3.5 Stars 🌟
I have struggled to write the review for this book. Now, it’s not because I didn’t like the story, but because the story, although original, follows the same principles of most classic dystopian novels.
The standouts are the highlighting of racial & political issues that we wish were part of a nightmare dystopian future but are, in fact, prominent in this day and age, which is heartbreaking.

Aspects that I love, Bird, Margaret & Ethan! Beautiful, strong and resilient!
But most of all, I love the writing style. It’s stunning, almost poetic. I was blown away by the lyrical flow. I might not be a massive fan of OMH, but I will be reading more from Celeste Ng.

I am grateful for the recommendations at the end of the book to help educate me on subjects such as anti-Asian discrimination and removing children as a means of political control, as well as other topics I’ll be looking into further.

Thank you, NetGalley & Little Brown Group, for gifting me the eArc in return for an honest review.

I loved the two previous books by this author but think this might be my favourite yet.

Set in a dystopian type USA, Noah aka Bird lives with his father in a small apartment in the university grounds where he works. Bird’s mother disappeared along with his name years before and it has just been the two of them ever since. But why did she disappear and where did she go? And what is the link between his mum and the missing hearts?

Bird knows his mum is of Asian descent and following the Crisis times in America, anti Asian feelings are running high. His dad warns him not to stand out or draw attention to himself but Bird doesn’t know why. He does know that his friend Sadie was taken from her family and placed with foster parents - Sadie who rallies against the rule in her own way.

A mysterious letter through the post leads Bird down a road that will take him far, literally and metaphorically.

This was an immersing read and I would highly recommend it.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read and review.

I adored this book! I was a big fan of Celeste's other two novels - I've read each of them three times - but this one really took me by surprise. I love that it focuses on art and its connection to humanity. This story really made me feel something, and that in itself is special. Our Missing Hearts is a brave move by Celeste and one that with no doubt pay off. Close to flawless - I'm still thinking about it!

Our Missing Hearts is the latest novel from Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere, and Everything I Never Told You. I’m a fan, so I’m delighted to say that this is another triumph.

Set in America, in a world not too different from the current reality, a law called PACT (Preserving American Cultures and Traditions) was enacted as a response to “The Crisis”, a massive financial depression that the government blamed on China. Following that, crimes against people of Asian heritage increased massively with Asian Americans becoming second class citizens. In order to quell protests, the government begins to remove children from the homes of this cohort of people and “rehome” them elsewhere. This also happens to dissenters of every race, and anyone who dares question the new regime. What would happen if America became a fascist state, basically. Which didn’t seem that outlandish an idea during the Trump era.

Existing during these times is Bird Gardner, a 12 year old living with his kind but broken father. Margaret Miu, a famous Chinese-American poet, whose words became the fighting chant of the resistance, is their mother and wife, respectively, and has been on the run for the last few years. Nobody will even speak about her to Bird but when he receives what appears to be a coded message from her, he decides to find her himself. When he finally does track her down in New York, she’s working on an act of defiance that has the potential to change their world for the better, but at a huge cost to their family.

I loved this book so much. It’s obviously incredibly timely, and tied in so much of the unspoken history of the US; the separation of enslaved families, indigenous children, and families at the Mexican border right up to this very day. The abusive treatment of Asian people during the covid pandemic is so well mirrored in this book too. It’s cleverly written but also deeply heartbreaking. What it means to be a parent, and particularly a mother, is delved into also, and of course, the evergreen theme of librarians being superheros, which I particularly appreciated!

For me, I felt echoes of other dystopian books; 1984, and The Handmaid’s Tale, and like those, this book captures what makes dystopian futures so terrifying; how possible it is. In spite of that, the overwhelming feeling upon finishing this book was of hope. A beautifully written story about the power of art, and love to change the world. I truly can’t recommend this one enough, I’ll be thinking about Margaret and Bird for some time to come.

Our missing hearts is a very emotional and intriguing book. Celeste Ng has a talent that not many authors have . She will write books that make a long-standing impact on the reader. So was this story.
Set in a fictional world where Noah”Bird” is set upon looking for his mother. She disappeared after some of her poetry were used by the government to entice the Americans to look out for any unusual actions against any other non American citizens. Especially after the silent war between China and US is not so silent anymore as China is rising to be the most powerful country in the world.
It’s an intriguing story with many faces of our nowadays reality mixed in a fictional world, some may call it almost dystopian. There are many elements of disbelief and you kinda have to in with an open mind and enjoy the ride.
I’m a bit confused about the ending I must admit, I was expecting one a bit different but just proves how many times our theories of where the story goes aren’t proven as we wished.

🆓📖Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy through NetGalley

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.

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.

As a HUGE fan of both the book and the series 'Little Fires Everywhere' I was really eager to read this.

Clearly a dystopian novel, this book is incredibly timely. Set in a parallel America we see the impact of the abuse of power on minority groups and how the masses can be manipulated. Ultimately though, there is a message of hope: despite everything humanity is able to overcome cruelty and continental in the face of extreme discrimination.

Overall, I enjoyed the beginning and the end more as I felt the middle dipped a little with perhaps too much reflection from Margaret on the past. I would have liked to see Bird's character develop further as I thought he was very interesting and the relationship between him and Sadie could have done with more exploration. I was pleasantly surprised by Margaret's reaction at the end of the novel to what was happening in society and her attempt to break the silence.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I had not realised when I requested this book, that it is a dystopian novel, having loved Little. Fires Everywhere. I am not interested in dystopian novels, unfortunately, so this book was not for me. However, I am sure it will be enjoyed by many readers who like this genre.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance copy of this book.

This chilling and heart wrenching novel by Celeste Ng is a departure from ‘little fires everywhere’ and ‘everything I never told you’. A dystopian tale with themes that unfortunately seem all too possible in this era it is an uncomfortable but important story about a society consumed by fear turning a blind eye to injustice (the relocation of children as a means of political and racial control. A story about the importance of art as a means of non-violent protest and how every individual must play their part.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A new direction for Ng - into dystopia (I'm wondering if there will, inevitably, be comparisons with the Chinese-American writer Jessamine Chan's dystopic School for Good Mothers) but also chilling possible-reality. It's not, perhaps, quite up to her first but I absolutely loved it and would recommend it whole-heartedly.

Very different to “little fires everywhere”, our missing hearts is a dystopian novel whereby Asian Americans are regarded with scorn and mistrust by the government and their neighbours,

On Birds twelfth birthday he receives a letter containing only a cryptic drawing from his mother. Trying to understand the reasons surrounding why she disappeared so suddenly, he goes on a quest to find her and to learn why she is considered to be a traitor.

Whilst dystopian fiction, can spookily echo our own past, present, and future. This one was uncomfortably all-too believable and sadly, not too hard to imagine happening - making it rather a dark story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK, Abacus for the opportunity to read and review this emotionally charged read.

Very different to Celeste Ng's previous book, Little Fires Everywhere, but still a worthwhile read.
A politicla dystopiian book with a strong lead character.

I was so excited to read Celeste Ng’s new book as I loved her first two. But I’m a little disappointed. It is doesn’t have the same emotional pull for me - although I did feel it once towards the end when Bird realises he won’t see his mother again. He was so grown up and it made my heart ache. Mostly it feels like it’s making a point showing us what could so easily happen.

This will no doubt be compared to The Handmaid’s Tale. And some scenes are incredibly scary as they are so realistic and not hard to imagine happening. But overall something was missing for me. Also there were some plot devices which were a bit too “convenient” - Bird’s runaway friend staying with his mum’s best friend and if it wasn’t for the rich best friend much of the action couldn’t have happened.

I wanted to love it but couldn’t. I did like Bird but didn’t connect to many other characters. And as I said some scenes were very powerful. It just felt like a novel with a point to make rather than a great story well told. It’s no bad it’s just not good enough.

In a departure from her earlier works, Celest Ng turns to dystopia, creating an all-too believable world where anti-Asian hate in the US has become state-sanctioned policy. Following a near apocalyptic economic decline, largely blamed on market manipulation by China the US government enacts the Protect American Culture and Traditions act which suppresses any cultural activity deemed to be "un-american" as well as anyone who practices them. More importantly, it allows the authorities to remove and re-place the children of hostile parents into more appropriate families in an attempt to crush and dissuade dissent. Unsurprisingly it is largely non-white families who suffer. The consequences of PACT are related to us through Noah, a young second-generation Chinese-American boy whose mother fled the family several years ago and whose father anxiously avoids any connection with her or her culture for fear of breaking the family further. But Noah, longs to understand where and why his mother has gone. His friend Sadie, a re-placed child removed from her family for resisting PACT reveals that Bird's mother's poetry became the voice of anti-PACT agents. When he receives a mysterious drawing in the post addressed to "Bird", the name he always used before his mother left Bird is determined to understand what it means and find his mother.

It's a cautionary tale about where spiraling anti-Asian sentiment, exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic, could lead, beginning with isolated incidents of discrimination and violence and ending with repression and incarceration for the sake of a "unified" nation. Bird's plight pulls at the heartstrings and his growth into understanding the consequences of PACT create a powerful and poignant tale about family, solidarity and the power of stories. It explores the meaning of culture and who gets to create it and the consequences of turning a blind eye to injustice. There isn't quite the complexity of character and motivation that marked out Ng's earlier works and it feels slightly more weighted toward a YA audience, neither of these are to its detriment, it's a well-written, moving and terrifyingly plausible tale with a winning lead and an important message.

Our Missing Hearts is the perfect gift for fans of The Power, Vox and The Handmaid’s Tale, as well as anyone who just enjoys a really great story. 12-year-old Bird’s mother left three years ago. He knows not to talk about her. Standing out is dangerous when the authorities are prepared to use every power at their disposal to ‘preserve American culture’. Our Missing Hearts is by the author of Little Fires Everywhere, and just as gripping.

While this might feel like a departure from Celeste Ng's previous work, I'd argue it's her best yet.

Our Missing Hearts is speculative fiction in the same vein as The Handmaid's Tale - a near-future dystopia with echoes of McCarthyism, which doesn't feel so far away from our own times. It's about power and paranoia, the separation of familes as a means of coercive control and how the world is shaped by stories of fear but also of hope.

What a heartbreakingly beautiful book.

A beautiful book about love and life. This book will bothbreak and heal your heart. But you’ll be all the better for it.

A dark dystopian novel set in America about now and with scarily possible. There is strong antagonism to Asia and to anyone who speaks with their own heart and mind and children are being separated from parents thought to be unsuitable. Bird is a young boy whose mother has suddenly disappeared and no one is talking about her. Chilling and deeply worrying it’s a strong novel but very different from previous Celeste anger novels.

This story feels frighteningly close to a possible future. It starts with Bird, a boy whose mother has disappeared, and who his father won't speak about. They move away from the family home, Bird can no longer use the name 'Bird' and must instead be known as Noah, and they live a small, cautious life, in which his father pushes for Bird to always obey the rules, never make any fuss, and to deny any links or ties to Bird's mother entirely. The beginning is wonderful, and I enjoyed the drawn out tension of Bird trying to do as his father asks but finding himself caught up the fairy tale possibility that his mum has sent him a coded message. Bird has little clue what is going on. He makes a friend at school, a new girl called Sadie, who starts to tell him about the children who are going missing, removed from their families because, supposedly, their families are dangerously anti-American. Everything revolves around PACT, a law to protect American cultures and traditions. (You can see now, can't you, how this could be possible?) The world has been through some kind of crisis, and PACT was meant to save everyone, placing the blame firmly on anything Anti-American, especially the Chinese.

The story then switches to Bird's mother, and whilst I wanted to find out more about what was going on, and why she'd abandoned her family, I did feel that this part of the story lagged a little in places. And whilst the story she tells Bird is important, I was eager to get to the conclusion. Though the conclusion left me disappointed in the end.

Being a librarian, I do have to say I LOVED the role of the librarians. You can sign me up for being a part of that right now.

Being so close to possibility does make this feel a dark story, so I think you have to be ready for that when you read it. In places, I really loved it. And in others not so much. It does seem to end on a hopeful tone, but to be honest, with the news as it is in the UK right now, I could have done with a little more! It will be a great book for book groups however, and really makes you think about what's happening, what's already happened, and what might yet still come.