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

What a beautiful book! Celeste Ng's gorgeous writing, along with the timely and meaningful story, make this a must read. Having read and loved her other books, I loved this one, too and can't recommend it highly enough.

You will not forget this book or the characters that live within it.
It imagines the near future in a disturbing way but hopefully will make us work toward social action to prevent this scenario from coming to be.
Birdie, , the 12 year old boy who wins your heart will remain there for a long

I have a lot of respect and admiration for Celeste Ng. She is a talented writer! Unfortunately I didn't like Our Missing Hearts as much as some of her previous works. While I admire the message and what Ng is trying to achieve with this novel, I had trouble accepting that a world could function as it is shown. There were parts that I found hard to believe - even how Bird finds his mother in New York. While the novel is by nature a stretch of the imagination and a dystopian society, I found weaknesses in the society/world as it is depicted. The characters which in Ng's previous novels are convincing and clear are weaker in this novel. The reader doesn't get a clear picture of Bird's father or his mother and what motivates them besides protecting their child. I am happy I read the novel and am still a fan of Celeste Ng, but this one fell short for me.

Stunning! This is my new co-favorite book of the year. Some reviewers are calling this novel dystopian but since it is so close to the edge of our current reality, I can’t give it that label. Yes, it is about the unbreakable love bond between parent and child but it is so much more. When society is gripped by fear, when no one stands up for those who are singled out and persecuted unfairly, when everyone looks the other way and refuses to get involved, we are faced with a creeping horrible reality that our freedoms as a country and as individuals will be lost. This an extremely timely reminder of our responsibilities as human beings and as citizens.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Press/Penguin Random House for the ARC to read and review.

I loved everything about Our Missing Hearts except for the fact that it felt a little too easy to get to the world of the story from the world we're currently living in. I though Ng's writing was exquisite and I loved the nuance in the story, especially the importance of words. I will be thinking about this one for a long time. I was particularly struck by the tiny ways we might creep closer and closer to the world of the novel being reality - how we could feel like we're just looking out for our families and not doing anything wrong, how we could just be trying to get along and not cause trouble, how we could be making the world a more dangerous place by trying to protect our corner of it.

This was an extremely moving dystopian book. Wow this packed a punch. It’s set in a not so unrealistic world. It’s a book that really makes you ponder the world you live in and what role you want to play in it. The writing is so gorgeous. The only thing I didn’t like about it was no quotation marks. For the love of please authors stop doing this. It’s sooo distracting.

Celeste Ng never disappoints. Her newest release, Our Missing Hearts, is a look into how communities deal with (or don't deal with) injustices occurring right in their back door. Timely, thought-provoking, and beautifully written, I recommend this book to anyone wishing to explore ways we can do better as a society.

I have loved Celeste Ng’s previous works so was delighted to read her newest, Our Missing Hearts. I went into this novel without reading the publisher’s blurb, so I knew absolutely nothing about it other than that I love the author. And that was enough.

Here’s all you really need to know: Bird is 12 years old and lives in an America of the near future, where the PACT act has taken hold to “preserve American culture and traditions.” Books that are un-American, unpatriotic or dangerous are banned. Children are torn from their families if their parents are deemed unfit. And China (and Chinese-Americans) are blamed for the country’s economic crisis. Bird lives with his dad and his mom has been gone for years, but one day, a mysterious letter arrives and Bird sets off on a quest to find his mom and the truth.

I loved this book so much. The writing is beautiful, there’s an underground network of badass librarians (my favorite!) and it’s really a story about the deep love between a mother and a son. As someone who sees the realities of book banning on a daily basis, this book was a scary preview of where our country could be headed. It’s terrifying because it could really happen.

Our Missing Hearts is unputdownable. I started it on my kindle, then switched to audio because I didn’t want to stop reading, and then finished it on my kindle. The audio is excellent but it’s worth reading in any format.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. My second book by Ng and I think I’m just not a fan of her writing. While this book had some promise, I struggled throughout. I understand what the author was trying to achieve and while I agree with many of the topics covered, I also hate anything political. I also found the characters flat and unappealing. And… it’s only a matter of time before this one lands in the banned books pile.

Too close for comfort? Ng’s latest book, “Our Missing Hearts” is a dystopian tale that may be too close to some realities of our times. Society undergoes a major ‘crisis’ and this time Chinese Americans become primary scapegoats. There’s book pulping (they’re too civilized to burn books), disregarding facts, neighbors ‘telling’ on other neighbors, and general controlling of information. Young Noah Gardner, also known as ‘Bird,’ lives with his father since his Chinese American mother disappeared after her poetry is questioned. Their society is controlled by PACT (Preserving American Culture and Traditions Act). Children of individuals not adhering to the norm can suddenly ‘disappear’ into the foster care system and become impossible to trace. Bird starts raising questions and so begins his journey of growth and discovery. It’s impossible to read this book and not think of some things happening right now. But maybe there’s a bit of hope too as there will, hopefully, always be seekers and supporters as there are in Ng’s book. As a librarian, I loved the role libraries and librarians played in this book. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Press for an Advanced Readers copy of this amazing book. The opinions expressed in this book are entirely my own.

4.5. As I was reading I kept thinking “this is the future Republicans want.” So resonant with our current culture that distrusts and attacks books and information and people whose differences we’ve decided are wrong.

This book covered many themes all of which keep me interested until the very end. Being a librarian I enjoyed the parts about what librarians do to circumvent the system, we are always thinking outside the lines in order to fulfill our patrons request.