Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He

13 reviews

nisha_27's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Cursing, Animal cruelty, and Sexual content

annavdn's review

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

A lesson in not judging a book by its cover. Although this book has a beautiful cover, this book was a big disappointment. I found myself falling asleep while reading the first half of the book. I really had to push myself to keep reading. The book became more interesting once Cee/Celia managed to set sail, and got suspenseful

when Hero, her love interest, tried to kill her and she ties him up and kills him before he is revived, because he is also a bot and his purpose is to stop her who is believed to be the bot Cee

. The chapters following made the preceding chapters where Cee/Celia was the narrator more understandable.

That Cee/Celia died several years ago, and that the Cee/Celia we know is a bot created by her sister, Kasey/Kay, and that the words "Cee. Find Me." coming to her mind was a command that was programed into the bot that could pursue happiness and felt emotions, which is why Cee/Celia sought autonomy.

Also, I don't really understand Kasey/Kay's motivation to put part of Cee/Celia's real brain into the bot only for her to tell bot Cee that she didn't regard her as a sister. Why give her the memories at all? Why let the bot feel sisterhood for Kay/Kasey when it wasn't reciprocated? It just seems cruel. And the only purpose of the bot, according to Kay/Kasey is to find out if Earth is habitable for humankind à la Eve in Pixar's Wall-E.

It is also important to note that the bot identifies as Cee and she calls the human version of herself Celia.

Kasey appears to be autistic although it isn't explicitly stated in the book. However, she is a STEM prodigy, so even if she is neurodivergent, she falls into the genre of autistic character with savant syndrome. It's very cliché and savant syndrome in autistic people is quite rare. I also don't like how scientific advancement is their solution for climate change. Sometimes the solution is simple, which is coexisting with nature rather than trying to rule over it. When we think about areas with less pollution and more biodiversity (such as dark sky reserves or national parks) they are largely inhabited by native americans or indigenous people. That seems the way to go rather than the type of environmentalism that is centered in this book, which seems very imperialist. There was also a quote in chapter 37(?) that goes : "Would people ever willingly give up their freedoms for the good of others?" I found this quote to imply that the culture was individualist rather than collectivist, which is common in Western imperialist countries.

Romance was between Hero (who Celia/Cee initially tried to name Dmitri, Tristan, and Heath - Dmitri and Tristan being two characters who exist, but aren't important) and x Celia/Cee and between Antinium and Kasey/Kay. The romance was unnecessary and I think I would have rathered it not be included in the book at all. I am not certain what race the male love interests are, but I am under the assumption that they are both white, Hero especially due to the other names that Celia/Cee tried to give him along with the fact that he is mentioned to have blue eyes.

Either way, both of the male love interests betray their counterparts, Antinium especially, whose goal is to get rid of all humanity (an eco-fascist philosophy).

As a wasian, I just think it's tacky to see white love interests for Asian characters and I wish this was an interracial mix that was less prevalent in media. Unrelated to romance, the other characters that exist in this book are not super relevant, but none of the characters are developed.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicide, Classism, Cursing, and Death

Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia

augustar14's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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

3.25

I did find this book quite engaging. It has an air of mystery that has you wondering if what's happening is quite what it seems. The shifting point of view enhances this well. However, there were points I found underdeveloped or under explained which ultimately left me wanting at the end. <Spoiler> I didn't exactly understand the ending, whether it meant the reader was supposed to interpret what happened (and there was supposedly enough there to deduce a conclusion) or if it suggests that endings are ultimately unknown. Either way I felt confused and dissatisfied, wanting more information, to understand and know what did happen. </Spoiler>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Terminal illness, Classism, and Grief

Moderate: Death, Abandonment, Violence, Vomit, War, Cancer, Bullying, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide

Minor: Racism, Sexual content, Blood, Cursing, Addiction, Mental illness, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

sarahlynn827's review

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

I really was disappointed in this book. I expected maybe, a nice, modern story, about two sisters finding each other, or whatever, but, instead, I got a robot-based plot, with a futuristic plot. I'm usually okay with futuristic plots, but I DID NOT LIKE this book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Cursing

rhm04's review

adventurous emotional 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Drug use, Cancer, Terminal illness, Violence, Death of parent, Medical content, Murder, Self harm, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Abandonment, and Cursing

Minor: Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit

ajthequeen's review

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Fresh concept, predictable (but not too cheesy/lame) twists. Big horizon zero dawn vibes from the plotline. Id love to see a sequel following the immediate end of this book. Overall 3.75 stars. I liked the characters and i liked that they were complex and Kasey was Autistic (you can pry that out of my cold dead hands) but it was never really seen as a flaw and kasey came to love herself because of it. I liked that actinium wasnt a broody sad boy and that there was no huge romance plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Bullying, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Cancer, Xenophobia, and War

Moderate: Classism, Cursing, Grief, and Colonisation

f18's review

challenging mysterious reflective slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cancer, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent

emily_mh's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Okay this book hit me quite hard which is the main reason why I've rated it so highly. It was confronting and haunting; whenever I finished a reading stint I had to stare into space for a bit and process what I had just read. It raised so many challenging questions, like how much personal freedom we can morally have in an environmental crisis, and who gets to decide who survives such a crisis. I was fascinated by how He envisioned the future of humanity, especially the solutions people made to reduce their carbon footprint. I also loved the sister relationship in this. They had such deep connection and love for one another. 

I docked my rating half a star for two reasons. The first is that the writing could be very confusing from Kasey's perspective, both in terms of world-building and interpreting her personality. The pacing in this perspective also grew to be quite erratic. The second reason was the romance.

I wish that Cee and Hero's relationship had been platonic. Or at least if it had to be romantic/sexual, I wish that their physical intimacy wasn't the reason why Cee's happiness spiked so high. Emotional connection provides happiness too, and more stable happiness that I feel that Kasey would have programmed for.

In all honesty though, when a book impacts me the way this one did, reasons such as those aforementioned aren't enough to significantly affect the overall star rating, hence only a half-star dock.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Suicide, Terminal illness, Cancer, and Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Grief, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Murder, Physical abuse, Gore, Body horror, Blood, and Self harm

Minor: Drug use, Excrement, Vomit, Racism, Sexual content, Confinement, Child death, Cannibalism, Alcohol, Gun violence, and Sexual violence

nyoom's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Abandonment, Colonisation, and Gun violence

Minor: Ableism, Bullying, Excrement, and Racism

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

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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