Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He

10 reviews

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

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

sarah984's review against another edition

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

Overall I enjoyed this one. The author’s note mentioned it feeling weird to edit this book in 2020, and it definitely feels weird to read after having lived through so many climate emergencies in 2021.

Most of the characters are interesting and the central dilemmas of the book feel real. I loved the robot U-me and Cee’s routine on the island. However, I thought the romance was extremely silly and the ending was a little muddled.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, and Terminal illness

Minor: Alcohol, Body horror, Cancer, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

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

maple_dove's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Uhhh....what did I just read?

Not sure why I wanted to read this? Probably because this book was written by Joan He. Despite the fact that I don't like Sci-Fi....

This was so emotional, VERY dark, and I fell into a pit of darkness for a little bit. The reason why I'm not rating this higher is because I rate based on enjoyment. I didn't type down all the important information for a while, resulting in me getting very confused. 😅

IF YOU'RE GOING TO READ THIS BOOK, write or type all the important information! It will help!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: 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

foreverinastory's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.0

I'm a little sad this isn't sapphic bc that cover gives me girls in love vibes, but I did enjoy this. BUT WTF was that ending!?

I don't really know how to summarize this book. It's about sisters. It's about humanity. It's about the climate disaster that will eventually befall Earth. It's all these things and more. The ending and how everything tied together had me shocked and questioning. The ending is more of an open ended one and I am still unsure how I feel about it, but I don't think anything different would've worked here.

The Ones We're Meant to Find follows Cee and Kay/Kasey. Cee is trapped on a deserted island and trying to figure out a way off of it so she can find her sister. Kasey is grieving her sister, Celia, and her disappearance/death. When Kasey finds Celia's chip (basically stores all your info and memories), she is determined to understand what happened to her sister.

Cee's POV felt a lot like watching someone playing Sim's Castaway. It was very easy to get bored and I wasn't really invested in her POV until about halfway through. Kasey on the other hand was fascinating from the beginning. There were so many things going on and I kept wanting to know more. Kasey is a genius and there was something she did in the past she wasn't allowed to remember. But in her pursuit of her sister, she finds them again and with them the possible solution to the climate crisis.

There isn't any clear cut villain to me in this story. There are humans who've made bad decisions, and ones that made the best decision they could given the circumstances. I really liked how this whole book operates in the gray area of right and wrong. The overlying mystery of what the fuck was exactly happening kept my interest and helped with Cee's POV being slower at first.

The only thing I wish was different was that there were no queer characters. Kasey really struck me as someone on the Aspec, but none of that is canon so I am sad. Also look at that cover!!! Does that not scream sapphic vibes!? Because it does to me.

Rep: Asian coded female MCs, one MC seems autistic coded but I am not certain.

CWs: Abandonment, confinement, death, presumed death of sister, grief, attempted murder, racism, sexual content, suicide/suicide attempt--character is immortal, terminal illness--poisoning, toxic friendship, violence. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child death, Death, Grief, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Confinement, Murder, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Minor: Racism

emerynmader's review

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.

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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

liuet's review

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Blood, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Medical content, Suicide, and Terminal illness

Minor: Vomit, Racism, and Genocide