Reviews with content warning for Police brutality - Our Missing Hearts

This was going to be a solid 3 star read until the end. It was a typical Ng ending, ambiguous and sad but unlike her other two books, I was not left with much hope at the end. There was no life can suck but there's still hope for these people kind of ending, it felt like everything the characters had done was futile. Hence the 2.75 rating. This is labelled as a dystopian book but, as I kept noting throughout reading, it feels more like a alternate reality or a thought experiment than a dystopian. This is mostly due to the fact that some of what happens in this book is either happening right now (or some version of it) or could actually happen in the future. This is not a "look at this extreme, way in the future world where I explore some of the problems we have in modern day" this is a "this future is very realistic and feels like we're heading right for it" sort of story. I've read other books of this sort and liked it, but this one was a sadder version. I also this that this book got a little lost in words, which did slow it down and seemed out of place in the genre it was trying to be in. There were parts of this book that did not need to be as long as it was due to all the details - although I was listening to the audiobook, so that might have been a contributing factor.

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metaphorsandmisc's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-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? Yes

3.75

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pantslint's review

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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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