Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

12 reviews

pantslint's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

God, it's incredibly validating to read this book post-pandemic (or post-the-worst-of-the-pandemic, at least), after some of the most traumatic hate crimes towards the Asian-American community. And even now, with continued rise of rampant Sinophobia in the USA. I feel seen.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Xenophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Police brutality

Minor: Sexual assault

gondorgirl's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Racial slurs

Moderate: Confinement, Bullying, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Grief, and Hate crime

kappafrog's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

How eerie reading this in between seeing headlines about book bans in Florida. This was a compelling dystopian novel. I agree with other reviewers that the second half struggled at times compared to the first half.

The conceit of Margaret narrating her whole life to Bird didn't always work when she was going into intimate details which were great for the reader but made less sense as dialogue with her son. I was also disappointed in the lack of information about the aftermath of Margaret's plan. We got a few flashforward glimpses but no information on the political fallout.

The writing was really beautiful. I liked seeing the world through Bird's eyes, a child's perspective in a novel aimed at adults. I enjoyed the use of folktales, etymology, and gardening through out. There were many horrifying bits in the book. I can tell it will stay with me for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Animal cruelty, Blood, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Animal death, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Violence, and Abandonment

Moderate: Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Cursing, and Deportation

Minor: Alcohol, Chronic illness, Medical content, Rape, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Islamophobia, and Slavery

cocacolor's review

emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

This is a difficult book to review; I was unbelievably excited for it as soon as I heard of it, and certainly part of the disappointment comes from how high my expectations were. It's not Ng's best effort. It's almost too timely; I don't think it'll hold up as well 25 or even 5 years from now (depending on how the political climate goes). And it's a book whose reception depends on the reader being exactly as far left as Ng, and no more. This novel's audience seems to be speaking to a particular demographic, the comfortable "moderate, don't-do-politics" upper middle class, particularly Asian American members; there's an almost cloying expectation that you empathize with Margaret and Bird's discoveries of all that's wrong in the world, because you've gone through a similar wake-up call yourself recently.

Personally, as a Chinese American reader who's probably farther left than Ng, I found it embarrassing. Part of the novel still feels, to me, like an attempt to co-opt the suffering of Black and Indigenous communities, an almost childish, cynical attempt to insist, "Hey, Asian Americans have it bad, too, where's our solidarity?" Eventually my attitude toward the premise mellowed; Ng does make a good-faith effort to acknowledge that if the state using family separation as a tactic is news to you, that's willful blindness on your part, and to include the history of how this violence has been and is still being used against Black and Indigenous families, even if I don't think she goes far enough in that respect to really acknowledge who is actually being subjected to this tactic today.

Beyond the somewhat disrespectful nature of the premise, I found that Ng's writing suffered as well from its clumsy politics. There's none of the complexity of character from LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE or EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU here;

Bird and Margaret and Ethan are almost saintly, the resentments disappearing easily, seeming betrayals turning out to be partnership and devotion after all.

The

sexual violence Margaret experiences at the hands of a cop

comes out of nowhere and feels like a cynical, clumsy shortcut to convey how bad the world has gotten--again, de-centering the Black and Indigenous women overwhelmingly affected by this kind of violence.

Still, Ng's half-hearted effort is beyond what most writers could achieve on their best day, and I don't want to hold Ng to a higher standard than I do her contemporaries; if I found OUR MISSING HEARTS to be clumsy or self-centered at times, I'd definitely feel the same and more of the vast majority of writers if they'd tried to write this novel. Her prose is as beautiful as ever, and understanding this novel is meant to be read as a fable about the power of art and narrative turns issues I'd had with the early parts of the book into unexpected joys. Overall, not as good as I hoped but not as bad as I feared. Still eagerly looking forward to Ng's next project.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Racism, Racial slurs, Abandonment, Police brutality, and Rape

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Death of parent, and Misogyny

Minor: Child abuse and Bullying

Rape/sexual violence warning:

Margaret remembers a cop demanding sexual favors from her in exchange for leaving her alone;

the event is brief but explicit.

elderwoodreads's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Excellent commentary on race and current events in America. Will tug at your heart strings as much as it is a call to action. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Xenophobia, Racism, Abandonment, Hate crime, Grief, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Violence, and Bullying

Minor: Sexual content, Sexual assault, Cursing, Excrement, Blood, and Death

write2run's review

dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Racism, Kidnapping, Violence, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Cursing, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Confinement

elinawise's review

reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Abandonment

Moderate: Sexual assault

whatwentsent's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Gore, Death of parent, Police brutality, Racism, Xenophobia, Deportation, Physical abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Classism, Violence, Death, Rape, and Forced institutionalization

vedpears's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I think this may be my favorite book I read all year.
This should be considered an instant classic and to me is on par with 1984 and Animal Farm. Cautionary tales warning us all of the potential consequences if politics and media, and thus culture, continues on a certain trajectory. 
It is incredible how many parts of Ng's book became reality while she was writing it. So many moments in this book have clear parallels in reality now, unfortunately. I hope we can turn American culture around and stop accepting the blind hate being paraded as patriotism. 

I do have a favorite quote from this book - ""...unity required a common enemy. One box in which to collect all their anger. One strawman to wear the hats of everything they feared." This has been a worry of mine for a long time. Growing up here, it seemed really obvious to me that Americans need an enemy outside of us to focus on in order to come together and see one another as neighbors, or else we turn on each other. That is how our nation was born, so I suppose it makes sense that it is really hard for us to break away from that and learn healthier relationship skills, as a nation. 

I feel this should be required reading. 
Celeste Ng has solidified herself as my favorite modern day author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Xenophobia, Violence, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, Racism, Racial slurs, Abandonment, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Stalking, Bullying, Classism, and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Confinement, Gun violence, and Sexual assault

kimveach's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This dystopian novel will have you contemplating many ideas:  race, class, patriotism used as a weapon, and the history of children being taken from their parents in the United States.  I found the book to be slower than her previous books due to the storyline only focusing on a few people.   The writing is stunning.  While I normally prefer books that are more about the plot, I did like this character-centered book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Blood, Death, Grief, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Police brutality, Bullying, and Classism