Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He

9 reviews

the_laibararian's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death and Classism

Minor: Chronic illness, Suicide, and Death of parent

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

mattiedancer's review against another edition

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

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

cannibalgender's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.25

SPOILERS-  

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Drug use, and Death of parent

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, and Blood

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Medical content, and Medical trauma

nyoom's review against another edition

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

Moderate: Gun violence, Abandonment, and Colonisation

Minor: Ableism, Bullying, Racism, and Excrement

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: Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, and Colonisation

Minor: Body horror, Racism, and Sexual content

wayward_sara's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective tense 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

It took me a while to connect with the story, but after 50 pages or so I was too curious. I didn't understand what was going on and that encouraged me to keep reading. I loved how the author kept surprising me and the worldbuilding actually felt quite realistic to me, I could imagine what I was reading happening in the future. All in all, it's a really good book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Minor: Chronic illness

escapinginpaper's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I have mixed feelings about this one. I wanted to like it, but it was difficult to read.

This is a very futuristic world, where the Earth is ravaged from climate change, making the backdrop for two sisters with a close bond – one of whom is stuck on a desert island, and the other is trying to cope with the the idea her sister is missing, presumed dead. There is a really killer twist at around the 60% mark – I enjoyed that. I had difficulty with the writing style, mostly. Throughout it I kept finding myself thinking "what the heck is going on???" and had to read several passages multiple times to fully understand. A lot of the plot is revealed as you go – very little is "told" to you, you have to glean as you read. 

Overall I'm glad I read it. Despite being difficult, it was interesting and had a very Black Mirror vibe – in fact I think it would translate over really well to film.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Terminal illness, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Sexual content, Blood, and Medical content

Minor: Drug use and Alcohol

monilib's review against another edition

challenging emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Chronic illness and Death

Minor: Body horror, Confinement, and Murder

Global warming