Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He

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

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

butteredtoastinbed's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This was an absolutely gorgeous novel that I am so glad I read.

The characters were so layered, flawed and real and I felt so attached to them, and it felt so natural to go through their stories with them. The settings and imagery were also so prominent and added so much to the book, along with the twists that were extraordinary and kept me thoroughly engaged.

There are some aspects of the story that were confusing and would require a reread to fully understand, but I think that fits well with the story and would be rewarding if I did decide to reread.

Overall, the thing that stood out to me the most was the style in which the story was written. It was beautiful and unique and gave the narrators such a real and emotional voice. I don’t think that I will revisit this book again soon; not because I didn’t enjoy it, but because I feel the story needs time to settle in my head and is perfect exactly where it was left.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Suicide, Terminal illness, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

Minor: Blood

paracosim's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.25

Well, this is probably one of the more grim books I’ve ever read. What a bleak setting and

even more bleak ending

. The characters really shine in this book, along with the island itself and the history behind it all. I had no way of predicting the entirety of the plot—and I say that as a good thing. This is more of a thriller novel than a story about sisters finding each other. This is a sad story in general. Geez. I feel like I need a drink after reading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, Grief, and Classism

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, and Death of parent

Minor: Deportation

nightywing_44's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

avacadosocks's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, and Grief

Moderate: Gore, Sexual content, and Violence

zailun's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

5.0

this is literally one of my favorites now pls im still sobbing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Grief

Moderate: Violence and Death of parent

jamiejanae_6's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Blood, Grief, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, and Death of parent

lpdx's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Death, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

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

eh1736's review

emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Terminal illness and Classism