REVIEW - Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

 

So, this was one of the "it" books from last year and I wanted to read it. I have Little Fires Everywhere waiting for me, but I wanted to try this one first and boy, it pulled on my heartstrings. 

I wouldn't necessarily classify this as dystopian. It's not in the vein of Handmaid's Tale or The Walking Dead, but there is definitely an alternative reality. There has been an economic crisis (called, not very creatively IMHO, The Crisis) that has been caused by a downturn in the Chinese economic markets as a result of Chinese manipulation of the markets. It is fictional but is comparable to the Covid-19 pandemic and is a stand in for that. Things like removal of children and replacement of them with "approved" families, slavery and police brutality also make appearances in this novel. But what mostly rears its head is grief and what pulled on my heartstrings is the grief that was caused by a mother's separation from her son. I think it hit me particularly hard because the son in this case is the same age as my son, so it was really hard to separate it out and there were times I had to put it down and cry. 

We meet 12 year old Bird Gardner in the middle of the story. He's living with his father in Cambridge and his mother isnot with them. Bird is the one that must go on a journey to find and meet his mother and learn about what has happened and will happen with her. Bird's father, Ethan, prohibits Bird from even speaking his mother's name, while Bird's best friend, Sadie, believes that Bird's mother is actually a leader in a resistance movement. 

NG uses both Japanese folklore and Greek mythology to tell her story and it's very effective. It allows the hope/sadness tension to exist together in one space. I enjoyed how Ng used dramatic and non violent protest and art to protest. It affirms that this is really effective in conveying messages and may actually be more thought provoking, and sustained, in the long run.  It may also effectuate change in a better way. I generally enjoyed this book and am looking forward to another, more careful read in the future.