The ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He is such a beautifully written book. Given from the perspectives of two sisters, Celia and Kasey. Kasey is a closed-off and brilliant young woman searching for answers about her sister's whereabouts. Celia, stranded on a deserted island, fights to go home, fights to find Kasey. I adored each and every one of the characters. Each one left a lasting impression days after finishing the book. The small hint of enemies to lovers pulled the whole book together nicely. I only had one small concern with this book, and that was the ending. It ended rather abruptly, in my opinion, and while the ending wasn't what I wanted, it did fit the story well. Overall this was a fantastic book, and I highly recommended it!

I really, really enjoyed this book!

Smart, strange, and so full of heart, this book was unputdownable from start to finish. Although it moves a bit slowly at times, especially near the beginning, I actually really liked it. It’s a dark science fiction story, set in a world where climate change’s effects have been catastrophic, and the world has adapted in drastic ways. The story follows two main characters: Cee, a girl, marooned on an island, who doesn’t remember much about her life before, but she does remember her sister, and all she wants to do is find her. It also follows Kasey, a girl, living in one of the world’s eco cities. She doesn’t quite “fit” with other people, and is grappling with the pain and grief of her sister going missing.

Both the main characters were so compelling - in different ways - and I adored them. Kasey was very unlike most main characters in YA, in that she was not very sympathetic (or empathetic) - but you really connect with her - her isolation, her grief, her seeming coldness, & her consuming love for her sister, all culminates in a really unique, and really amazing character. Cee, on the other hand, is full of life and feeling, and yearning - and is very easy to love.

Cycling back and forth between their POVs made for a really compelling story arc - and the secondary characters added some really great flavour and complexity - and you are just kind of rooting for everybody by the end of the story.

The characters have a lot of depth and dimension to them - as well as a lot of moral greyness. The lines between good and bad, and right and wrong blur often - and it’s actually really amazing because you really get to see - step by step - the way one decision and one event can catalyze a chain of events with far reaching implications.

This is definitely the kind of book that keeps you guessing - it’s not neat and tidy, and despite being packed with breathless twists and turns, it still leaves a lot of questions with its open ended conclusion. (Which I both hate because I now need to talk to everyone I know who has read this book and get their thoughts on it; but I also love because i don’t think it should have ended any other way, and it feels right!)

This book explores questions like: “What does it mean to be human?”; “How do we grapple with the weight of the legacies left behind to us?”; “How do we move on when we have lost everything?” And “What do we owe to each other? To humanity?”

Unforgettable, and absolutely a must read.

I would like to thank Books Forward PR for the review copy. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

There is no doubt that The Ones Were Meant To Find by Joan He has one of the most gorgeous book covers this 2021. Plus, it was pitched as We Were Liars meets Black Mirror with a dash of Studio Ghibli, so knowing I am an absolutely fan of those three, I had a hope to love this book as well. However, I didn't love it as much as I expected to. It was just an okay read for me. I liked the idea and the premise, but the execution, not so much.

The story followed two Asian teens sister, Cee and Kay. Cee was trapped on an island, while Kay was on the eco-city far away from Cee. The plot revolved around the mysteries on how Cee got on the island, her lost memories, and the reason of her sudden disappearance. This was enough for me to get into reading even when the pacing was slow and dragging. It was told through alternating POVs of the main characters. Cee's POV was on the first person, while Kay's was on the third person. I didn't understand the sudden shift of the perspective for it didn't much affect the plot. On the other hand, the twists and turns were surprising and satisfying.

The ideas and concepts that were introduced in the futuristic, dystopian world setting were impressive and unique. The people were now living in an eco-city, where people experienced things that were considered not essential virtually to save the depleting resources. Social status was also on rank-basis. Their ranking was determined on their family's history and impact on the environment. However, I found it quite confusing because it lacked details and explanation. It felt like I got the general idea, but these could have been explained more as I would have like.

The main characters, Celia and Kasey, were interesting and complex. Despite that, it was challenging to connect to them especially Kasey. It was maybe because her character was portrayed as aloof and unsympathetic. Their motivations and actions were not very clear.

Overall, The Ones Were Meant To Find has a unique sci-fi setting and a mysterious plot. I had some issues with, but still I like the concepts in this novel.

3/5 stars!

I went into this story fully prepared to be gripped by a fantastical sci-fi novel but was absolutely unprepared to cry the way I did. At once realistic in its horror in regards to the future of climate change and heartbreaking to see someone’s grief and fear play out so plainly—Joan He has created a masterpiece. Will this book go down as one of the most painful books of 2021? It just might. Does it’s beauty, from cover, to prose, to type set exceed it all? Undeniably. An absolutely must read.

I’m blown away by Joan He’s beautiful and poignant writing. I can’t even begin to explain how much this book impacted me 🥺 I look forward to reading more from Joan in the future!

The Ones We’re Meant to Find was a genuinely unique read! I do not think I have read anything so confusing, but in a spectacular way. Told between alternating view points, Cee who is stranded alone on an island with no memory and Kasey who is trying to survive without her missing sister. Page by page you dive deeper into the mystery of who these two girls are and the dystopian world of the future. It was also surprisingly deep and thought provoking. Joan He makes you think about what being human means and the imprint you leave behind.

Rating: 5/5 stasis chambers

Format: e-book. I’d like to thank the author and Fierce Reads for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

To sum up:
Cee has no memory of how she got on the island. All she knows is that she has been there for three years and she needs to find her sister Kay.

Kasey lives in an eco-city, one of the few remaining safe cities on Earth, protected from the frequent natural disasters that plague their environmentally damaged world. Part of life in eco-cities is the promise to spend a third of your life in a stasis pod to help slow the damage being done to the environment. While Kasey doesn’t mind this restriction, her sister Celia can’t stand it. Still, Kasey could never have predicted that Celia’s desire to see and feel the outside world would lead her to leave the safety of their eco-city altogether.

The longer Celia is gone, the more Kasey starts to lose hope that she will never find her sister again, that the dangerous world has taken her from her forever. But as both of these sisters attempt to make their way back to each other, they will find out things about each other and themselves that will change everything.

What I enjoyed:
WOW. Okay, this world was fascinating and I loved how fleshed out it is while still remaining in the background of the story. It is there as a framework for the characters but doesn’t overwhelm the reader.

Second, I LOVE messy sister stories and this one delivers! The two sisters are so different, and being in each of their heads was very cool. Their bond was so relatable and beautiful, it definitely made me root for them to the very end!

Speaking of which, THE END!! NO SPOILERS HERE but holy shit, it blew me away! The twists kept on coming, like wave after wave dragging me under and I was happy to be swept away!

What was meh:
I don’t have anything bad to say here!

Overall, I loved it. It was a unique story, full of questions about the future, identity, memory, and loss. Highly recommend to fans of stories that will make you think, and THEN THINK AGAIN.

LOVED this one, totally unexpected. It's unpredictable, phenomenal world building, absolutely a page-turner!

The Pros:

- it was amazing seeing Joan He writting a dystopic YA full of mistery. It's such a change of register from her previous book that I was amazed.
- The idea of human beings having destroyed Earth and living in eco places like the ones in the book sounds dystopic but sadly close and real enough that you read with a bit of dread as this or something similar could be in our future
- Also, I loved the power of the sisters bond, they both try to recue each other and their relationship, with it up and downs is at the center of what makes this book move
- Kasey is such an atypical character: she deals better with logic and numbers than with feelings, and sometimes she can appear as cold or calculating (maybe she is, sometimes, during the book), but really she just processes the world in a different way
- She touches different important topics, like the preservation of Earth; different relationships with family members (not all of them good); the fact that sometimes people see you in a determined way and they pre judge you and label you; entintlement due to position/rank; etc

.The plot has some unexpected twists, with an incredible big one at around 60% of the book that got me HOOKED, and screaming my head off, honestly. From that point forward it's like a domino effect: all the pieces that had been clicking together while you read gain momentum and take you on a stride.

I loved Cee, I feel for her a lot. And Kasey is such an interesting character! Despite having her chapters narrated on third person -opposite to first person for Cee- you really feel what she's thinking.

I loved it.

This one is a difficult story to review and wrap my feelings on it.

The book follows two timelines of two sisters. We get to see the "before an event", POV of a genius sister Kay and her search for her sister Celia who dissappeared, presumed dead. In this world that is being ravaged by storms and quakes, people mostly lives in e-space to preserve what's left of resources as well as reduce pollution on Earth. Kay is unraveling the mystery of what happened to her sister and at the same time trying to solve the world's problems. And the second one is from Celia. You know she's in the future, but also determined to find her sister Kay. But she's alone, on an island. With nothing in sight..

The dystopian world was devastating, as it was destroyed by humans. The ecological destruction of the Earth😬, the social rating of people and how they get to survive was an amazing part of this book. Devastating, but amazingly designed. A bit too close with political climate of how much is shared/hidden from people, the loss of lives especially when looking at social status (in this case rankings) and where you live, etc.

It was told though in this lyrical way, not the usual sci-fi, hard on tech language story. It was more about the sisters, their understanding of what living is, how to change the world, and their choices for their own futures.

If not for a slow beginning, this might have been a full 5 star story. But it was more of a dragged out character study. And with that ending.. I really don't know how to feel about it. It made me mad that it left me with some questions, but also it was built on this hope and trust that Kay's generation had. So I don't know. Still salty a bit.

First a MASSIVE thank you to Books Forward for sharing this fantastic novel with me!
I want to start off by saying how much I LOVE ‘The Ones We’re Meant to Find’! When I first started this novel, I was a little uneasy as this was the first novel that I have read by Joan He, but let me just say, my expectations were blown out of the water! This is a PHENOMENAL Sci-fi novel with a dual perspective that emerged readers into the novel! Joan He created an outstanding world that is full of whit and adventure. The perfect novel for novice sci-fi readers like myself! I cannot give Joan He enough praise for this standalone! I cannot wait to read the second novel when it comes out! An easy 5 stars!

To be honest, this started slowly for me. I found it difficult to ground myself in the story in the beginning — I’m not sure how to describe it other than saying it felt very distant to start. But once I got about halfway and the story started to come together, I was totally engrossed. And the payoff is suuuuuuper satisfying.

The setting and atmosphere of this book is top notch. There were parts of the world that potentially went over my head, but the overall execution of the story completely won me over. I could write a whole dissertation on the messages & themes from this story, and without a doubt I would easily pick up again.

Overall, enjoyed this immensely!

Joan He's THE ONES WE"RE MEANT TO FIND was such a lovely and timely book. Both in terms of the pandemic, as well as our current global crisis, I just thought this book touched on so much about human behavior that was relevant to our current lives.

This is really one of those books where you don't want to give too much away about it, but I found the writing, especially when it came to things like love, family, the bond between sisters, and what it means to be human, to be especially moving, and I appreciated the questions this book made me ask. The world-building was a smidge thin, but because I enjoyed the rest of it so much, I found myself more forgiving of that and willing to just go along with things.

I enjoyed this book so much that I am suggesting it to my YA book club to be either our July or August pick!

The nitty-gritty: I loved Joan He's writing and her thought-provoking ideas, but a confusing story and unexplained world building elements ultimately left me disappointed.

I wish I had enjoyed this book more, especially after seeing many glowing reviews in the blogging community. There’s no denying that Joan He has a way with words, and her writing is lush and evocative and beautifully written. But the story itself was so damn confusing that I struggled to even pick the book up and push through. I’m not sure exactly where the disconnect happened for me, because I did enjoy the mystery, which is evident from the first page when the reader is literally thrown into the deep end and forced to sink or swim. And I don’t mean that metaphorically, because the ocean and plays a big part in the world building.

The story takes place far in the future when global warming has led to unlivable conditions on the planet. The oceans are full of toxins, earthquakes and tsunamis threaten anyone living on the surface, and the air is dangerous to breathe. The solution was to create contained floating cities in the air called eco-cities, where people are safe from all the dangers below. People interact virtually for the most part, attending virtual parties, school and other social events. But the eco-cities can only hold so many people, and because of this everyone is given a rank and only the highest ranked can secure a coveted spot in the air.

A young scientist named Kasey Mizuhara has a radical solution, though, and she’s trying to get people to agree to her idea. Her plan is called Operation Reset and involves putting people in stasis pods at the bottom of the ocean for a thousand years, the time she estimates it will take earth to “reset” itself and become safe again. When the time is right, Kasey herself will be awakened by a bot and she’ll begin the process of waking up everyone else.

The narrative goes back and forth between Kasey’s perspective, as she’s mourning the disappearance of her sister Celia and trying to solve the mystery of what happened to her, and that of a girl named Cee who has woken up on an abandoned island with no memories of who she is and how she got there. Cee lives in a house on the island with her only companion, a bot she calls U-me, and she’s driven by an inexplicable desire to find her sister Kay. When she finds a wrecked boat on shore, she decides to fix it and leave the island to find her sister.

Eventually these two narratives begin to make sense, and it’s pretty obvious from the beginning that “Kay” is “Kasey” and “Cee” is “Celia.” He builds her mystery slowly, alternating between the two sisters until their stories come together—sort of. 

The idea itself is simply brilliant—and because of spoilers I’m not even going to talk about the specifics of the story—but I loved the idea of how Kasey and Celia are connected to the survival of the human race and how that plays out over the course of the book. There are several important side characters, including a mysterious boy named Actinium who seems to be helping Kasey in the beginning, and another mysterious boy named Hero who washes up on Cee’s island. Yes, this story is full of mysterious boys! 

As you might guess, and because this is YA, there is a romance, and I have to say that’s one of the elements I actually liked. In fact, I enjoyed Cee’s story on the island much more than Kasey’s chapters. Cee meets a boy one day, washed up on the shore, who has also forgotten who he is and what he’s doing there. She names him Hero and I thought their scenes together were both exciting and sweet. I won’t tell you what happens between them, but I was always happy when the story turned back to the island. I was desperate to uncover the mystery and when it was finally revealed, it was pretty mind blowing!

The other thing I really enjoyed was the emotional connection between the sisters. Even though they are separated, the love they have for each other comes through loud and clear. He’s prose really is beautifully descriptive, and her characters’ emotions jump off the page. The author includes flashbacks that show the emotional events that happened between Celia and Kasey before Celia disappeared.

But here’s the problem: this story is ambitious, and in my opinion, He didn’t quite pull it off. Not only do we have this huge, global crisis, which alone would be a lot for a writer to deal with. But there are multiple timelines going on that aren’t made clear to the reader, and for me that’s what caused a lot of the confusion. In the beginning, it seems as though both narratives are taking place at the same time: Cee on the island and Kasey digging into her sister’s disappearance. But as the story progresses, it becomes clear that these two things are not happening in the same timeline at all, not by a long shot. I do understand that the author is trying to keep her readers guessing by not giving anything away, but this decision backfired for me personally and only added to the confusion.

The worldbuilding is pretty vague and He expects readers to fill in a lot of the blanks themselves. I’m not usually opposed to that, but in this case there is so much going on, and the narrative/time shifts were so frequent and jarring, that I felt lost at sea myself. He introduces some interesting ideas but then never explains them. For example, the “ranks” attached to each person—holographic numbers that hover above a person’s head so others can see where they stand (I guess?). What do they mean? Kasey’s rank is “2.” Does that mean she’s the second most important/highest person in this society? Or is she at the very bottom? And why? She’s supposed to be some kind of brilliant scientist, but I didn’t buy it. This is YA and I assumed she’s only a teenager, but for some reason, she’s able to convince adults that Operation Reset is a viable idea. We also learn in the beginning that she’s being punished in some way for breaking the law. She’s been banned from doing science, whatever that means. We finally learn about her crime much later in the book, but the explanation left me completely unsatisfied.

He does touch on some interesting concepts that will make readers think, like in a world of limited resources, how do you choose who gets to live and who doesn’t? There’s no doubt that her ideas are fascinating, but the lack of concrete worldbuilding and a fractured storyline—not to mention my constant state of confusion—made this one a miss for me.

With thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

As someone new to the sci-fi genre, I was initially skeptical, but the premise of the book was intriguing and after hearing so many great things about it (and seeing that stunning cover), I knew I had to give The Ones We’re Meant To Find a chance. Thank goodness I did.
The Ones We’re Meant To Find follows two girls: Cee, stranded on a deserted island, and Kasey, science genesis and Cee’s younger sister living in an eco-city. Even with her extreme memory loss, Cee knows she needs to find a way back to her sister. Kasey knows that there is more to her sister’s ‘death’ than what meets the eye. However, unraveling her sister’s mysteries is not Kasey’s only problem because Kasey has a secret of her own: she has the solution to the extreme climate change conditions that plague their world, but is the world worth saving?
Admittedly, the book began a bit slow. It took me a bit to really understand the world. However, it quickly picked up and became the fast-paced, page-turning, book I was looking for. The plot twists were amazing, like throw the book across the room amazing. Looking back, the clues were expertly weaved into the story, but I still never saw it coming. I also appreciated the clear messages of the story. Despite this being a sci-fi book, author Joan He brings attention to the very real issue of climate change and the impact of humans on the environment.
Overall, The Ones We Choose certainly exceeded my expectations. I’ve never read He’s other novel (Descendant of the Crane), but after sampling her writing with this book, I would love to read more of her works!

The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He was a unique sci-fi story to read! I found that this book was hard to get into at the beginning as the pacing was felt slow, but it does pick up after a big reveal. I loved the relationship between the sisters and found the alternating points of view between Cee's and Kasey's really interesting. Overall, this was an enjoyable read! Looking forward to reading other works from this author!

The world is spiraling out of control, with a select number of people living in cities that stretch into the sky, safe from the ground and pollutants that plague the people who still live there. Getting into the cities is very hard, even as natural disasters kill millions of people on the ground. The leaders and other high ranking people are trying to come up with a solution while many people in the cities continue to live out their lives in holo, conserving energy by pursuing life in a virtual world. Kasey is searching for her sister, Celia, who went missing three months ago. As she delves deeper into the mystery surrounding her disappearance, she discovers how little she knew her sister and just how not-present she is in her own life. Celia, meanwhile, is stranded on an island, her only company, an information bot and her own disjointed memories.

I wish there had been more emphasis placed on the world building. It was sometimes hard to follow just what the world around Kasey looked like. Celia was easy: her world was a house on an abandoned island, something I’m familiar with. Kasey’s world was entirely too foreign and futuristic for me to easily imagine. I found myself confused as to whether or not she was in holo or in real life, events passing in a flash since Kasey was too focused on finding Celia, anyway. It hardly seemed to matter whether it was happening in “real” life or not. I liked the way Kasey could adjust her mood with her implant, and how the implant could sense a decline in mood and suggest treatment. Well, I thought it was interesting this was possible. It adjusted Kasey’s mood so that she seemed very unfeeling and it was difficult to connect with her as a character.

The relationship between Kasey and Actinium is also hard to pin down. Kasey is searching for her sister and comes across Actinium, who seems to know something of her disappearance. Act is in it for his own purposes and learns about Celia alongside Kasey. They don’t spend much time together on page but know each other more intimately later, with the quick passage of time forging relationships we only get to see the result of. It made it difficult to really resonate with the characters, when they develop offscreen.

I enjoyed the mystery bits, learning what actually happened to Celia, as well as the deepening understanding between the two sisters as Kasey traced her sister’s thoughts and actions through time. Their relationship was the primary story, everything else secondary, and the story telling suffered a bit because of it. There were several other mysteries, like what crime did Kasey commit? Why does Actinium have a hacked identifier? What was going to happen to the eco-cities and the people on the ground?

I enjoyed the writing style, particularly the bits told from Celia’s point of view. The cover is also very beautiful. I was happy to receive a copy of this book! It was an anticipated read and while it disappointed in some ways, I think it came out well in the end, even though I didn’t particularly like the ending. The twist is pretty satisfying. I like having an explanation for the many questions that bogged down my reading experience from the middle through to the twist. I definitely wanted more closure than I got.

A wonderful story between two sisters and a terrifying future. This book was incredibly well-written. The wolrdbuilding was so complex and the characters were so intriguing! This sci-fi novel was reminiscent of Black Mirror and one of the things I mostly enjoyed was coming up with theories to the ending.
The first few chapters were a little slow for me, as we're trying to get to know the characters, the world, and understand what's going on, but it did pick up and kept me on the edge of my seat.

This is a beautifully written sci fi thriller about the unshakeable bond between sisters. I liked the twists in the story and was surprised at nearly every turn. I also appreciated how the author used our current society (threatened by climate change and cursed by widespread selfishness) to extrapolate a world that seems like a plausible future. At times, the plot was a bit confusing to me, but by patiently reading more, things usually were clarified. I expected this to be just another YA dystopian book, but it differentiated itself with its sophisticated exploration of what causes such a society to exist and how best to survive in a crumbling world.

This is one of the most brilliantly crafted novels I have ever read. The sisterly bond, the conversations about climate change, humanity's impact on the earth, it was all absolute perfection. The prose is stunning, if a little dense at times.

I will admit that I was confused for a large percentage of the book but the "big reveal" made my jaw literally drop.

I found the ending to be a bit lackluster as I was expecting another big plot twist based on the Goodreads synopsis, but I think it actually was the perfect ending to the book.