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monilib's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Chronic illness
Minor: Body horror, Confinement, and Murder
Global warmingemerynmader's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
When Joan He (Author of Descendant of the Crane, 2019) announced her second novel, I was incredibly excited. I had loved her first book and was very curious to discover what else she had in store, how her writing would potentially have evolved in the meantime and with another project. The more details came out, the more my excitement grew: science-fiction (new genre!), seperated siblings (I had loved the sibling relationships in DotC!), climate change, a beautiful cover, great and intriguing quotes... Time went on and on and I could wait less and less to finally get my hands on this story and read it. Needless to say, my expectations were high.
Spoiler alert: This book really did NOT disappoint.
Review:
Review:
TOWMTF is told from two perspectives, Cee and Kasey. Before reading the book, I expected to have a strong preference for either of them, since this is what happened with previous books which had this sort of structure. Now that I have actually finished the story, however, I can say that I love both Kasey and Cee. They are a perfect fit to the story without feeling mechanical (which often makes me stop reading and instead think about different ways the author could have approached or resolved a certain plot point). In this case, however, they come across as organic to their place in the story, being affected by and in return affecting the plot in a way I cannot imagine how it could have been done differently, both while reading and in hindsight. With this book and its cast, He managed to create not only characters, but people.
Both the protagonists and all the secondary/supporting characters are perfect for this story and add something necessary to it. Even the ones that are missing are missing in the right place, filling the emptiness with the negative space of their absence.
Thanks to the fantastic groundwork laid by the existence of these fantastic characters, the relationships between everyone takes this book to a new level. Even when the two sisters are separated, the reader (or at least I) gets a clear image of what the relationship between them is like and even the minor dynamics with and between characters that get less page time are clear and really add to the story. It is difficult to create the image of a full history and its evolution in a single book, especially considering the hurdles set up by the premise and the plot alone. TOWMTF passes this test (if one wants to call it that) with flying colours and allows both the story and everything related to it to come alive in the process.
For those who have already read He's first book Descendant of the Crane, it might come as no surprise that TOWMTF also has at least one big plot twist - which might or might not take you aback when it is finally revealed. To me personally, it was not unexpected, I actually guessed it rather early on, but the beauty of the book lies not in the surprise, but in the anticipation of how the story develops and evolves from the beginning to reach said twist. To me, this only added to the reading experience. However, if one doesn't guess the plot twists or revelations, I expect they're in for a pretty wild ride - and might want to re-read the book immediately to see what they first missed and it will absolutely be worth it.
Last but not least, He manages to touch upon and address important and heavy topics in TOWMTF, the most striking likely climate change and its grave and lasting consequences. It does this without offering either an eternal solution or a total doomsday vision but instead functions like a warning of the consequences our current path will have on a global scale, while not shying away from the role and relevance of social classes, privileges and the role communities, self-perception and habits very much ingrained in our current daily lives (could) play in such a scenario. Some things are too large to be resolved or really tackled in a single book (even if it is such a dense one as TOWMTF) but that doesn't mean they're not there or can be ignored and He managed to hit just the right balance of addressing these topics without letting them take over the central story, instead weaving them into the tapestry of the plot as needed to bring the story forward and not afraid to leave some things for the reader to ponder over after they've read the last page.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Suicide
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, and Vomit
Minor: Cancer, Car accident, Medical content, Murder, Racism, and Sexual content
outsidestar's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
"We're not stars," I declare. "We get to choose the places we go and the people we find."
"Do we? I don't think either of us came here by choice. And I think we have even less choice over the ones we're meant to find."
This is kind of a difficult book to review. I think the whole idea for the book was great and different and very well thought out, but I still just feel kinda meh about the whole thing, it was good but I'll forget about it in a week. It didn't resonate with me.
The book is set sometime in the future, when humans have destroyed the planet. Some still live on the surface, where earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters kill millions at a time, and others live in eco-cities high above. As much as this was a dystopia, I could 100% see this happening in real life, which kinda scares me, but the world-building was great and I loved that it tackled issues like climate change and us humans not being able to see beyond our own selfishness.
The story is told in dual perspective. We have Cee, who is stranded in an abandoned island with no memories of what happened before she woke up there 3 years ago. All she knows is that she has a sister named Kay and that she must find her, so she spends her days trying to build a boat to get to her. And then we have Kasey's (Kay) chapters, who is still in the eco-city and with who we figure out what really happened. I must say that the story is kinda slow for the first half and peaks up at around 50-60% in.
As I said, I really enjoyed the setting and the technology aspects. I also liked that Kasey was different to the typical character I'm used to, and the big plot-twist that happens at around 60% was great (although I did see it coming). However, I didn't like either of the romances and I felt like the secondary characters could use some more work, their dad especially. I also didn't like the ending, not
Also, can we please admire the beauty of this cover?
A huge thank you to NetGalley and Text Publishing for the e-ARC in exchange of an honest and voluntary review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Grief, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Confinement and Death of parent
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