Reviews with content warning for Murder - Ceux qu'il nous faut retrouver

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Ceux qu'il nous faut retrouver by Joan He

24 reviews

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.

Content Warnings

emerynmader's review against another edition

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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:

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

mgdoherty's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

If you enjoy shows like Russian Doll, Lost, or Black Mirror, this book is for you!

The Ones We’re Meant to Find centers on Kasey, genius daughter of a philanthropist whose older sister Celia is presumed dead at sea, and Cee, stuck on an abandoned island knowing only her name and that she needs to get back to her younger sister. Neither Kasey nor Cee understands their role in their larger world, but as they each unravel the mysteries in their lives, they both find they have a bigger role to play in their world.

I love how attentive Joan He is to how Cee and Kasey speak, even inside their own heads. You can learn so much about them just from the writing style. Cee is very unattached to her surroundings, and the only thing she really loves is U-me, the bot who’s the only other person on the island, and Hubert, her ticket out of there. She disavows M.M.’s house and things; none of this is hers, and all of her island life is temporary.

Kasey is detached from her surroundings, at least superficially; she doesn’t relate to other people the same way most people do. I’m pretty sure she’s meant to be neurodivergent, even though Kasey says she investigated her own brain and found nothing notable. I love Kasey’s emotional journey; she loves Celia so much, even if that love looks different from how it does for other people. She definitely feels things; we see how her terror for Celia leaks into her mind even when she’s trying to reject her own muted emotions. And as someone who is alexithymic, meaning I experience a disconnect between emotions and my conscious self, I loved Kasey’s growing determination to live her life even if she’s different.

The prose is so good, I would sell my soul for it!

Re: perspective, I understand why Cee’s chapters were in first person because that made me experience everything WITH her, but I don’t understand (yet) why Kasey’s chapter were in third person. I think it made it too “easy” for Kasey to hide things from the reader, and it would’ve been interesting to be inside Kasey’s mind just like we were in Cee’s and to feel Kasey thinking around certain subjects but never explicitly saying them.

Cee was obviously always pre-disposed to love the world around her, when she felt secure enough to let herself, but the degree to which she is so empathetic and so full of love still blew me away. I adore Cee.

Structure-wise, this feels like two books in one. The first half is about the characters and introducing mysteries, then there is a big shift, and the second half is about fixing problems of all kinds, and it gets very plot twist-y and action-y. Personally, I vibed more with the quiet mysteries and tenderness of the first half, and the second half was a bit too much of a tone shift, but I think which half you prefer will depend on the kind of reader you are. If you love action and more traditional action-y sci-fi, you’ll enjoy the second half a lot!

I didn’t really like the end. It’s written beautifully, just like the rest, but it feels unresolved, like the real ending happened off-page. And it hinges on something that I don’t think was explained clearly earlier in the book, so I’m also confused why we got this particular ending. Spoiler-y details hidden below:

So the final pages imply that Cee is going to die for plot reasons, and she goes willingly to her death, and her reasons are very emotional and moving. But because her death will be Kasey’s fault, it feels really strange that we never even got to read Cee confronting Kasey about this. Cee deserved to say to Kasey, “I have a right to exist, and I shouldn’t have to die for someone else’s principles.” Especially after the whole book literally argued that Cee is a person with emotions and self-awareness with the right to live and exist! She died off-page, and we never find out if she got the satisfaction of telling her creator, “I’m asserting my personhood by choosing to die so that humanity can live. Even though you were wrong to do this to me.” It just feels wrong that Cee died like that, and for reasons that actually weren’t explained very well in the book – I don’t understand the Ester laws about the bots! They never get explained! If Cee was going to die for vague plot reasons, it would’ve felt more respectful to her character to at least let her have the final word.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book, but I think we could’ve had a stronger emotional resolution. Regardless, I’d love to read more from Joan He! She’s clearly a fantastic writer.

Content Warnings

ceilidhwilliams's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

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