I rarely post book reviews, but the selection for last night’s Great Book Club (aka The Buddy Book Club) deserves comment. Written by Celeste Ng (pronounced Eng), Our Missing Hearts is her third novel. It was reviewed by Stephen King (yes, that King) for the New York Times, so I’m reviewing it for you.
Set in the future where things are dire, the story revolves around eleven-year-old Bird, whose mother disappeared three years before. Much of the novel is about Bird’s search for his mother to learn why she left.
These bones have been fleshed out in many other YA and adult fiction, but Ng’s take is unique in my opinion. Besides being a good writer, she has meticulously created a plot that is intricate but believable (provided you accept the dystopian society Bird and his contemporaries live in.) You almost have to read it twice to get how tightly the story is woven. The three questions Duchess asks Bird to verify that he really is Bird are not out of the blue. That the Duchess inherits a technology company seems irrelevant, until it isn’t. And even the mother’s name is symbolic.
I read Ng’s first book, Everything I Never Told You, and liked it a lot. Her second, Little Fires Everywhere, did nothing for me. But with Our Missing Hearts, she is back on my list.
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