Reviews with content warning for Ableism - The Ones We're Meant to Find

This book made me cry, and not in a good way. A big topic in the novel seems to be the nature of people- if we are inherently selfish, if we deserve to continue as a species, and most importantly, who counts as a person and who doesn’t. This is where the book fell apart for me, because the narrative repeatedly falls back on comparing passionate, spontaneous, AI/Robot Cee, who is not human, but “seems” human, with her “sister” Kasey. In many places the book itself seems to be arguing that Kasey, despite being biologically human, is not. Because she is autistic. Kasey is heavily coded as being on the autism spectrum through her social difficulties, muted emotional responses and cognitive empathy, and black and white, goal driven thinking. This book made me feel /bad/ about myself, it made me feel like less of a person as an autistic person, reading the way Kasey was portrayed. Kasey isn’t perfect, and I’m not saying she should be- her views even briefly slide into ecofascism, which I can never condone, but the way Cee then justifies almost murdering Kasey, the way other characters treat her, the way she thinks of herself- it all comes off as a deeply ableist portrayal of an outdated Theory of Mind portrayal of a young autistic woman. The plot has potential, the twists are amazing, but I could barely make it through.

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n_asyikin_'s review

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challenging dark lighthearted reflective tense medium-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

4.0

CW: some depictions of violence, ableism (read in review)

Cee woke up one day, on an island all alone, with little memory. Any memory she had centred around her sister, Kasey. Relying on the materials she discovered in an abandoned house on the seemingly uninhabited island, Cee wanted to find her way home, at a floating city, she vaguely remembered.

Kasey's sister Celia (Cee) went missing. While she struggled to process the secrets about Cee she discovered along the way, Kasey was intent on finding her & bringing her back home.

All the while, the Earth is slowly breaking apart as the result of climate change. Kasey was pulled between wanting to find her sister and finding solutions that could prevent human extinction.

Initially, I struggled to get into the story. Told from dual perspectives, changing between the two sisters, the narration vacillated between being rather mechanical (i.e. talking about the technologies factually) to inconsequential (e.g. Cee's daily every day routine).

Furthermore, the development to Cee & Hero's story at the start felt out-of-place; the sudden attraction left me cringing.

But about a hundred pages in, the two sisters storyline begun to converge, significant details provided context to the reader; that got me engaged in speculating about what had happened,

even Cee & Hero's relationship begun to develop more organically.

The element of natural disasters & possible human extinction plus the way the eco-cities were run created a dystopian world. Personally, I'd love to discuss about the many moral dilemmas dotted throughout the stories: from the right to autonomy within a community, to limitations in the freedom of choice, and the ableist root to one's "usefulness" in society; The One We're Meant To Find would definitely leave you contemplating.

I also thought that the book heavily depicted internalized ableism. Kasey struggled with social interactions, implying that she was neurodivergent.

Unfortunately, Kasey had always see herself as being lesser for it, even considering to create ways to "fix-the-problem".

I was definitely uncomfortable by the notion that Kasey's apathy & morally questionable views seemed to be tied upon her neurodiversity: a stigma often faced by neurodiverse individuals, seemingly implied that they're incapable of appreciating and/or respecting other people's feelings.

To be fair, in a short quip, Kasey did eventually recognized how wrong that view was - although, it was never fully addressed. Characters like Art also shared many morally questionable judgment despite not being neurodivergent.

And perhaps, it was He's intention to show the injustices in a society that functions based on meritocracy. Although never explicitly stated, Kasey's neurodivergence had certainly left me on the fence; I thought He did not address it enough (e.g. the danger of it; the consequences to its victims; how dehumanizing those ableist view was).

Another aspect to the story I liked to reflect upon is the belief in the absolutism of science. Science is a tool wielded by people. And people are prejudiced. For that reason, science is never completely objectives. The failure to recognise how science have always been a tool of oppressions (read: Saini's Superior; McKrittick's Dear Science) irked me. Though I liked to point out, this book was never meant to address that really. If anything, it was just a belief held by Kasey; reflecting a contrast between the two sisters. Still, thought I shared my thought on it.

At the gist of it, The One We're Meant To Find depicted the extremes of following your heart vs. your mind. It's a book that invites critical thinking as we followed our MCs & their struggle with moral decisions. The world He created was fascinating, though deprived of some key elements (e.g. sociopolitical & power dynamics) that would've made it a more astute depiction.

Regardless, if you're looking for a book with morally gray characters facing multiple moral dilemmas set in a dystopia, The One We're Meant To Find will be perfect for you.

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nyoom's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

0.5

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melaniereadsbooks's review

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emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I really ended up enjoying this book at the end! The beginning did start kind of slow for me, and while I liked the characters, I wasn't super invested for a good chunk of the book. About 60% in things took a turn and I was HERE for it. The twists were great and I loved the way the ending turned out! Great book!

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perpetualpages's review

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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.

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