As we were walking the dogs earlier today, I said to my wife: “I like this book, and for any other author, it’d be the best thing they did, but I don’t think this one lives up to Little Fires Everywhere.” Then I read the last third of the book this afternoon and I take it back.

What changed?

The easiest way to explain that is to say what the book does well and then what the book does really well. What Our Missing Hearts does well:

• Ng’s prose is clean, readable, and propulsive, all without being simple or dull. I don’t know how to say this more directly, but this is fucking remarkable and puts her above 99.99% of people who try to write books.
• The plot matches the prose. Without getting into detail, I’d liken it to a mix between A Handmaid’s Tale and Klara and the Sun.
• The relationship between the family–Bird, Ethan, and Margaret–is perfect and heart-wrenching and had me wanting to be a better son.

The exceptional question that Ng asks, however, is what do we owe each other in our toughest moments? And what if the debt we owe means we sacrifice something in our own lives that we can never get back? And what is that point of no return, how bad do things have to be for that moment to tip?