Our Missing Hearts is a testament to the power of storytelling. Celeste Ng uses her novel, a form of storytelling, to advocate for stories as powerful inspiration for cultural change—and preservation of love and other values.

Books are removed from schools in Ng’s dystopian America, because books contain ideas that can’t be controlled by the government. Because books are open to interpretation, they are a source of learning that go beyond any government’s powers. The absence of books from school spaces highlights their importance and emphasizes the government’s fear of their power. Libraries become the only source of books; few people enter them, making them the ideal location for underground activism. Libraries, often considered a dying institution in modern America, provide a refuge for books, ideas, and people. The books they preserve, in public and in secret, ensure that thousands of years of knowledge are not erased for good. The ideas they protect are crucial to the functioning of the human spirit and promise that when PACT (“Preserving American Culture and Traditions”) is defeated, society can return to their previous values. Crucially, libraries provide a safe space for people hiding from the government and searching for the truth (by documenting separated families and their stories).