In 2022, with more books being pulled from shelves and banned/censored titles reported to ALA's Office of Intellectual Freedom than ever before, this novel has my heart. I love the dystopian genre as a whole and this timely book is set in the seemingly all too real near-future. In this version of "America," anything or anyone from China, including American Chinese families are looked down upon by the Preserving American Culture and Traditions Act (PACT). Any fowl play or suspicious activity should be reported to PACT, and sole allegiance should be to PACT alone - even if that means removing sympathetic parents from their children, because they are "unfit" to parent the upcoming generation.

I loved the fire of the main characters had to continue to search for answers and true justice, even in the face of a dangerous world. It made me consider how far I would be willing to venture to find the "truth" and impact the world for good.

I don't know why it took me so long to read this one but when I started, I couldn't put it down. Part dystopian, part journey to discover parents as humans, Our Missing Hearts delivers on all fronts.

Gut wrenching, compelling and uncomfortably close to current events this is a sobering look at a policy taken too far. Wonderful character development, beautifully written. Can be considered in the same class as The Handmaids Tale.

This was rough. I really enjoyed Ng’s Everything I never Told you. I didn’t love the follow up little fires everywhere but this book sounded so great. A dystopian where librarians are helping the protagonists succeed. It just didn’t work for me. Bird was a likable character but the back and forth timeline was hard to get into and I had trouble following the story once he found his mother. It was a slow burn and didn’t really work for me.

I read this ARC for an honest review
All thoughts and opinions are mine

Ive read this author and really enjoyed them

Another belter - loved it

Another spectacular work by Ng. An adventure, a rumination, and ultimately a book about the power of words. Just loved this.

Excellent novel - not the type of novel that I usually go for but I was so drawn into it. Ng has surprised me with this one. It is not the type of novel that I am used to from Celeste Ng. I've enjoyed her other two novels about families and family struggles. This one has family and family struggles but the heart of the novel is a portrait of what the world could become. I am a high school librarian and we are experiencing these very issues - people and organizations wanting to have titles pulled from our shelves. It is eerily reflective of current social and political situations. It is soul wrenching and frightening. Ng is a brilliant storyteller and this novel hits the ball out of the park. It is a novel to read and digest in parts not to hurry through - it is a great book for book club discussions. Sadly, the things she writes about have occurred in some forms in history and it is frightening that they could manifest themselves again. It is a cautionary tale.

I was really looking forward to this book. The themes hit close to home and I could see the forced patriotism being not far away. Ng uses her character of Bird, and his search for his mother to highlight how families are forced to walk the line of forced patriotism.

This wasn't my favorite story. It was slow and I had to put it down at times. I was excited to read it but maybe it felt too real at times? That may be the type of reader I am, that I read to escape, and don't want to read about politics and patriotism. That doesn't mean the book is bad. It's necessary. It's just hard to read in days like these.

I felt really sad about the situation for this little man. I can not immagine this really. I had this book on audio and kindle so it was my fave combination but still the dystopian world is not what I could immagine this time. I was really hooked at the beggining and felt everything about this crazy situation so terrible that hurt still now. What a human nature can do..

Thank you PENGUIN GROUP The Penguin Press, Penguin Press for my kindle arc copy and Libro.fm for the audio copy.

Ng’s latest work is dystopian. However given However, given what we’ve experienced over the past couple of years with the corona virus, it doesn’t seem that far-fetched. The story is narrated by Bird, a 12 year old boy living in Cambridge with his father. His mother,, Margaret,,a poet, disappeared 3 years earlier. Following the “Crisis”, new restrictive legislation is enacted in the US.. “PACT: Preserving American Culture and Traditions. A solemn promise to root out any anti-American elements undermining the nation. (P.185) ….” This means anti-Chinese racism, extreme censorship and removing children from parents who are patriotic in the prescribed ways. One of Margaret’s poems becomes the motto of the protestors, so she is forced to disappear, or Bird may be taken from the family.. Bird receives a cryptic message from Margaret and runs away to NY where he finds her and learns her story. She is collecting information on missing children hoping they will eventually be reunited with their parents. Librarians play a starring role in the network. Good story, a little slow in some parts.

I'm a huge fan of Celeste Ng and this book was no exception. It was a definite departure from her previous realistic fiction genres, moving into dystopian science fiction, but all of the wonderful character development and creative plot elements that I have loved in her previous books are easily found in Our Missing Hearts as well.

The book follows 12 year old, Bird, as he navigates a world in which a focus on American patriotism has become the driving force behind all existence and anyone who stands in the way has become a problem. Bird's mother has left the family, presumably because she was working with the resistance, possibly because she was Chinese, a group who have become perceived as threatening to "American ideals" and thus villainized. A huge aspect of the story is that children of citizens who are known to be working or speaking against the laws that mandate the levels of patriotism required are removed from their homes and parents and placed with other families.

I loved Bird, his parents, and the network of librarians doing secret good work in this story. It is hard to compare this book to other works by Ng, but it was a fantastic read for me nonetheless.

This was not at all what I expected from Ng, but I loved it. I assumed it’d be another realistic family drama. The dystopia threw me at first, but it was such a bleak setting for this story. Ng nailed it. Once again I was filled with conflicted emotions for the parents in this story.

This book took me awhile to finish, I think because it was so hard for me to step into a universe that felt eerily similar to what we have experienced in recent years and a post-apocalyptical society. It has definite "The Handmaid's Tale" vibes but felt more realistic in its ways of describing how citizens (especially racial minorities) surrender freedoms due a "Crisis" - like the global pandemic we all went through. The author's last novel "Little Fires Everywhere" was another excellent social commentary, and while I didn't feel like this one was as much of a page turner, I think it has a powerful message and I'm glad I read it.

One of the fun things about reading advanced copies of books is that I know little about them before reading. As a fan of dystopian novels, I was surprised that I was reading one written by Celeste Ng.

Ng’s twist on reality draws on current events and American history, creating a frighteningly plausible world. It’s an America that scapegoats Asian Americans after a societal catastrophic event. Hate crimes against Asian Americans, and the removal of children from families deemed “unpatriotic” are justified in the name of security.

In the story, the boy, Bird searches for his mother. She left him and his father when he was younger. He knows that his questions about her will go unanswered so he tries to piece together why she left with his fragmented memories of her. Eventually, he undertakes a journey searching for the truth. Along the way, he begins to witness the small acts of defiance of people trying to fight back as best they can.

Ng’s book asks, when faced with a world that no longer allows for a voice, how do we find a way to resist?

I'm in awe of Celeste Ng: Her writing is breathtaking in its beauty, in her ability to find just the right words: Her descriptions of something as simple and familiar as rain can stop me in my tracks, prompting me to reread a paragraph again and again. When it comes to characters' most deeply felt emotions, such as the agony of missing someone they love, she is truly second to none.

This book was, at times, almost unbearably heart-wrenching to read, set in a near-future society that is far too easy to imagine becoming reality if we don't heed cautionary tales like this one. In many ways, it felt like immersing myself in my worst nightmares. But for that reason it's also an important story, one that deserves to be widely read and taken to heart, one that has the capacity to move us to be better, more empathetic and compassionate and less quick to judge. This is a story that is impossible to forget. And thank goodness for that.

This book’s heart wasn’t missing: it was right there on its sleeve. I thought the first section of the book was interesting and kind of lost the thread (as often happens with audio books) in the middle. Having read Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow recently, I had a hard time getting past the naming coincidence of Sadie Green(stein).

The characters are written with such simplicity, yet depth, that is so relatable to any family. The dystopian, authoritarian society in full display parallels unmistakably to the current social cracks in the United States and the world. The relationship between Bird and his mom is so real and beautiful. Bird is braver than any kid I've ever known.

Our Missing Hearts is thought provoking and emotional. Set in this future dystopia which has taken the Anti-Asian sentiment and taken it even further than it is today, this book will wrench your heart. Not only in the ways it echoes things we have heard, have always heard, and are in our not too distant memory, but also in the ways it takes calls for 'protection' and disguises racism within. All the ways that concerns of national security turns into the theft of children, the censorship of books, the changes in curriculum.

It's a tale as old as time. We've seen it with Japanese Internement Camps when their loyalty - even those born in America - was called into question. We've seen it with the kidnapping of Indigenous children in efforts to re-educate them. And we are seeing it now with rhetoric in the US with other marginalized communities. So in many ways, the world of Our Missing Hearts feels both dystopian, while also eerily chilling. But Ng delivers a story about how communities, rhetorics, sentiments can change. How quickly someone can become a threat, an Other, on the streets, within our own families.

Not surprisingly, I enjoyed this searing, smart novel from the author of LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE and EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU. Once again Celeste Ng tells a story with meaning, featuring a woman who epitomizes the complexity of life as a spouse and mother, this time under the most intense of circumstances. OUR MISSING HEARTS is a political story in nature, clearly inspired by the rise in (white) nationalism and the Trump presidency. It places readers in a not too distant, dystopian future, that the reader quickly realizes isn't an impossible future given recent events. It made me feel sad but I am glad that I read it.

Bird Gardner misses his mother. She left the family three years earlier when he was only 9 and since then his father has done whatever was necessary to keep his son safe. America is now a dystopian world where behavior is tightly controlled, books are banned, free thought is not allowed and there is a distrust of anything Asian (especially Chinese). Citizens must show loyalty to the strict rules. Ten years earlier, the country experienced a crisis which was financial, economic and combative. PACT (Preserving American Culture and Traditions Act) became the law of the land and Chinese and other Asian groups became targeted as enemies. Since Bird is half Chinese, he is a potential threat, so his father goes to great lengths to protect him. Children of anyone suspected of anti-PACT sentiments can be removed from their parents’ home forever. Bird’s Chinese American mother was a poet. When her poetry became the anthem of rebel groups, she was deemed a traitor and so she fled. But Bird wants to find her and uses clues, like breadcrumbs, to track her down.

This is a world of distrust and narrow-mindedness. Like Orwell’s world of Big Brother, people are fearful of any actions that might appear contrary to PACT. When children are taken from their homes, they are kept ignorant of their family, just as the parents are left clueless about the wellbeing of their children. The book banning is a common step taken by repressive societies. Not only is the anti-Asian sentiment reminiscent of the history of internment camps, but such feelings have risen in our own society in recent years. In fact, a number of the issues sound familiar today.

Ng has created a world not so impossible to imagine. This is unlike her earlier books; a departure for those who expect something familiar. The theme of government overreach, of children stolen, of fear to speak one’s mind, of denied access to literature and thought, of hatred based upon genetics, are all part of this dystopian world. It is a harbinger of what could happen if those proclaiming the need to preserve "culture" is allowed to dictate our world - a scary world indeed.