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A review by lostlenore_
The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He
5.0
This is my honest review of the ARC I received by NetGalley.
"Because it was possible to love someone without fully understanding them. Possible to love parts of them and not their whole."
What an amazing journey that was! A totally refreshing tale of love and loss wrapped in gripping writing and compelling worldbuilding! It's one of those books that clearly pave the way to great YA lit and more specifically, to fascinating eco-literature. The primary focus is on two sisters trying to find each other and not on any romance interests which makes perfect sense--not all YA books have to be about a boy meeting a girl!
I particularly enjoyed the way the sea was always there, listening to what the heroes' wanted and needed and providing the solutions. Even after the destruction of Earth by humans, the sea seemed like the only source of life (and death.) I'll pre-order this book so as to support Joan He's attempt to create this kind of exciting and multimodal storytelling--despite the heavy worldbuilding that was explained fully in bits and parts and sometimes frustrated me, I admired the author's skills in creating subtext that hooks the reader and meaningful connections between all heroes.
This is definitely a book that needs rereading to truly savor all the work the writer pulled through to deliver this gem. Because it's possible to love a book without fully understanding it. This is the magic in Joan He's new novel: it explains what's just necessary and like one of her heroines, the reader is asked to make the necessary connections and guess what happens when nothing is said.
"Because it was possible to love someone without fully understanding them. Possible to love parts of them and not their whole."
What an amazing journey that was! A totally refreshing tale of love and loss wrapped in gripping writing and compelling worldbuilding! It's one of those books that clearly pave the way to great YA lit and more specifically, to fascinating eco-literature. The primary focus is on two sisters trying to find each other and not on any romance interests which makes perfect sense--not all YA books have to be about a boy meeting a girl!
I particularly enjoyed the way the sea was always there, listening to what the heroes' wanted and needed and providing the solutions. Even after the destruction of Earth by humans, the sea seemed like the only source of life (and death.) I'll pre-order this book so as to support Joan He's attempt to create this kind of exciting and multimodal storytelling--despite the heavy worldbuilding that was explained fully in bits and parts and sometimes frustrated me, I admired the author's skills in creating subtext that hooks the reader and meaningful connections between all heroes.
This is definitely a book that needs rereading to truly savor all the work the writer pulled through to deliver this gem. Because it's possible to love a book without fully understanding it. This is the magic in Joan He's new novel: it explains what's just necessary and like one of her heroines, the reader is asked to make the necessary connections and guess what happens when nothing is said.