A story about the power of art to change the world and legacies left to children from acclaimed author Celeste Ng. Easy read with an inspiring message.

I struggled some with this book and think that it may have not been what I was expecting from Ng based on what I had read of her writing in the past. It is definitely a timely story especially as we are seeing large movements wanting to remove books from libraries and even declare them as profane and not able to be sold in bookstores.

This was...something.

I LOVE Celeste Ng. Everything I Never Told You remains my favorite book to this day, and I read it purely by chance. But Our Missing Hearts it something else entirely. Celeste Ng takes a sharp genre departure from her normal fare and I'm not sure it really worked out for her. I saw another reviewer call this "YA dystopia dressing up as literary fiction because there are no quotation marks around the dialogue" and I can't help but agree. There's something a bit juvenile about this book given Celeste Ng's chops, and I think it boils down to the lack of deep character diving. If you're expecting anything like her previous novels...don't.

I think the real-life implications of the scenario Ng is posing in the novel are worth considering (specially involving PACT, which reminded me of the historical issue of indigenous children being taken away from their home and "educated" in religious schools), but I'm not sure Ng is the one to pose it in this particular circumstance.

This was not the book I was expecting when I pick it up. I knew nothing about this book, other than I loved Celeste Ng's previous books, but this book was so moving and touching.

This book is rooted in a world like ours, but not quite. A world where hate and fear has truly taken over and the people slowly working to turn the world around. I really loved how the story started with Bird's point of view, and how we started learning the world from the viewpoint of a child, we then transform the viewpoint of the mother where we see how the world became the way it did and the spaces filled in where Bird wasn't able to know what was happening.

This book was so mesmerizing and enchanting that it was hard to put it down.

Not my favorite Celeste Ng - I don’t love dystopian fiction and this felt a little heavy handed and dragged at the end.

I found the narrator boring and the story line uninteresting. Not for me, although my library will purchase because the author is popular around here.

I’ve loved each Celeste Ng book I’ve read thus far, and Our Missing Hearts was no different. This novel felt different than other Celeste Ng books, in that it felt more like a fairy tale or a translated Japanese story in a lot of ways. The author's note at the end was important to give context to the book for people that might be blind to the reality most of this novel is steeped in. I hope this book finds the right audience, and it breeds some much needed empathy in our world.

Wow. Just wow. I approached Celeste Ng's latest work expected another story about mothers and children with a frisson of suspense. I enjoyed, but wasn't overly impressed, with her earlier work. This is at a completely different level. The writing is gorgeous and the social commentary is chilling. What a powerful, powerful story. I highly recommend it.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC.

This book started a bit slowly, and I wasn't sure if it was really for me. And then I realized it was becoming dystopic, and I *really* wasn't sure if it was for me. I'm glad that I persevered just long enough to get sucked in, though, as the rewards were great...a reminder that it's good to stretch your comfort zone from time to time.

This novel begins with twelve-year-old Bird and his father, living in a dormitory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after having gone through major, debilitating change. We don't know why the former linguistics professor father now shelves books for a living. We don't know why their former home sits vacant. And we don't know where Bird's mother has gone, although we know that her poetry has been part of a revolution, a protest against the tyrannical government.

A shout out to the librarians of this book who basically run an underground railroad for missing children. To say this book is haunting is too romantic. This book is terrifying, because it's all too believable.

I need to start by telling you two very important things about 𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗠𝗜𝗦𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗦 by Celeste Ng. First, I loved it! Next, it IS dystopian and it IS political. I know both those things scare some readers off, but here I don’t think it should. It’s dystopian in a political way much like 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘥’𝘴 𝘛𝘢𝘭𝘦 (not as extreme) or 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 (slightly more so).⁣⁣⁣⁣
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In Ng’s new book, the United States had gone through a period of inflation, massive shortages, unemployment and violence. Right or wrong, much of the blame was placed on China, and out of that time rose a new political power that required complete loyalty to U.S. values. People who spoke out would often find themselves punished. For some, their children were taken away and relocated to a loyal family with the “right values.” Anyone Asian became particularly vulnerable, not only from the government, but from angry citizens.⁣⁣⁣⁣
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The story follows Bird, a 12-year old boy, whose mother, a Chinese American poet, voluntarily left Bird and her husband three years earlier. She did this to protect Bird from being relocated. He is now at an age where he’s becoming acutely aware of the world around him and he begins questioning more and more why his mom left and where she could be. The book brings us Bird’s quest to find answers. ⁣⁣⁣⁣
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As always Ng’s writing is spectacular and her characters extremely well-developed. This has a clever, heart-felt plot in which she wove together many elements beautifully. I suspect there will be those who don’t like the political angles in this book, and they'll need to examine their own reasons why. I would simply say that no matter where you stand politically, 𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴 is a wonderful coming-of-age story and a book I highly recommend. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫⁣⁣⁣⁣
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Thanks to @penguinpress for an ARC of #OurMissingHearts.

Our Missing Hearts is a YA dystopia. It was slow-paced and show the crumbling of justice and society all around, but Bird seems detached and takes most of it in stride. Much of the novel is spent describing the details and injustices of PACT (Preserving American Culture and Traditions. ) Our Missing Hearts with its controlling government, banning books, secret resistance and flat characters was missing something to hold my attention and make me care.

I read this right after reading another dystopian novel, Lark Ascending by Silas House. They are going to be my must read recommendations of the year. As a librarian, I loved that librarians were heros/resistance fighters. As a librarian, I fear we are not too far from empty spaces on library shelves due to censorship. Such a timely book and one that I hope will open eyes.

What a cool concept! I love Celeste Ng so much! This one is definitely going on a library themed display.

“From the #1 bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere, comes one of the most highly anticipated books of the year – the inspiring new novel about a mother’s unbreakable love in a world consumed by fear.“

You know those lines in Les Mis, in the opening song, where it says, “Look down! Look down! Sweet Jesus hear my prayer! Look down! Look down! Sweet Jesus doesn’t care!”

Except Jesus is Celeste NG and she cares zero percent about my tender heart.

Screw you, Celeste, and your stunningly beautiful, mercilessly soul-crushing, too-flippin-close-to-reality piece of astounding speculative fiction.

How am I even supposed to go to work today?

Listen, I could write a long review on this book. I could write about all the things I loved.

Lucy Lui as narrator.
The use of the Japanese folk tale as plot.
The two points of view.
The etymology.
The nearly-poetic prose.
The badass band of librarians
The quotable quotes:

“Unity requires a common enemy.”
“Police are equipped for violence, but not for this.”
“They were kind people, who thought they meant well.”
“Some of our donors have opinions. And we need their generosity to keep this place open,”
“How can you know if no one will teach you, and no one ever talks about it, and all the books about it are gone?”

I could talk about the way Ng gets you thinking about huge topics like community, the militarization of the police, information gatekeeping, snitch-culture, adoption (read: state-sanctioned kidnapping), and storytelling as activism.

I could talk about all the things I hated – but really, that all boiled down to it being only a breath away from actual life.

But why? When you could just go get this book?

If you love the Handmaid’s Tale, and hate Nazis, read this book.
If you hate your neighbour and think that Residential Schools were the right idea, read this book.

Basically, just read this book.

9.5/10

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Press for this staggering ARC.

This unique work of literary fiction is an interesting account of a possible future in which people of Asian descent are highly discriminated against. A mother and son are reunited in this terrifying society in which the Chinese are treated terribly and children are taken away from parents who disagree with the “pact.” Although this is definitely thought-provoking and Ng is an excellent writer, this was not my favorite. It didn’t hold my attention or interest very well and it moved along rather slowly. I feel like this is definitely more of a reflection of my tastes as a reader than the quality of the book and the writing, so I urge others to give this a try.

She does it again. What a thought provoking story. She really makes you think about the social issues we’ve been dealing with now and in the past. What a perfect story to allow for conversation about how we treat others in the name of our political beliefs etc. Great read!

In this spookiest of months, many of us are turning to tales of madness and mayhem for a shot of adrenaline with our pumpkin lattes. Haunted houses filled with creepy crawlies will give you shivers when you visit them in the pages of a book, late at night, with the howling (or is it laughing?) wind rattling your windows…

But for me, the scariest setting is the near-future dystopia populated with the monsters who walk on two legs. The unthinkable tomorrow hiding just around the corner, ready to follow us home and move into our cozy cul-de-sac. Such is the world inhabited by 12-year-old Bird in the newest lyrical allegory by Celeste Ng.

Abandoned a few years earlier by his mother, Chinese-American poet-cum-revolutionary Margaret Miu, Bird resides with his father in a dorm at an East Coast university. Their lives were upended following the Crisis, when anti-Asian sentiment devolved into hate crimes, censorship and removal of children from homes deemed unfit or sympathetic toward China. Curious about his mother’s role in the pop-up demonstrations that feature lines from her poetry, Bird finds a clue that leads him in search of Margaret.

These themes are deep and may be triggering, but they lay bare the slippery slopes of political fear-mongering, racism and over-zealous legislation. You know, the slopes over which our country is currently teetering. 🫣

The writing flows, soars, plummets. It rides the currents, trusting the path just as Bird does in his journey to find his mother and her truth. You’ll find yourself gasping for breath both at the exquisite beauty of a sentence, and the matter-of-fact cruelty humans wield so easily.

Bonus points from this librarian for the portrayal of my profession in these pages. It speaks to the very present, beating heart of what we do: connect people to information and, by extension, to each other.

My sincere thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Press for the digital ARC and the opportunity to share my thoughts on this powerful book.

As publisher, I requested this book as background reading for a First Impressions Program we were running in conjunction with marketing. Our member-reviewers rated it a very impressive 4.6-star average. I have already and will continue to recommend it far and wide.

Review:
https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/reviews/index.cfm/ref/bh289472/our-missing-hearts#reviews
Beyond the Book:
https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/btb/index.cfm/ref/bh289472/our-missing-hearts#btb

The hype associated with this book is very well-earned. As any good near-future dystopian story will do, it was eerily realistic and only a hair’s breadth away from our current reality. It's a love letter to art and books and librarians and activism and motherhood. The pacing was slow and the style was a little difficult to get through for me, which is the only reason it isn't a full five star rating. But if you take the time, there is so much to find worthwhile.

OUR MISSING HEARTS by Celeste Ng (Little Fires Everywhere) should not be missed, even though it is an emotionally difficult read. Ng sets this dystopian novel in the near future; it occurs after the Crisis (a period of economic upheaval) and subsequent passage of PACT (Preserving American Culture and Traditions Act). Desperate leaders sought a common enemy and Asian Americans suffer the consequences of anti-Chinese feelings. One of them is a young mother and poet named Margaret Miu. She becomes a target when a poem that she wrote transforms to a rallying cry for those protesting as more and more children are taken from their supposedly subversive families and "re-placed" in foster care as a form of re-education. Margaret flees, leaving behind her husband Ethan Gardner, and their mixed race, pre-teen son called Bird. This story - with literal and figurative journeys by Bird and by Margaret - allows Ng to explore the characters' feelings and dawning comprehension while also encouraging readers to reflect. At one point, she writes, "Would one person be compelled? One out of eight million, a fraction of a fraction. But not nothing. ... saying to others at last: Listen, this isn't right." Book banning and suppression of dissent is repeatedly referenced, as is the quiet resistance and strength of librarians (e.g., "the brain of a librarian was a capacious place").

A LibraryReads selection for October, OUR MISSING HEARTS received starred reviews from Booklist ("utterly stupendous"), Kirkus ("sensitive, nuanced, and vividly drawn"), Library Journal ("beautiful yet chilling tale"), and Publishers Weekly ("remarkable"). Ng is an extremely gifted writer; consider this description of a rainstorm: "The rain hisses as it falls, like a thousand tiny snakes, and where it hits, the ground writhes. It needles the dirt, punching holes that widen to craters that fill and swell into ponds."Her wordplay ("Spirare, Bird hears his father say. To breathe. Con: together. So conspiracy literally means breathing together") and emphasis on fables and the art of storytelling is amazing. Start reading for yourself or with others – this title would make an excellent book group or literature circle selection. For more reaction, see Stephen King's review in the New York Times. He says, "Governments are right to fear words. They can change hearts and topple tyrannies."

NYT Review:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/books/review/celeste-ng-our-missing-hearts.html