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A review by perpetualpages
The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
CWs: familial death and disappearance; internalized ableism; some descriptions of blood and graphic injury; self harm, suicide ideation, and suicide attempts; references to terminal illness; some sexual content
This book absolutely fucked me up, and then continued to fuck me up in the absolute best and most relentless way.
I already loved Joan He from her debut, Descendant of the Crane, which is one of the most distinctive, evocative, and emotional historical fantasy stories I've ever read. To then see her turn around and write this fast-paced, mind-blowing, intricately-imagined dystopian sci-fi that contains approximately 5,000 plot twists just leaves me in complete awe of her range and talent as an author. Joan He was already an auto-buy author for me, and this incredible sophomore release just completely validated that choice on my part.
The Ones We're Meant to Find is like if Want by Cindy Pon met Ready Player One but then the violent ramifications of climate change entered the chat. And yet even that description doesn't do it justice, because it's wholly and completely its own. This is a story that imagines such intricate technologies and futuristic ways of life, and projects the very real environmental crises we face today to the absolute extreme, and questions how we use technological advancements to either address those issues or shield ourselves from them.
It's very much a story about privilege and power, and how they interact with and contribute to humanitarian crises. One of the main characters, Kasey, definitely comes from a rich and powerful family, with access to many technological resources, and the story explores how she is both complicit within the system but also has the means to destroy it and create something to help all of humankind, not just the mega rich who can afford to live in sky cities and spend all their time in virtual reality. In fact that's a major theme in the story: how corporations and individuals are both complicit in the erosion of the world and victims of that very same phenomenon.
At the end of the day, this is a story that asks what kind of future we can look forward to if we continue on our current trajectory, and are any of us owed a future at all if we only ever choose to look away from the systems that harm us and others? It's about a deeply broken and and complicated bond between sisters and their endless need to prove themselves to each other. It's about reclaiming agency and your right to choose, especially when it seems like the fate of the world has already been decided for you. It's about how our ability to choose is what makes us human, but it's also a story that questions where humanity begins and ends.
The only thing that kept this from being a five star book for me was wanting a little bit more from a couple of the relationship dynamics. The two sisters each have respective relationships with two other characters we meet throughout the story, and I would've liked to see those connections explored even further to really drive home the moment when those relationships break. I also felt that Kasey was strongly coded as neurodivergent, what with the difficultly she has socializing and relating to other people and her hyperfixation on data as her main source of comfort. But it's never explicitly said in the book, despite being heavily implied, and I can't help but think that seeing that kind of representation would be really important to some readers. But like I said, it is very heavily coded, in my opinion, regardless.
With that said: there's intense mystery, there's action, there's romance, there's social commentary, and the last quarter or so of the book will make you question everything you thought you knew about the story twenty times over without giving you so much as a second to breathe. Trust me when I say it's a reading experience I won't soon forget.
This book absolutely fucked me up, and then continued to fuck me up in the absolute best and most relentless way.
I already loved Joan He from her debut, Descendant of the Crane, which is one of the most distinctive, evocative, and emotional historical fantasy stories I've ever read. To then see her turn around and write this fast-paced, mind-blowing, intricately-imagined dystopian sci-fi that contains approximately 5,000 plot twists just leaves me in complete awe of her range and talent as an author. Joan He was already an auto-buy author for me, and this incredible sophomore release just completely validated that choice on my part.
The Ones We're Meant to Find is like if Want by Cindy Pon met Ready Player One but then the violent ramifications of climate change entered the chat. And yet even that description doesn't do it justice, because it's wholly and completely its own. This is a story that imagines such intricate technologies and futuristic ways of life, and projects the very real environmental crises we face today to the absolute extreme, and questions how we use technological advancements to either address those issues or shield ourselves from them.
It's very much a story about privilege and power, and how they interact with and contribute to humanitarian crises. One of the main characters, Kasey, definitely comes from a rich and powerful family, with access to many technological resources, and the story explores how she is both complicit within the system but also has the means to destroy it and create something to help all of humankind, not just the mega rich who can afford to live in sky cities and spend all their time in virtual reality. In fact that's a major theme in the story: how corporations and individuals are both complicit in the erosion of the world and victims of that very same phenomenon.
At the end of the day, this is a story that asks what kind of future we can look forward to if we continue on our current trajectory, and are any of us owed a future at all if we only ever choose to look away from the systems that harm us and others? It's about a deeply broken and and complicated bond between sisters and their endless need to prove themselves to each other. It's about reclaiming agency and your right to choose, especially when it seems like the fate of the world has already been decided for you. It's about how our ability to choose is what makes us human, but it's also a story that questions where humanity begins and ends.
The only thing that kept this from being a five star book for me was wanting a little bit more from a couple of the relationship dynamics. The two sisters each have respective relationships with two other characters we meet throughout the story, and I would've liked to see those connections explored even further to really drive home the moment when those relationships break. I also felt that Kasey was strongly coded as neurodivergent, what with the difficultly she has socializing and relating to other people and her hyperfixation on data as her main source of comfort. But it's never explicitly said in the book, despite being heavily implied, and I can't help but think that seeing that kind of representation would be really important to some readers. But like I said, it is very heavily coded, in my opinion, regardless.
With that said: there's intense mystery, there's action, there's romance, there's social commentary, and the last quarter or so of the book will make you question everything you thought you knew about the story twenty times over without giving you so much as a second to breathe. Trust me when I say it's a reading experience I won't soon forget.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Sexual content