Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He

5 reviews

emily_journals's review against another edition

adventurous reflective sad 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

I think a lot of the elements and pieces of this book were really well thought out and interesting, but in the end did not end up being executed as well as I initially hoped.

The world building was compelling where it existed, but a lot of the world was left to the reader to fill in the gaps because of the way the author wants to present the plot twist. The world building especially hindered the amount of exploration both the themes and characters could have. This book is also a very character driven book, but for being such a character driven and plot light book, the characters did not get enough development, especially for a lot of the very important side characters. The themes of this book feel very relevant and I enjoyed them, I don't think the rest of the elements, such as the character development and world building, were fleshed out enough to highlight and fully explore all of the themes in this book. 

Overall, I think there were a lot of the building blocks and general ideas to make a great book, but the execution and exploration of all the elements together did not do enough to make this book anything exceptional. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, and Classism

Moderate: Alcohol, Cancer, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Medical content, Abandonment, Gun violence, and Suicide

decklededgess's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

trigger warnings: death, death of parent, grief, gore, gun violence, physical injury and violence, mental illness, murder, anxiety and panic disorder, classism, sexual content, suicide, violence

Based on the premise of this book, I expected two sisters separated by circumstance trying to find out what happened/trying to get back to each other. I did not expect a futuristic commentary of environmental deterioration, social media/s toxic impact on class hierarchy and disengagement from reality, and a deeply incisive look into what it means to trust and to be family.

Ouch.

That's really all I want to say because every point past 30% is a spoiler for some spectacular plot twists. The book leaves you with the perfect amount of explicit information to let you sit and ponder the what ifs of what happens past the last page and in the unsaid moments. Beautifully done.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicide, Death, Grief, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Death of parent, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Classism

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

caseythereader's review

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Violence