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beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Colonisation, Murder, and Xenophobia
Minor: Body horror, Racism, and Sexual content
escapinginpaper's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I have mixed feelings about this one. I wanted to like it, but it was difficult to read.
This is a very futuristic world, where the Earth is ravaged from climate change, making the backdrop for two sisters with a close bond – one of whom is stuck on a desert island, and the other is trying to cope with the the idea her sister is missing, presumed dead. There is a really killer twist at around the 60% mark – I enjoyed that. I had difficulty with the writing style, mostly. Throughout it I kept finding myself thinking "what the heck is going on???" and had to read several passages multiple times to fully understand. A lot of the plot is revealed as you go – very little is "told" to you, you have to glean as you read.
Overall I'm glad I read it. Despite being difficult, it was interesting and had a very Black Mirror vibe – in fact I think it would translate over really well to film.
This is a very futuristic world, where the Earth is ravaged from climate change, making the backdrop for two sisters with a close bond – one of whom is stuck on a desert island, and the other is trying to cope with the the idea her sister is missing, presumed dead. There is a really killer twist at around the 60% mark – I enjoyed that. I had difficulty with the writing style, mostly. Throughout it I kept finding myself thinking "what the heck is going on???" and had to read several passages multiple times to fully understand. A lot of the plot is revealed as you go – very little is "told" to you, you have to glean as you read.
Overall I'm glad I read it. Despite being difficult, it was interesting and had a very Black Mirror vibe – in fact I think it would translate over really well to film.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Grief, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Medical content, Mental illness, and Sexual content
Minor: Alcohol and Drug use
caseythereader's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Thanks to Books Forward PR for the free advance copy of this book.
- THE ONES WE'RE MEANT TO FIND is a beautiful, big sci-fi story about family and humanity that went places I didn't expect and took turns I didn't see coming.
- I can't discuss too many details without giving things away, but it's one of those books where when the perspective switches you're both not ready to leave the character you're with and excited to get back to the other one. Cee and Kay are both so compelling in diametrically opposed ways.
- The author wrote such an incredible sense of unease into every page, and yet I could not stop reading.
- Basically, I need everyone to read this and to report back to me when things get twisty.
- THE ONES WE'RE MEANT TO FIND is a beautiful, big sci-fi story about family and humanity that went places I didn't expect and took turns I didn't see coming.
- I can't discuss too many details without giving things away, but it's one of those books where when the perspective switches you're both not ready to leave the character you're with and excited to get back to the other one. Cee and Kay are both so compelling in diametrically opposed ways.
- The author wrote such an incredible sense of unease into every page, and yet I could not stop reading.
- Basically, I need everyone to read this and to report back to me when things get twisty.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Violence
erinsbookshelves's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Blood, Violence, Grief, Suicide, and Death of parent
Moderate: Vomit and Medical content
kaseybereading's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Minor: Blood, Death of parent, Grief, and Terminal illness
krystalg's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Cancer, Death, Grief, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Physical abuse
emerynmader'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
perpetualpages's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- 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
CWs: familial death and disappearance; internalized ableism; some descriptions of blood and graphic injury; self harm, suicide ideation, and suicide attempts; references to terminal illness; some sexual content
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.
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.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Blood, Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Terminal illness
Minor: Sexual content
liuet's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Blood, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Medical content, Suicide, and Terminal illness
Minor: Vomit, Racism, and Genocide
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