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azrah786's review against another edition
4.75
CW: terminal illness, suicide, violence (including choking), death, death of parent (off page), vomiting, large scale natural disasters and mass casualties, some gore
After absolutely loving Joan He’s evocative writing and twisty storyline in her debut Descendant of the Crane, I was super excited for this book and it absolutely blew me away!
The Ones We’re Meant To Find is a slow paced sci-fi mystery story set in a dystopian world where climate change has ravaged the planet. Its dual perspective, following two sisters– Cee, who has been trapped on a deserted island with no memories other than that of her sister Kacey whom she is determined to find her way back to, and Kacey, a STEM prodigy both dealing with the grief of her sister’s disappearance 3 months back as well as the crisis of the planet, who decides to retrace Celia’s last steps.
It has distinctively voiced characters and wonderfully nuanced character relationships as well as a compelling narrative on climate change. The world-building is both fascinating and unnerving and He captures the atmosphere just right!
I don’t want to give too much else away because so much can be spoiled here but if you’re going to pick this one up be patient with it and trust me it’ll be worth it.
Final Rating - 4.75/5 Stars
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Death, Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, and Death of parent
Minor: Gore
kaseybereading's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Minor: Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, and Death of parent
krystalg's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Blood, and Grief
Moderate: Physical abuse
emerynmader's review against another edition
- 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
Review:
Graphic: Death and Suicide
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Cancer, Racism, Sexual content, Medical content, Car accident, and Murder
mgdoherty's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Minor: Suicide, Terminal illness, and Murder
popthebutterfly's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
In a world apart, 16-year-old STEM prodigy Kasey Mizuhara is also living a life of isolation. The eco-city she calls home is one of eight levitating around the world, built for people who protected the planet―and now need protecting from it. With natural disasters on the rise due to climate change, eco-cities provide clean air, water, and shelter. Their residents, in exchange, must spend at least a third of their time in stasis pods, conducting business virtually whenever possible to reduce their environmental footprint. While Kasey, an introvert and loner, doesn’t mind the lifestyle, her sister Celia hated it. Popular and lovable, Celia much preferred the outside world. But no one could have predicted that Celia would take a boat out to sea, never to return.
Now it’s been three months since Celia’s disappearance, and Kasey has given up hope. Logic says that her sister must be dead. But as the public decries her stance, she starts to second guess herself and decides to retrace Celia’s last steps. Where they’ll lead her, she does not know. Her sister was full of secrets. But Kasey has a secret of her own.
Graphic: Suicide and Grief
Moderate: Gore and Terminal illness
Minor: Vomit
ceilidhwilliams's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Child death, Drug use, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Medical content, and Murder
allisonwonderlandreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Moderate: Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Vomit
outsidestar's review against another edition
- 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.
Graphic: Cancer, Death, Terminal illness, and Grief
Moderate: Confinement and Death of parent
perpetualpages's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book absolutely fucked me up, and then continued to fuck me up in the absolute best and most relentless way.
I already loved Joan He from her debut, Descendant of the Crane, which is one of the most distinctive, evocative, and emotional historical fantasy stories I've ever read. To then see her turn around and write this fast-paced, mind-blowing, intricately-imagined dystopian sci-fi that contains approximately 5,000 plot twists just leaves me in complete awe of her range and talent as an author. Joan He was already an auto-buy author for me, and this incredible sophomore release just completely validated that choice on my part.
The Ones We're Meant to Find is like if Want by Cindy Pon met Ready Player One but then the violent ramifications of climate change entered the chat. And yet even that description doesn't do it justice, because it's wholly and completely its own. This is a story that imagines such intricate technologies and futuristic ways of life, and projects the very real environmental crises we face today to the absolute extreme, and questions how we use technological advancements to either address those issues or shield ourselves from them.
It's very much a story about privilege and power, and how they interact with and contribute to humanitarian crises. One of the main characters, Kasey, definitely comes from a rich and powerful family, with access to many technological resources, and the story explores how she is both complicit within the system but also has the means to destroy it and create something to help all of humankind, not just the mega rich who can afford to live in sky cities and spend all their time in virtual reality. In fact that's a major theme in the story: how corporations and individuals are both complicit in the erosion of the world and victims of that very same phenomenon.
At the end of the day, this is a story that asks what kind of future we can look forward to if we continue on our current trajectory, and are any of us owed a future at all if we only ever choose to look away from the systems that harm us and others? It's about a deeply broken and and complicated bond between sisters and their endless need to prove themselves to each other. It's about reclaiming agency and your right to choose, especially when it seems like the fate of the world has already been decided for you. It's about how our ability to choose is what makes us human, but it's also a story that questions where humanity begins and ends.
The only thing that kept this from being a five star book for me was wanting a little bit more from a couple of the relationship dynamics. The two sisters each have respective relationships with two other characters we meet throughout the story, and I would've liked to see those connections explored even further to really drive home the moment when those relationships break. I also felt that Kasey was strongly coded as neurodivergent, what with the difficultly she has socializing and relating to other people and her hyperfixation on data as her main source of comfort. But it's never explicitly said in the book, despite being heavily implied, and I can't help but think that seeing that kind of representation would be really important to some readers. But like I said, it is very heavily coded, in my opinion, regardless.
With that said: there's intense mystery, there's action, there's romance, there's social commentary, and the last quarter or so of the book will make you question everything you thought you knew about the story twenty times over without giving you so much as a second to breathe. Trust me when I say it's a reading experience I won't soon forget.
Moderate: Ableism, Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Sexual content