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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
State violence; children separated from parents; book burning
Language
Barely any
Mild language
Sexual Content
Barely any
No romantic content
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
Very heavy
The psychological weight of a disappeared parent; censorship and its cost; the child navigating a world designed to make him forget his mother
What this book is about
Bird Gardner lives in a near-future America where PACT laws have criminalized un-American sympathies and children have been removed from families who don't comply. His mother is a Chinese-American poet who disappeared. Our Missing Hearts is Ng's most explicitly political novel—a dystopian meditation on censorship and what parents sacrifice for children.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
Children separated from families by the state—a legal mechanism
Censorship and book burning—disturbing for readers who love books
Near-future America—resonant with current political climate
The mother's disappearance and what happened to her
Reader Verification
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