Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He

12 reviews

melancholymegs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Classism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Cancer, and Terminal illness

Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic friendship

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

guessgreenleaf's review

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Alcohol

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Blood, Cancer, Suicide, Medical content, Gore, Ableism, Terminal illness, Abandonment, Violence, and Classism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Death of parent, Vomit, Child death, Sexual content, and Excrement

Climate crisis, pollution, natural disasters. Missing person, disappearance at sea. Strangulation/suffocation. Near drowning. Internalized ableism (neurodivergent-coded character experiences emotions in a way she views as "wrong" and "inhuman"). Needles (tattooing).

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

mattiedancer's review

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.5

 Writing: 4⭐️/5 

Solidly written with some truly beautiful sections. Lots of really great foreshadowing that you don’t necessarily realize until you look back on it. Parts of the story can be a bit jarring and confusing, though He mostly smooths these out quickly. 

 

Characters: 4⭐️/5 

Beautifully different characters with realistic flaws and goals. The end felt a bit forced onto the characters, rather than created by the characters. Some sacrifices for plot over characters. 

 

Plot: 4.75⭐️/5 

Superb plot. Everything felt wrapped up at the end, but not too neatly. Some good surprises that didn’t feel forced or fake. 

 

Post-Reading Rating:  5⭐️/5 

Amazing plot. Interesting, thoughtful, well-developed and thought out. 

 

Final Rating: 4.5⭐️/5 

 

Notes: Joan He definitely sacrificed a bit of characterization for plot. Feels like a gem of the genre, regardless. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Sexual content

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, and Terminal illness

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