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Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He

14 reviews

nyoom's review against another edition

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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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mitone_winona's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book absolutely destroyed me in the most welcoming way and I adore it for that. To break it down real quick, this book is about two sisters trying to find one another while trying to understand themselves and observing the world and environment surrounding them in a very self-aware manner.

Both sisters are captivating in their own way. Cee is a charmer, resilient, lively, sweet, and loyal to her sister Kasey. Kasey is observant, cool, mind quick as a whip, determined, and self-aware of the city and the type of people and lifestyle that are within it.

While they both are very different, you find yourself cheering them on and hoping for the best. Kasey is very much allowed her grief and she expresses it in a way I think a lot of us would criticize her for, yet it's her way to grieve. Joan He does Kasey justice by not having Kasey completely transform into this person whose upbeat, the life of the party, or turn into Cee who she looked up to for being life personified. Kasey remained the same but did grow and understand herself and the world better. She is realistic in her hope, always logical but she is logical about her heart as well in knowing what it really wants.

This book essentially is grim in a way that you realize that Kasey and Cee have had to struggle continuously with their mind and emotions while trying to figure out the situations that they both are in; Kasey with her grief over her sister and tracing her last steps and Cee whose on a abandoned island while trying to keep Kasey alive in her mind and trying to remember more memories of her sister. Outside of the sisters, humanity itself is still struggling with climate change/environmental disasters/Class differences/etc. and still trying to find a solution to saving the environment as well as themselves.

If you want a book that leaves nothing unsolved, futurism that addresses environmental issues, two sisters that very much love one another trying to find each other, mystery, and tension? This book is for you and Joan He does a beautiful job writing the story and the book is truly worth it.

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beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

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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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foreverinastory's review against another edition

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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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