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A review by atomic_tourist
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
Celeste Ng does it again!! God, that woman can write.
I was surprised when I read the synopsis for Our Missing Hearts: it looked nothing like Ng's viral novel Little Fires Everywhere. And, for sure, there are many crucial differences between these works. But they also have a lot in common! Both works center on themes of race & motherhood, and how they inform each other. And they're both beautifully written. For real, I am becoming such a Celeste Ng groupie. I love how she brings together such heavy ideas and creates moving, accessible stories. The sort of stories people (me) think about years later...
Actually though, there's another novel I kept thinking about while reading Hearts. In the beginning of this year, I read Jessamine Chan's The School for Good Mothers, which lays out a realistic dystopia, set in the near future, in which mothers are separated from their kids for a year if the state deems them "unfit." It's easy to see why Ng's work reminded me of Chan's novel and vice versa. Both are sure to keep haunting me for a while to come.
I was surprised when I read the synopsis for Our Missing Hearts: it looked nothing like Ng's viral novel Little Fires Everywhere. And, for sure, there are many crucial differences between these works. But they also have a lot in common! Both works center on themes of race & motherhood, and how they inform each other. And they're both beautifully written. For real, I am becoming such a Celeste Ng groupie. I love how she brings together such heavy ideas and creates moving, accessible stories. The sort of stories people (me) think about years later...
Actually though, there's another novel I kept thinking about while reading Hearts. In the beginning of this year, I read Jessamine Chan's The School for Good Mothers, which lays out a realistic dystopia, set in the near future, in which mothers are separated from their kids for a year if the state deems them "unfit." It's easy to see why Ng's work reminded me of Chan's novel and vice versa. Both are sure to keep haunting me for a while to come.