“”Our Missing Hearts” by Celeste Ng is a compelling dystopian novel set in a near-future America where cultural and political repression is the norm. The story revolves around twelve-year-old Bird Gardner, who lives with his father after his mother, a Chinese American poet named Margaret, has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. In a society where children of dissidents are relocated, and anti-Asian sentiment is rampant, Bird embarks on a quest to find his mother, guided by a cryptic letter and fragments of her poetry.”
I did not have strong feelings towards the characters of ‘Our Missing Hearts.’ The author did not hit the nail on the head with the development of these characters. A lot of their development did not add up or was plainly hypocritical in a way that was not meant to be. Many of the plot points surrounding characters such as twelve-year-old Bird were unbelievable. Yes, this is a dystopian piece of fiction, but that just adds to the question of why some of these things were allowed to happen in a world so bad and dangerous. Poorly written character arcs.
The atmosphere of the novel felt like a true classic dystopian book in the vein of Bradbury and Orwell. The world was probably my favorite part of the story. At first, I thought this was set after some big cataclysmic event, but I would describe it more as 2020 on steroids. (If you were there, you will understand.) The author did a great job with the world-building, explaining why things were the way they were in this world that was almost like ours.
The most average part of the book was the writing. You can definitely see that Ng was trying to make this poetic, but it was overall just fine for me. I highlighted about three quotes or paragraphs that I thought were good enough to hang onto.
Now, this plot is extremely fascinating but overall fell flat for me. “Flat” is the word that I would use to describe my reading experience for Our Missing Hearts. It was predictable and, as I stated before, the journey of Bird was pretty much unbelievable. I do think this plot is a good comparison to our world today and how many people view conflicts or protests happening around the world. This book could have had a much greater emotional impact and been more gripping, but sadly, it fell flat.
I did not have strong feelings towards the characters of ‘Our Missing Hearts.’ Poorly written character arcs. The atmosphere of the novel felt like a true classic dystopian book in the vein of Bradbury and Orwell. The author did a great job with the world-building, explaining why things were the way they were in this world that was almost like ours. The most average part of the book was the writing. I highlighted about three quotes or paragraphs that I thought were good enough to hang onto. Now, this plot is extremely fascinating but overall fell flat for me.This book could have had a much greater emotional impact and been more gripping, but sadly, it fell flat. I wish that this story would have had the character work that was involved in ‘Little Fires Everywhere’ by this same author and maybe, just maybe, it would have made the story for me. This was an average read.
3 out of 5 stars.
by beaniebaby729