's fans at first because it is unexpected. But once readers are immersed in Bird's life in a near future America they will find writing that seems very familiar and beautiful. Bird is being raised by his white American dad after his Chinese-American poet mom leaves them before getting their family in trouble because East Asians are now suspected of espionage. Many of the dystopian elements of the book are things that have either historically happened or are very easy to imagine happening. This will be an excellent book club book.

This is so hard to type because Celeste Ng is one of my favorite authors. I have absolutely adored her first two books. Unfortunately I do not share the same enthusiasm for this book. It did not hold my interest, and it was hard to follow at times.

Celeste Ng has done it again! There's suspense, grit, and beautiful prose that tie this into one entertaining read.