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A review by c_serpent
The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He
Did not finish book. Stopped at 51%.
Okay y'all. I got 51% in and then I couldn't. Simply could not. This entire review is a spoiler because the book is bad and I will tell you what happens so you don't read it.
So the novel's about two sisters looking for one another right. Cee is dead probably. That's fine, it's whatever, not a problem. So Cee is on this island with an abandoned house and she "has to" get off the island to go find her sister, okay? And she's been on the island for three years. That's a long time! Okay, still tracking. So Cee builds a boat, right, takes it out, there's a storm and she ends up on the island again.
This hot boy washes up on shore, he has no memories, Cee is delighted to have company and ofc he's hot because it's YA. Still, no problems.
He knows she wants to leave and he helps her. Cool. Good for him. So she builds a raft in two weeks. (Remember this time frame please. Boat = 3 years, raft = 2 weeks.)
But Cee only builds it big enough for herself??? and the boy is??? okay with this???? I mean ofc he's like "stay here" and kisses her because it's YA but she HAS to go find her sister RIGHT NOW. And the boy is not like "you're a freaking sadist you can't leave me here to die alone" he's like "I get it." What???
And she's EVEN SPECIFICALLY LIKE "i will send someone back for you" and the boy is like "bet you won't" and she's like "..." because he's right. And they both know she won't?
And all of this is being presented like it's normal.
So then her raft disappears, and she doesn't ask him about it (why . . . ?????) and instead decides to make a raft out of the mattress from the abandoned house.
and he????? is fine with this still???? Even though she thinks he might've taken the logs for the raft? And they go for a walk on the beach during what is probably their ~*~ last night together ~*~ and she's keeping the raft in her line of sight so it doesn't disappear like the other raft and she's packed more than half their food and she's straight up going to leave the boy on the island.
and I actually cannot FATHOM leaving a person on the abandoned island when you can spend two more weeks and some days building a WOODEN raft that will actually FLOAT (a mattress raft???? won't even float????) that is big enough for TWO PEOPLE.
She's been on the island for THREE YEARS. she built a raft in TWO WEEKS. she has enough time to make a raft for both of them, nothing will happen to her sister in these two weeks that hasn't happened in these THREE YEARS. And if you actually asked the boy to help you (which you didn't!!!) it would take even less time.
What kind of absolute sadist gets to know a person and care for them and then leaves that person on an island with NO other humans? the boy will have nothing to do for the rest of his life except think "the only human being that was here pretended to like me and then made a conscious choice to leave me behind without intending to send someone back for me." How can Joan He even pretend that's a thing that I won't think Cee is an actual demon for? There's not a justification for this. It's stupid. It's impossible to accept.
And I'll be real: I get that there's probably a narrative reason for this. Cee is dead. The boy is probably a hallucination or whatever in the afterlife and not a real person and that's why he doesn't come with her. BUT NEVER IS IT OKAY TO LEAVE SOMEONE ON A DESERTED ISLAND ALONE. If a novel requires me to say "yeah makes sense" about something that literally is not justifiable, it's a bad book, and I'm done with it.
Joan, I tried Descendants of the Crane. I tried this. Your books are stupid because your characters do stupid and disturbing things that no sane person would do, and you try to pass it off as normal. This ain't normal. This is deeply problematic, and Cee is a bad person, and I don't care what happens to her or her robotic sister. Three stars are removed because I cannot fathom justifying this. Where is the suspension of disbelief.
Two stars have been permitted to remain because I actually got 51% of the way into the novel, which is better than DotC, and because I'm going to find something to spoil the plot for me, because I want to know. But not bad enough to read the rest of the book. Your characters are bad people and we don't root for bad people in this house. Girl bye.
Total score: 2/5 stars
So the novel's about two sisters looking for one another right. Cee is dead probably. That's fine, it's whatever, not a problem. So Cee is on this island with an abandoned house and she "has to" get off the island to go find her sister, okay? And she's been on the island for three years. That's a long time! Okay, still tracking. So Cee builds a boat, right, takes it out, there's a storm and she ends up on the island again.
This hot boy washes up on shore, he has no memories, Cee is delighted to have company and ofc he's hot because it's YA. Still, no problems.
He knows she wants to leave and he helps her. Cool. Good for him. So she builds a raft in two weeks. (Remember this time frame please. Boat = 3 years, raft = 2 weeks.)
But Cee only builds it big enough for herself??? and the boy is??? okay with this???? I mean ofc he's like "stay here" and kisses her because it's YA but she HAS to go find her sister RIGHT NOW. And the boy is not like "you're a freaking sadist you can't leave me here to die alone" he's like "I get it." What???
And she's EVEN SPECIFICALLY LIKE "i will send someone back for you" and the boy is like "bet you won't" and she's like "..." because he's right. And they both know she won't?
And all of this is being presented like it's normal.
So then her raft disappears, and she doesn't ask him about it (why . . . ?????) and instead decides to make a raft out of the mattress from the abandoned house.
and he????? is fine with this still???? Even though she thinks he might've taken the logs for the raft? And they go for a walk on the beach during what is probably their ~*~ last night together ~*~ and she's keeping the raft in her line of sight so it doesn't disappear like the other raft and she's packed more than half their food and she's straight up going to leave the boy on the island.
and I actually cannot FATHOM leaving a person on the abandoned island when you can spend two more weeks and some days building a WOODEN raft that will actually FLOAT (a mattress raft???? won't even float????) that is big enough for TWO PEOPLE.
She's been on the island for THREE YEARS. she built a raft in TWO WEEKS. she has enough time to make a raft for both of them, nothing will happen to her sister in these two weeks that hasn't happened in these THREE YEARS. And if you actually asked the boy to help you (which you didn't!!!) it would take even less time.
What kind of absolute sadist gets to know a person and care for them and then leaves that person on an island with NO other humans? the boy will have nothing to do for the rest of his life except think "the only human being that was here pretended to like me and then made a conscious choice to leave me behind without intending to send someone back for me." How can Joan He even pretend that's a thing that I won't think Cee is an actual demon for? There's not a justification for this. It's stupid. It's impossible to accept.
And I'll be real: I get that there's probably a narrative reason for this. Cee is dead. The boy is probably a hallucination or whatever in the afterlife and not a real person and that's why he doesn't come with her. BUT NEVER IS IT OKAY TO LEAVE SOMEONE ON A DESERTED ISLAND ALONE. If a novel requires me to say "yeah makes sense" about something that literally is not justifiable, it's a bad book, and I'm done with it.
Joan, I tried Descendants of the Crane. I tried this. Your books are stupid because your characters do stupid and disturbing things that no sane person would do, and you try to pass it off as normal. This ain't normal. This is deeply problematic, and Cee is a bad person, and I don't care what happens to her or her robotic sister. Three stars are removed because I cannot fathom justifying this. Where is the suspension of disbelief.
Two stars have been permitted to remain because I actually got 51% of the way into the novel, which is better than DotC, and because I'm going to find something to spoil the plot for me, because I want to know. But not bad enough to read the rest of the book. Your characters are bad people and we don't root for bad people in this house. Girl bye.
Total score: 2/5 stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, and Abandonment