The Ones We're Meant to Find eBook PDF

User Reviews

daph pink ♡

Rating: really liked it
I have a rather unpleasant announcement to make.

- I AM FUCKING DISAPPOINTED🙁

Moving on, this cover is still one of my favourite covers of 2021, and I'm delighted that people like it; it's just not my style, and the world building was haphazard and incomplete, and none of the characters appealed to me...

Robin

Rating: really liked it
↠ 5 stars

The Black Mirror reminiscent sci-fi of my dreams that somehow managed to break my heart into smithereens before I ever finished reading. After awaking marooned on an abandoned island with nothing to retrace her steps but the memory of a sister awaiting her return, Cee will do anything to find her way home. Three years later and the island has become her captor, luring her back no matter how many times she tries to escape its clutches. Back home, Kasey mourns a sister lost forever to the sea while facing a tumultuous future in the eco-city, earth’s last sanctuary. With its useful life almost spent, Kasey knows that using her gifts to ensure earth’s future means finding a difficult solution, one that the citizens just might not want to hear. Right as Cee begins to turn desperate someone unlikely washes up on shore, Kasey begins to make her case, and two sisters set adrift must find their own destiny, whether that be together or apart.

The Ones We’re Meant to Find is quite frankly one of the most painful books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. It’s a gut-wrenching unpredictable novel that only someone as talented as Joan He could ever have written. Right from the start, this ensnared me in its grasp through its masterful world-building and its vision of a future not so far off as one should like to think. To say I devoured this book would be the understatement of the century when in reality I was possessed by some otherworldly being that had me completing this in well under two hours. This is one of those books with a keen air of mystery present, which naturally led to me creating wild theories in my head as the book progressed. I feel compelled to mention that I was way off the mark with my theories, to the point of embarrassment, but the whole journey was really just exquisite. He has combined components of both thriller and science fiction within this novel, creating a story so ingenious and immersive it's impossible to put down. Classifying this as a page-turner seems appropriate given that, but this is also a thought-provoking read that took me on an emotional journey I am not sure I will recover from any time soon. Not only was this book exquisitely painful, it was also maddeningly frustrating at times. The very nature of a separation story such as this had me anxiously awaiting a reunion between both sisters, one that did not turn out at all how I was anticipating. Up until the last third of the book, I was on the edge of my seat completely at the mercy of Joan and her obscure plans. Well, this is certainly shaping up to be one of my favorite books of the year, maybe even of all time. A rare glimpse into the future of climate change, the persevering nature of sisterhood, and the tenacity of the human spirit.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review

Trigger warnings: gore, violence, death, death of a loved one, suicide, terminal illness, drowning, choking, mass death, grief, natural disasters

Hailey (Hailey in Bookland)

Rating: really liked it
DNF @ 68%

I think this is going to be a book a lot of people really enjoy! But it just wasn’t for me. There were some interesting and unexpected twists and turns but I just didn’t like it. I’m not a huge sci-fi fan so maybe that’s why, but I found everything was kind of going over my head and I couldn’t picture anything which was really frustrating.

jessica

Rating: really liked it
i think JHs jump from fantasy to sci-fi is a real success. with her signature beautiful prose, JH has created an elevated ‘lifelike’ and ‘warcross,’ bringing new dimensions to the genre.

i will say i strongly preferred cees chapters over kays - im more interested in survival stories than cli-sci - and kays chapters are very technical, almost to the point where im still not quite sure i understand everything. but both sisters are worth reading about and i love how their two POVs connect. it definitely took me by surprise.

with the subtle allure and understated thrill of this story, i feel confident in saying this book is a definite dark horse for 2021.

thanks roaring brook press for the ARC!

↠ 4 stars

may ➹

Rating: really liked it
why do the books with pretty covers always have to be the ones that disappoint me

rtc

——————

this cover is very pretty in an objective way and..... the girls are very pretty in a gay way

// buddy read with lots of friends (tag later!)

emma

Rating: really liked it
How do you write a post-apocalyptic novel when the world is on fire?

Everybody else had it easy. Philip K. Dick could write books about authoritarian governments and robots taking over and have them still be fun because his audience didn't have little rectangles with human names in their homes, CONSTANTLY LISTENING. George Orwell could write about...also authoritarian governments because Edward Snowden was not yet a twinkle in his parents' eye, and the NSA (or whatever its British equivalent) was not yet a twinkle in an evil gross bureuacrat's.

And also, none of them were writing about climate change.

I'll read about crazy governments making children kill each other for national entertainment, because that's obviously cool and interesting. I'll read about crazy governments making children join castes based on a singular personality trait, because that's relatively cool and interesting. I'll read PKD and Orwell, because even when they aren't cool and interesting I'm a sucker for someone saying something is a must read.

But I'm at a point where I don't want to read about global pandemics from flu-like illnesses, and I DEFINITELY don't want to read about global warming. Because both are real and both are everyone's day to day life and no one can forget about them for a second anyway.

There's something escapist about reading about POST-apocalyptic books. We're in the apocalypse now (I haven't seen that movie or else I'd make a cool reference), so reading about things being worse casts things into a kind of sharp relief sometimes.

But this was not escapist, because I was reading it when it was 100 degrees outside and wildfire smoke was making everything fuzzy, and now I'm reviewing it days after flooding shut my city down.

If I'm going to read about climate change, it turns out, I don't want to read a fictionalized look at how everything is terrible and it will never get better, only worse. I want to read long essays in esteemed publications, or I want to read books like Sally Rooney's latest, which fill me with even a little bit of hope.

This was well done, and everything. I just hated every second of reading it.

Bottom line: Everything is terrible! I don't read to be reminded of that.

-----------------
pre-review

no thoughts head empty just "pretty girls on cover"

update: probably no book could live up to that cover. but this one certainly did not.

review to come / 3 stars

Joan He

Rating: really liked it
5/4/21 and that's book 2 out in the world friends! thank you so, so much to everyone who took the time to read and review. As always, an extra big thank you to everyone crossposting reviews on retail sites such as amazon and B&N. It's a huge help to us authors <3

Like last time, I thought I'd round up some FAQs and drop some insight here!
THE OPEN ENDING
(Ok, I know that isn't the answer you wanted. In my very biased opinion, I'm for less is more. No second helpings of dessert. *hides*)
THE TIMELINE (spoilers)
(click and scroll down to the first reply)
THE INSPIRATION
(and other thoughts!)
CEE & KASEY AS CHARACTERS

On Kasey in particular, I wanted to note, as I did in the above tweet, that I wrote her from my own personal experience. However you interpret her character is entirely up to you; the book is yours now, not mine. But if you're wondering why certain labels do not appear on the page, this would be the reason. In the writing of the book, I drew strictly from how I see myself, at this point in time. Any lack of on-page rep stems from this conscientious choice.

And with that, I set this book loose! I hope it finds you <3

Content warnings:(view spoiler). The list may not be exhaustive, and will be updated as necessary.

3/4/21 ARCSs exist, and the preorder campaign for the book is LIVE! For more details, images of the swag, and link to submit receipts, please visit my site.

*Please note that the arc is not final. While the story doesn't differ, during edits some lines were changed to be more inclusive. This will all be reflected in the finished copy! Thank you for understanding <3

9/17/20 and the cover is live!!! meet the sisters, Cee and Kasey! Cee's in the back, Kasey's got the bangs. Art credits and pre-order info can be found in my announcement thread.

DOTC's cover opened so many doors that it was really important to me this delivered on the same level. I've been biting my nails for a while now and I'm relieved to see the excitement for what we came up with. It really captures the heart of the sisters' story so well. Thank you for celebrating the reveal with me, and stay tuned for more info in the coming days!

8/14/20 We have a release date! Mark your calendars for May 4th, 2021. Can't wait to share more details (full summary, cover, etc.) soon.
----
I'm beyond thrilled to say that I have more books coming your way! if you've read DESCENDANT OF THE CRANE and thought that was twisty, then you're not ready ;)

Hafsah Faizal

Rating: really liked it
With adoring prose and a clever plot, Joan He's latest novel is a beautiful story about the bond between sisters and the love for a humanity that might not deserve it. Be prepared for floating cities, deserted islands, and a peek at an awful future that doesn't seem all too implausible. I absolutely loved this story.

Steph

Rating: really liked it

Alone is an island. It's an uncrossable sea, being too far from another soul, whereas lonely is being too close, in the same house yet separated by walls because we choose to be...

this book is very ???!!!

dreamy, nebulous, heavy on the scifi, often confusing, and ultimately terribly sad; this was a challenging read for me.

i think it's best to go into this book prepared for a scifi story, and not knowing much else. but my disorganized review is going to delve deeper, just for the sake of getting out some thoughts. beware, major spoilers are tagged!!

we alternate between two perspectives. there's cee, stuck on a mysterious desert island, drawn to the sea, and desperate to find her sister. and there's her sister kasey, living in a dystopian future where part of the population is living safely in eco-cities hovering above the ocean, while the rest of the population remains on earth's surface, vulnerable to climate disasters.

this book is twisty and everything is cloaked in mystery. there are many layered reveals, and it took me a while to get into the rhythm of the story, because you have to accept that you're not going to fully understand everything that's going on; you gotta roll with what you do know and keep reading.

on a regular day i have a large amount of climate change anxiety, and this book certainly amped that up. but for the typical reader, i don't think that's a bad thing. not to turn this review into a soapbox, but i think we should be prepared for potential climate disasters in our future, and do whatever we can as individuals to stave them off. obviously legislation is required if humans are going to save our planet, but there are meaningful things that we can all do daily, like avoiding animal products and single use plastic.

/END CLIMATE CHANGE RANT! but if you're sensitive to climate change anxiety too, be aware that the book deals with these themes!!

anyway. kasey has trouble relating to the emotions of people around her, which is understandable, but it made it harder for me to relate to her. she's ridiculously smart and brave, but i didn't feel connected to her character. whereas i felt so much for sweet, charismatic, gutsy celia. (view spoiler)

Celia had loved the sea. Loved the whitecaps that foamed like milk, the waltz of sunlight atop the peaks. Kasey did not. The sea was a trillion strands of hair, infinitely tangled on the surface and infinitely dense beneath. It distorted time: Minutes passed like hours and hours passed like minutes out there. It distorted space, made the horizon seem within reach.

i love the ocean vibes, and the extreme contrast between the two sisters. i love the tightness of their bond, despite all their differences.

i read this with the wonderful sofia, and we were in agreement that the message of the book is ultimately unclear. (view spoiler)

which leads me to the open ending. (view spoiler)

the theme of family connections is strong, but i was surprised to be touched by the gentle taste of love story as well. (view spoiler)

They're not sad tears. Not happy tears. Just... tears. Warm as the ache between my legs. Real as the ribs beneath my skin. And for a breath, I forget. Everything. I'm just a body nestled against another's. We're nothing as timeless as stars in orbit. More like two grains of sand before the tide rushes in. Here, then not. Human.

despite being confused throughout this book, I really enjoyed the worldbuilding, the contrast between settings (though i did prefer cee's salty ocean scenes to the jam-packed eco-cities), and the intense themes of family bonds and dystopian environmentalism. the vivid atmosphere and engaging writing style are lovely. i just wish things had clicked into place a little better! with some additional clarity, this could have been a wonderfully satisfying read, instead of making me feel ???!!!

Thank you to NetGalley and Text Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Hilly ♡

Rating: really liked it
4.5 stars

That ending HURT ME

The problem with oceans? They always seem smaller from the shore.

I’m amazed by the sheer complexity this whole book is built on. I’m not talking about the world building only, but also the characters. Joan He was able to write a standalone that had on me the same impact a trilogy I love usually has. It was twisty and heart-wrenching, shocking but so wholesome. It would have been a five star if it wasn’t for the fact that things like the world, the technology and some plot points remained confusing for a little too long to be an enjoyable kind of confusing, you know? But everything else I just loved.

This book is like: you thought that plot twist 10 pages ago was the last and the biggest one? Hold my beer. I lost count of how many times the characters managed to surprise me with their actions, their well-rounded representation, their motivations and emotions. I love how the author makes them feel super realistic and for sure this won’t be the last book I read by her. I’m a fan of Cee and the way she’s so likable, but I’m also incredibly in love with Kasey and Actinium’s journeys. Their growth and that ending.....wow. I would have never seen it coming.
All of that was enhanced by the setting. I’m not a huge sci-fi reader, but I do really like when stories take place in cool worlds that function on technology that makes sense. This book had it all.

What drove me in at first, apart from the most beautiful cover I’ve ever seen in my entire life, was the part of the synopsis about Cee being stranded on an island. I love survival stories and this one delivered in a lot of ways. Cee’s chapters were definitely my favorite. I wasn’t expecting to fall for the romance as well though (honestly I didn’t even think there was going to be one). Cee’s melted my heart, Kasey’s had me on the edge of my seat. But in the end those two broke my heart and I’m still trying to put the pieces together. I can’t believe what this book did to me 😭

Why is it that I can trust you one moment, and be hurt by you the next?

This book was fascinating and engrossing, bittersweet and tragic. I can’t wait for it to hurt me again when I pick it up next time.

I received an advanced reader copy through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

******

I’ve only checked out the first three sentences and I already know this one will be a winner 🌈

Elle

Rating: really liked it
Now a Goodreads Choice nominee in Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction!

When I first saw this cover I thought it was going to be a fantasy. Then after reading then synopsis I thought it was going to be a thriller. It’s really not either of those things though, so admittedly it took me a while to find my footing in The Ones We’re Meant to Find.

There was so much going on in this book, even with somewhat of a slow start. Celia and Kasey are sisters, separated by an unknown amount of space and time. The opening chapters feature Cee alone on a deserted island and Kay living as a kind of recluse in a densely populated eco-city. Kasey has been grieving the loss of her sister for three months, who was last seen embarking out into the dangerous waters surrounding their city. Cee, on the other hand, has been trying to escape ever since she first woke up on the island, dreaming of the only person in the world who’s important to her now: her sister.

We don’t learn a lot about the world the girls live in in Cee’s chapters, but while Kay is attempting to retrace Celia’s last moments before her disappearance we’re introduced to more and more of its harsh realities. After refusing to take action to protect the environment, humans have found that it’s turned on them. While some regions have adjusted, massively reducing their carbon footprints, spending a third of their lives in stasis pods among other things, many have flatly refused and continue to cause damage. And I have to say, after over a year of collective foot-dragging and tantrum-throwing when it comes to basic things like wearing a mask or getting vaccinated during a worldwide pandemic by some, this is probably the least surprising thing about the world depicted here by Ms. He.

The society Kay is a part of is one of the more interesting aspects of the story. There’s some typical Black Mirror stuff—holographs, memory storing and erasing, a social standing score, etc.—but I think the more unique bits are when the technology isn’t the focus and instead the morality around it is. Where does autonomy overlap with selfishness? Is it more important to protect individual interests or collective ones? Can causing intentional harm be excusable if it serves a greater societal good? The Ones We’re Meant to Find is about climate change, technology, humanity, ecoterrorism, capitalism, family and so much more.

But I think, at its core, this book asks what we owe one another. Some of that is broader, what do we owe other people living on this earth, but it also extends to a more personal level. The bond between these two sisters is the driving force of the novel, propelling them to re-examine their own very different world views in an attempt to understand one another. Cee is different from the person she used to be. Kay has always felt like a less complete version of her sister. In order to fully *get* this book, you have to get Cee and Kay.

Which is probably why you’re going to see a smattering of low ratings mixed in with the high ones. This book is not going to be able to sink its claws into everybody, and that’s fine. It’s probably too slow at the beginning, maybe also a little confusing at first, but once it clicks, it clicks. And I think as time has passed (I finished it about a week ago), I’ve come to appreciate what Joan He did here even more. The Ones We’re Meant to Find is a daunting, transfixing journey into a world that’s both too close to and too divergent from our own to ever feel completely comfortable in. I’d recommend readers to take their time getting into it, try and revel in that discomfort and to let yourself be swept away.

And as a side note:
I really enjoyed Descendant of the Crane, and I’m excited to read more from Joan! And after all that nonsense her last publisher put her through, I’m hopeful that she’s found a team that fully supports AND compensates her for her work.

**For more book talk & reviews, follow me on Instagram at @elle_mentbooks!

Nenia ✨ I yeet my books back and forth ✨ Campbell

Rating: really liked it

Instagram || Twitter || Facebook || Amazon || Pinterest

DNF @ p.56

Oh man. I was REALLY disappointed by this book-- especially since I'd been looking forward to it ever since it came out. I liked the author's debut novel, DESCENDANT OF THE CRANE, and really looked forward to seeing what she would do next. Especially since THE ONES WE'RE MEANT TO FIND was *checks notes* being compared to Studio Ghibli movies in the blurb and had one of the most gorgeous covers I've seen recently.

Sadly... I did not like it at all.

This is just SO confusing. I checked some of the one star and two star reviews to see if it would get better and it didn't seem to. This appears to be the kind of book where if you're not into it from the beginning, you're not going to be into it at the end. One of the POVs is about this girl marooned on a beach (first person). The other is this girl in a city environment who is looking for her missing sister (third person). I guess I was hoping, based on the cover, that the sisterhood dynamic would be more prevalent and less... I don't know, absent.

I also think I have a pretty good idea what the twist is. Definitely curious if I'm right, though.

Side note: not only is the cover gorgeous, the amount of design and thought that went into the layout is A+. I actually took a photo of the endpapers on my Instagram because they were so beautiful. If you're into some Nova Ren Suma levels of M. Night Shyamalan-like plot twists, this will probably appeal to you. But if you're looking for something that's more straightforward, give this a miss.

Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!

1 star

Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin

Rating: really liked it
[1. Here’s a handkerchief scarf of Rule of Wolves

2. A Corduroy Bag inspired by Obsidio and it has a zipper!

3. A Gilded Wolves sticker, a Metal Tassel Bookmark from Scythe and The Fifth Season and the enamel pin of the month.

4. The second book tin from A Darker Shade Of Magic

5. And the book which y’all already know

Happy Reading! (hide spoiler)]

Chelsea Humphrey

Rating: really liked it
"For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),
it's always ourselves we find in the sea."
-E.E. Cummings, Maggie and Milly and Molly and May

Beautifully written and exquisitely lush, The Ones We're Meant to Find is more than just a stunning cover. A slow burning dive into sisterly bonds, climate change, and the effect that our carbon footprint has on the earth, this story was equal parts thought provoking and emotionally challenging. The first half of the book is quite slow in pacing, but if you stick with it, the second half more than makes up for the time spent in the first. Once I was able to get my bearings regarding the world building and alternating POVs, I became more invested in the story, and once you hit between 50-60%, the plot twists just multiply, one after the other. I read the last 40% in a single sitting because I couldn't put it down! The ending will be a dealbreaker for some, but I think it lets the reader sit with their thoughts and process without the author inserting anything else into the narrative. Definitely did NOT see the big twist coming, and I look forward to more from Joan He!

*Many thanks to the publisher for providing my review copy.

luce (currently recovering from a hiatus)

Rating: really liked it

The cover for this book is goals...its contents not so much. I found this novel to be an odd melange of confusing and simple. The characters came across as flat (little more than names on a page), the world-building, although at first promising, ultimately struck me as patchy, and the storyline and twists were just not up my street. Still, I know that quite a lot of people are looking forward to this novel so I encourage prospective readers to check out some more positive reviews, as this may as well be one of those 'it's not it's me' cases.

The novel follows two sisters, the older one, Cee, has been stranded on an island for the past three years, while the younger one, Kasey, lives in one of the few existing eco-cities and is trying to make sense of Cee's disappearance. Climate and environmental disasters have made eco-cities refuges for humanity. Of course, not everyone is allowed entrance in eco-cities, and in spite of their utopian promises, eco-cities' such as Kasey's are incredibly classists (people are 'ranked, the cities themselves have stratified structure and those who live in the lower stratums lead less privileged lifestyles than those on 'top'). Although much of Kasey and Cee's world remains largely unexplored we do get some details about life in their eco-city. For example, we learn that 'holoing' is a green alternative which allows the citizens of the eco-city to conduct 'nonessential activities' in the holographic mode. There is also Intraface which allows its users to capture their memories as well as apps which can 'adjust' a person's serotonin levels. Kasey, who is a very logical person and who makes sense of the world around her through a scientific lens, finds herself, somewhat uncharacteristically one could say, trying to find what happened to her sister, even if she's convinced that Cee is dead.
Meanwhile, Cee has been trying to leave the island she woke up on. She desperately wants to be reunited with Kasey, and is prepared to risk her life in her attempt to build a raft/boat that will allow her to set forth into the ocean. Cee recollects very little about her former life and seems to have entirely forgotten about the existence of the eco-city or the rest of the world. All she knows is that she has to find her sister.

Here are the problems that I had with this novel (minor-spoilers below):

→the writing itself. Cee's sections are narrated in the 1st person, Kasey's in the 3rd. Something switching between perspectives can enhance a story (as with Red at the Bone, Everything Here is Beautiful, The Travelers, or anything by N. K. Jemisin), but, more often than not, is unnecessary. Kasey remains remote, which is perhaps intentional, after all, the author goes above and beyond in order to emphasise how 'cold' and 'detached' and 'Not Like Other People' she is (it seemed weird that the possibility of her being neurodivergent was never raised or discussed considering how technologically advanced these eco-cities are—for example, if someone feels upset they can locate the source of that feeling, be it a memory or whatnot). Yet, on the other hand, being in Cee's head didn't do all that much for her character either. She doesn't know a lot, her inner monologue consists mostly of what she observes (the island, the ocean, the rocks, the sand, her shack, her robot helper). When the boy arrives her mind is mostly occupied with thoughts of him. Cee's sections also included some really purply phrases (her thoughts 'jellify', she feels the 'muchness' and 'littleness'). Although the writing was for the most part okay, there were a few too many clichéd phrases ("Sometimes [she] felt like a stranger in her own skin", "[she] did not belong–here or anywhere") and even the dialogues were full of platitudes and done to death lines such as "What could we achieve, if we worked together?"
→the world-building left too much unexplored. There was so much that did not make sense or did not convince me and yet, I was supposed to just buy into it? The few half-delivered explanations we get did little in terms of answering my questions or making sense.
→the characters....Cee and Kasey are the classic YA sisters. One is attractive, charming, everyone loves her. The other is quiet, logical, not driven by her feelings but by FACTS, and she just does not 'fit in'. I felt nothing for them, which sounds harsh, but it is the truth. They were painfully one-dimensional, and, the longer I read, the less I believed in them. Not only is this kind of dynamic old but I just did not feel that Kasey and Cee's relationship was particularly nuanced. They also seemed to have no thoughts about their childhood, their parents (the dad is meant to be this powerful big guy but because he is 99% of the time off-page...well, he was pretty superfluous).
→insta-love, of the worst kind. The whole love storyline did not work for me. There are some dodgy scenes that would have definitely not been included if we were to reverse the characters' genders (and I was not a fan of those scenes).
→plot...it has its twists, I will give it that. But I just could not bring myself to believe in Kasey's arc (that they would just let her do what she wanted).
→the themes had potential but He sacrifices potentially interesting conversations/scenes that touch upon ethics & morality in favour of drama.

Sadly, the novel had very little to offer me. By the end of the novel (around the 80% mark) I was so bored and irritated by what I was reading that I ended up skim-reading the rest. There were too many lacunae (in both the world-building and storyline) and I never felt engaged by the characters or the author's style. I was hoping for something more compelling, and yes, the comparison to Ghibli definitely feels misleading.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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The Ones We're Meant to Find

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