Review by emily_mh - The Ones We're Meant to Find

emily_mh 's review for:

The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He

4.5

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Okay this book hit me quite hard which is the main reason why I've rated it so highly. It was confronting and haunting; whenever I finished a reading stint I had to stare into space for a bit and process what I had just read. It raised so many challenging questions, like how much personal freedom we can morally have in an environmental crisis, and who gets to decide who survives such a crisis. I was fascinated by how He envisioned the future of humanity, especially the solutions people made to reduce their carbon footprint. I also loved the sister relationship in this. They had such deep connection and love for one another.

I docked my rating half a star for two reasons. The first is that the writing could be very confusing from Kasey's perspective, both in terms of world-building and interpreting her personality. The pacing in this perspective also grew to be quite erratic. The second reason was the romance.

I wish that Cee and Hero's relationship had been platonic. Or at least if it had to be romantic/sexual, I wish that their physical intimacy wasn't the reason why Cee's happiness spiked so high. Emotional connection provides happiness too, and more stable happiness that I feel that Kasey would have programmed for.

In all honesty though, when a book impacts me the way this one did, reasons such as those aforementioned aren't enough to significantly affect the overall star rating, hence only a half-star dock.

Content Warnings