I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He Published by Roaring Brook Press on May 4 2021
Genres: Dystopian, Science fiction, Young adult
Pages: 384
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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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.
It’s always too bad when a book that has a lot of great reviews and one you’ve been looking forward to ends up being a miss. I know the feeling!
Stephanie @ Bookfever recently posted…Review: Ariadne by Jennifer Saint
Yeah, I’m the odd man out on this one!
Such a bummer to hear this one was a miss. It does sound a little overly ambitious though and I know I would not like feeling confused the entire time I was reading. I’ll probably pass on this one even though I really enjoyed He’s last book, Descendant of the Crane.
I’d love to read more reviews from bloggers I know, sometimes I wonder if I’m just missing something??
It definitely sounds like it had a lot of promise — and ambitious. I’m sorry it didn’t quite work out.
It was ambitious and you have to give the author credit for that.
This one did sound like it had a lot to it, part of why I didn’t jump to get it right away. It still sounds like one I might enjoy at some point in the future. But I can see why you said it tried to take on a lot of things. Great review, gave me a lot to think about as well!
Lisa Mandina (Lisa Loves Literature) recently posted…ARC Review: Made in Korea by Sarah Suk
Thanks Lisa, it definitely made me think!
This sounds fascinating, and I have seen some very positive reviews, but the problematic elements you identify with the world building would probably get in my way too.
There’s definitely an audience for it, it just wasn’t me:-(
It’s certainly more difficult to enjoy something when you’re left completely confused by it. It can work sometimes, but not often. Sorry to hear this wasn’t one of those times.
Sometimes it works in your favor and it makes you want to read faster, but unfortunately not in this case.
There was so much hype around this one, I thought I would take a chance on it, but more and more I’ve been seeing mixed reviews. I’ll be receiving an audio review copy once it’s available, I hope the format might work slightly better.
I’d be curious to hear what you think of the audio:-)
I pretty much agree with everything you’ve said in this review. Brilliant idea, but it just didn’t quite work. And I was so confused by the ranks as well–there were a lot of little things like that that didn’t really have much impact on me because there was no real explanation. Beautiful prose, though, which almost made it more disappointing that the story didn’t match.
I loved her writing! But yeah, so many holes and unexplained things.
Oooooh I have been eyeing this one but I am not a big fan of major unexplained/unexplainable aspects. I’ll keep t on my list, but maybe go in with more careful expectations…which I appreciate knowing ahead of time!
I’d love to hear what you think! I feel like maybe it just wasn’t for me, but other readers are enjoying it.
That’s a shame. being over ambitious certainly can be a problem. I can understand the desire to include everything you love in a story but sometimes it just makes it too messy for others.
Lynn 😀
It was definitely too much for me…
Oh no! I’m sorry this one didn’t work out. Vague worldbuilding tends to really annoy me because I love it when the author tricks me into believing their fantastical world is real.
Sometimes I don’t mind vague worldbuilding but this was just too confusing.
Loved your insightful review once more, Tammy. 🙂 I too had misgivings about this book. The blurb didn’t appeal to me, although I’ve heard a lot about this book.
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I am sorry this didn’t work for you. I don’t think I would try this one out, because I wasn’t really interested in it from the beginning (even if some of the things in there seem interesting, this I have to concede) and after reading your review I think I would have the same problems you had. So not worth it, at least for now!
Fantastic review, Tammy, and I agree with a good amount that you said here. Honestly — nearly the entire first two-thirds of the book were slow and a bit of a slog, and the unexplained elements and open ending left me feeling a little unfulfilled. Like I worked really hard but it wasn’t rewarded. I am not a fan of open endings though, and that’s very much Joan’s style. I wound up rating it 4 stars because I loved the characters and the twists I didn’t see coming, but it wasn’t as good as I hoped it would be.
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