Firstly, I’d like to thank Netgalley, and the publishers of The Ones We’re Meant to Find for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Plot: 5⭐️
The plot was very unexpected and refreshing. And I can see how this book will easily be one of the most hyped books.

Pacing: 3.5⭐️
Honestly I felt that a lot of the book was dragging and wished the pace was a bit more faster. I think the slow pace of the book made me feel a bit disconnected at times.

Character Development: 3⭐️
I did struggle with liking the characters or getting attached to them. I was hoping to see a more strong relationship between the sisters and it felt like something was missing. It felt that there are not many side characters, which is okay, but even for those side characters, it felt like there was not much personality or engagement for them to be memorable and to stick with me.

Writing Style: 4⭐️
I have such mixed feelings about Joan’s writing style. I felt that the dual perspective between the two sisters was very refreshing, however, I found myself confused many times throughout the book and at the beginning I really struggled with understanding the world that the two sisters lived in.

Would you recommend it? I recommend this to anyone who likes YA fictions full of twists and secrets

A wonderfully written novel set in a future where humanity is dealing with the consequences of climate catastrophe we follow two sisters, Celia and Kasey Mizuhara. One is a STEM prodigy almost destined to be the one to save the world and the other has been trapped on a deserted island for three years. Celia, lost and alone with nothing by a bot, has spent her time trying to build and find a way back to her sister.

The thing that immediately stands out in this novel is the writing. The prose is lush and emotive. He knows her characters so well that both perspectives are clear and distinct. The longing to find each other and understand each other is tied into the thematic themes of the novel.. Environmentalism and the consequences of human arrogance, in addition to humanity's relationship with technology and the privilege among the social classes.

About half way through the novel there is a massive tonal shift and the pace also changes dramatically. I think the tonal shift works but it does disrupt the pacing. However, it's not a big issue and I think many readers will embrace it.

There is a certain reveal that I didn't see coming and I think it was just so well done!

I can see this book becoming a scifi/speculative classics in years to come.

Man y'all, when I saw that Text Publishing had The Ones We're Meant to Find available on Netgalley as read now for the US even though they're based in Australia, I jumped on it because this has been one of my most anticipated books for a while now! It releases today, May 4th, so if you haven't already grabbed it or picked it up from your library or talked to a friend about borrowing it from them when they're done reading it, you need to get on that ASAP!

The Ones We're Meant to Find 5/5 Stars

Summary from Goodreads:

One of the most twisty, surprising, engaging page-turner YAs you’ll read this year—We Were Liars meets Black Mirror, with a dash of Studio Ghibli.
Cee has been trapped on an abandoned island for three years without any recollection of how she arrived, or memories from her life prior. All she knows is that somewhere out there, beyond the horizon, she has a sister named Kay. Determined to find her, Cee devotes her days to building a boat from junk parts scavenged inland, doing everything in her power to survive until the day she gets off the island and reunites with her sister.
In a world apart, 16-year-old STEM prodigy Kasey Mizuhara is also living a life of isolation. The eco-city she calls home is one of eight levitating around the world, built for people who protected the planet―and now need protecting from it. With natural disasters on the rise due to climate change, eco-cities provide clean air, water, and shelter. Their residents, in exchange, must spend at least a third of their time in stasis pods, conducting business virtually whenever possible to reduce their environmental footprint. While Kasey, an introvert and loner, doesn’t mind the lifestyle, her sister Celia hated it. Popular and lovable, Celia much preferred the outside world. But no one could have predicted that Celia would take a boat out to sea, never to return.
Now it’s been three months since Celia’s disappearance, and Kasey has given up hope. Logic says that her sister must be dead. But as the public decries her stance, she starts to second guess herself and decides to retrace Celia’s last steps. Where they’ll lead her, she does not know. Her sister was full of secrets. But Kasey has a secret of her own.

This book is like the perfect kind of sci-fi because it's great for people who aren't normally into sci-fi and people who love it will love so many of the finer aspects of it. It's told in alternating points of view between Cee and Kasey and at first you're not 100% sure what's going on, but as the chapters go on, you start to piece together that Cee must be Kasey's sister Celia and Kasey must be the Kay that Cee is looking for. The information from each chapter is given to you in such a great and detailed way that you don't really realize how important something might be until a chapter or two later when it clicks and you're like OMG that just happened! I loved the way Joan He tied her characters together and she explored class structure and privilege in such a nuanced way that really forced you to think about how often times, privileged people don't even realize how much power they hold. For example, I vividly remember one scene where Kasey's friend Meridian yells at her about how she probably hadn't even tried to help get Meridian's family's petition to become part of the eco-city approved and Kasey is shocked that it even strike her to try and help. It just further cemented the fact that people forget the power they hold. The world and scientific discoveries that He had integrated into Kasey's chapters contrasted with the deserted island and pretty much the wasteland it had become were such interesting foils to each other and I loved reading those chapters one after the other. In terms of plot and pacing, I thought The Ones We're Meant to Find did a really good job in keeping me engaged and interested throughout without feeling like I was ever confused (in a bad way, there was always good confusion that made me want to figure out what was going on) or bored. Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone- it's definitely one of my top reads of 2021!

*4.5 Stars*

This was so so good. I don't want to summarize it because the best thing one can do, in my opinion, is jump in and get surprised by everything.
This was a ride. I'm not going to lie it took me a second to fully get into the story. I was just fully lost for a long while there but I ended up just going with it and really really enjoyed the ride.
This is honestly so hard to review. The characters were truly great and layered and just so interesting. So was the world and it was truly a mindf***.
I truly couldn't recommend it more but I'm having trouble saying why? I definitely want to read Joan He's debut now though.

This arc was provided by Roaring Brook Press, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

TW: asphyxiation, terminal illness, suicide, suicidal ideation, violence, past death of a parent, vomiting, murder attempt, grief, natural disasters, and mass casualties.

Having read Joan He's debut, there was no doubt in my mind that The Ones We're Meant to Find would be an unforgettable tale.

We follow two sisters that are an ocean apart. Cee is stuck on an island, desperately trying to leave to find her sister. Kasey is trying to accept her sister's disappearance as everyone around her has. It's not only a novel about these two sisters and their secrets but a story about climate change and the inevitable consequences of our actions.

The climate has reached a point where eco-cities were built to protect the people. These are levitating cities where everything is regulated. The people must spend a third of their time in a stasis pod, doing their errands or meetings virtually to reduce their environmental footprint. Whilst Kasey neverminded these restrictions, her sister longed for a world where they were free to go into the ocean and swim. A time before humankind had poisoned the world.

My only criticism is in wanting more complexity in the sister relationship, I think it would have had a deeper emotional impact on me if that was the case. Nevertheless, individually, I adored Cee and Kasey, and I was always rooting for them. It has been a long time since a book made me stay up late into the night reading because I couldn't go to sleep without knowing.

The writing is breathtaking, the twists had me crying, the characters own my heart... what else could I want?

I don't know if I found exactly what Joan He wanted me to, the only thing waiting for me at the end of the last chapter was my pillow and thirty minutes of me crying and staring at my white wall.

What I'm saying is, you need to read this. Trust ME.

This book was very unexpected. By the time I started reading it, I couldn’t remember a single thing from the synopsis (as usual 😂), so it was a complete rollercoaster for me. I was particularly amazed by the sheer complexity of this book, not only the world building but also the characters. We start with a story of two sisters separated by a sea, but as the story develops, a bigger picture is shown: how global warming and pollution on earth deeply affected the standards of living. The way Joan intertwined these two sisters stories with the climate reality of the world was astonishing. Through each sister you get a different need for the standard of living: one is completely acclimated to how life is at the eco-cities where you basically live life majorly as a hologram, and the other that longs for a life lived in community with nature.⁣⁣
This book really made me wonder if we cannot make real drastic changes to stop global warming now, if the reality described in this book could be in our future. It’s a fascinating, engrossing, bittersweet and tragic story, but it’s a story that makes you reflect on your own actions toward the world/nature.

the ones we’re meant to find is a beautiful, twisting story that kept me gripped from the beginning to the end. it definitely has the same vibes as an episode of black mirror, i never new where the plot was going in the best kind of way. granted, i was pretty confused for the first 100 or so pages as the switches between first and third person took a bit of getting used to, and the way the story unfolds had me getting a bit mixed up. however, as you get towards the end and the plot all comes together, the narrative choices make SO much sense and are so clever, and i ended up just being more impressed than anything. i preferred the chapters about Cee and the island, but both sides of the story constantly keep you guessing on the characters’ motives and the fate of the world. the topic seems very timely and the debates over humanity added even more depth to what was already a beautifully complex story about sisterhood, loss and identity.

Two sisters determined to find each other, a world consumed by natural disasters due to climate change. A perfectly craft world-building. Two very distinguishable voices. A story that will capture your attention from the very first pages. You will find yourself immersed in a calm, if eerie, sea of wondering, until suddenly the waves will come when you least expect it, leaving you gasping, and you will want to keep swimming to find your footing, to find out more. Joan He words are as captivating and her story.

Having read a boat load of positive reviews for this book I had ridiculously high expectations going in, expectations that it met and then some. The Ones We're Meant to Find is a story about humanity, and what exactly it is that makes us human. But it's also a story of family, about love, about loss and about exactly how far we would go to find those we love. Cee barely remembers her name, let alone anything else about her life before the Island, but she does remember she has a sister called Kay. A sister that she is determined to get to, no matter the cost. Kasey is a genius, but like most genius' she doesn't do well socialising, nor in the public eye. Something she has had to put up with since her sister Celia disappeared 3 months ago. She is adamant that Celia is dead, but the public disagree, so Kasey decides to look into her sister's movements in the months before she disappeared, but even she isn't prepared for what she finds. In the aftermath of her discovery Kasey put's into place a plan, a plan that could save humanity, or destroy it.

The strength of this book definitely comes from it's characters. Cee is determined and resilient, after spending three years on the Island, barely remembering her own name, and getting only flashbacks of her life before. Alone except for a robot U-Me ( who is bloody hilarious), she has spent the past years building a boat to take her back to her sister, the one person she remembers with a clarity. She remembers a life in the sky, and is sure this is where Kasey must be. Cee's story is one of loss, loss of more than just her memories and I couldn't help but empathise with her story. Kasey is the polar opposite of her sister Celia. She is a social recluse, an introvert. Her outlook on life sometimes puts people ill at ease around her, but Kasey just wants humanity to survive, no matter the cost. With growing dangers on the mainland, and shortage of space in the eco-cities, it is Kasey who come's up with a plan to save as many people as possible, because Celia always told her she could save the world, and Kasey is determined to do just that.

You could say this story has been told before, and you would be right. This story of humanity destroying earth and the desperate solutions having to be made to ensure survival. And while this story differs in many way from the ones that have come before, it's the emotional impact of this story that really makes it stand out. There were certain parts of this book where my heart simply broke in two for the characters, characters who's lives I felt entwined with, whose goals had become my goals. No detail is insignificant in this story, from the ways in which the POV's are written, to the details on the cover. I will admit to being a little blindsided by the 'big' plot twist, but in the best way possible, it really hit me and I had to just put the book down for a little while whilst I digested what I had just read.

The world that He builds is brilliantly rendered, and I found myself being dragged into both Cee's Island as well as the Eco-City where Kasey resides. In He's dystopian future, humanity has brought the world to it's knees. On the mainland Tsumami's and super earthquakes threaten the lives of the humans who reside there, whereas the ones who where lucky enough to move to the eco-cities live in relative luxury, travelling through life without the permanent fear of death. I always think these kinds of stories pack more of an emotional punch because of how close to reality they could be. We all know about global warming, and the effects of pollution on the planet, and it's not hard to envision a future like the one in this book.

I haven't read any other books by this author yet, but you can bet your ass I will be picking them up asap. He's prose and writing style completely enveloped me in the story. Her foreshadowing is amazing, and I couldn't believe I didn't see the plot twists coming when they hit. I found it almost impossible to put this book down, and work and sleep were pretty much the only two things that kept me from devouring it in one sitting. There are plenty of WTF moments, and the author certainly likes to keep you guessing what exactly is going on, but it all add's to the impact of the big plot twist and makes the story that have that much more of an emotional impact.

This was my first book from Joan He, so I didn't really know what to expect aside from the fact that people has been raving about this book. My first impression of this book was that it was fairly easy to follow, the worldbuilding and setting were elaborate and complex enough without being confusing for readers (re: me). I managed to read it in two sitting despite my (almost) reading slump, so that's a testament to how engaging the story was for me.

I loved the characters and I would give everything for them to be happy. That being said, I did feel that the characters weren't fully fleshed-out, especially for a book that is pretty contained and focused on only 4 characters for more than 80% of the book.

Overall, this book was a very engaging read for me and I would recommend this to anyone who loves YA sci-fi.

I loved Descendant of the Crane and I had high expectations for this new book.
I'm on the fence because the world building is excellent but I found the characters a bit weak and underdeveloped.
It's entertaining but I can't say I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

An interestingly twisty sci fi story- the Black Mirror comparisons are very apt, though I prefer He's ambiguous hopefulness at the end to Black Mirror's tendency to cynicism. Kasey and Cee are fascinating protagonists (Kasey in particular)- I enjoyed how they both explored the mind, its limits, and how that relates to the body and the world you live in.

However, I was also a little frustrated with Kasey towards the second half of the book. Time starts moving very quickly as it goes on, and (possible spoiler ahead) Kasey and Actinium in particular go through massive changes in their characters quite fast, leaving the reader little time to mentally ground themselves for what are important plot developments. The whole book, I think, could have done with being a bit longer to give these moments room to breathe.

Overall though, I enjoyed this clever, dreamlike book.

There were definitely moments and passages of this book that I enjoyed. I liked the writing style and the short chapters for impact.
However, the overwhelming feeling I experienced while reading The Ones We're Meant to Find was confusion. I didn't understand the sci-fi/dystopian world for the majority of the book because a lot of it was left unexplained. This confusion left me feeling detached from the characters and the story. I think the world is very interesting and I really would be appreciated more explanation of it.
I definitely feel that this book would be perfect for others but it wasn't really my cup of tea. I will still be recommending it as an interesting dystopian that really makes you think.

I cannot emphasise enough how much I think people ought to pick this book up. Feeling stagnant in your reading? Feeling like nothing gets you excited or emotional any more? BUCKLE UP.

Ok, maybe I'm being a tad dramatic, but this book catapulted me out of my reading slump with just how intriguing the plot was and how gorgeous the writing and the setting were.

I was dubious after the first chapter, was this going to be another story that sets up a mystery only to have it kind of sit there before ultimately fizzling out? Was I going to be disappointed by another 'it was merely a dream and also kind of a metaphor' ending?

Obviously, I cannot spoil the ending for you but suffice to say that this book did what I have been wanting books like this to do for years. It set up a mystery - in fact it set up multiple mysteries - and then slowly and carefully revealed more and more information to the point where I was sat with my nose an inch away from my Kindle desperate to confirm my suspicions and also certain that that confirmation would in fact make me cry.

One of the things I really loved about the setting in particular is that Joan He writes about a world in environmental crisis without the book feeling cheesy or cliché. I was burned by a YA series that started off with a cool concept and inexplicably became about going to the arctic and it felt preachy and very 'hello fellow kids'. In this instance we have a story that *is* about those issues but in a far more subtle way but that almost makes *more* impact as a result.

I thought that overall this book was stunningly written and devastating for me emotionally - which is definitely a reason for you to order yourself a copy *immediately*.

This was phenomenal.

I think I've found one of my favorite authors. I am in awe of Joan He's prose. She's truly one of the best authors I've come across in a long time.

This is a dual perceptive book between two sisters and the way He weaves their points of view together is magical. Not to mention, she does this while switching from first-person point of view to third person which I thought was incredibly clever. Both sister's voices were distinct and I was never once confused.

Now, I haven't read dystopian in a long while but this was just so refreshing. I loved the atmosphere and found the world so interesting. It's a world after the effects of climate change and global warming have sunk in and it's honestly kinda terrifying because you can see this happening in the future.

The characters- Cee and Kasey... I loved them both equally. I could see myself in both of them. Kasey's analytical brain and Cee's strength- I never once found myself wanting to go back to the other's point of view because they are both so wonderful.

It has been a long time since I've been engrossed by a book THIS much. At about the halfway mark, I couldn't physically put the book down, it was just that good.

So why not five stars? Alright. The ending. I can't say much because of spoilers but I just did not like how sudden it was. At all. It was like someone tore out the last few pages of the book. Just so abrupt. I think this was meant to be an open-ended ending but I am just- not a fan of those.

All in all, this was absolutely incredible and you need this on your shelves!!

the ones we’re meant to find was, without a doubt, one of my most anticipated releases of 2021. for many reasons:
- that absolutely stunning cover (hats off to cover artist aykut aydoğdu!!)
- the utterly intriguing premise—which features a post-climate-change dystopia
- ownvoices storytelling
- the fact that it’s joan he’s sophomore novel (i LOVED her debut, descendant of the crane)

unfortunately, this novel ended up being a total let-down for me. :(

i think i would rate this somewhere between 2-3 stars. the foremost reason is that i had trouble connecting to the characters, especially the sisters at the helm of this story. i’ve been going back on forth on why this might be the case, and i think it comes down to 1) the inexplicable chemistry (or lack thereof) that forms between readers and characters, and 2) the fact that the book doesn’t really include fleshed-out side characters who would provide engaging, conflicting, complicating, interesting foil and fodder for the sisters to become more intimate and relatable to me.

i found it very strange that the cast of characters was so limited. we never get to know any of kasey and celia’s friends, for instance—and meridian, kasey’s friend in the eco-city, hardly counts: she was a friend in name only. i felt that this did a massive disservice to the book’s innovative world-building; without a fully fleshed-out cast of characters to inhabit it, this story lacked heft, emotional and otherwise.

it was frustrating to me that the only major side characters we get to know are actinium and hero, who both turn out to be (white or white-coded) love interests for the sisters. i did not find either romance compelling, and was disappointed at how predictable these romance arcs were; to me, the lack of other (interesting, relevant) characters in the story only reinforced the heteronormative idea that when guys and girls are thrown together on a page, they’ll end up romantically involved. personally i would’ve read the story as less trite (and more interesting) if actinium and/or hero ended up being friends, supporters, enemies of kasey and cee.

moreover, i found the plot confusing at several points because the characters’ motivations were just so darn opaque to me. i couldn’t feel the thorny, intense emotions that should accompany celia and kasey’s respective ethical, existential dilemmas—because i didn’t even understand the dilemma in the first place. apart from a desire to fiercely love and protect the other sister, i didn’t understand what decisions they were trying to choose between. in this sense, i think the novel was a little too coy in its descriptions, so as to be unclear about what was going on.

BOTTOM LINE: i feel let down. :( nevertheless, this remains one of the most gorgeous covers of any 2021 release i have seen. AND i love joan he's brain—the premise of this story, the backbone of its climate justice-infused world-building, was so interesting. whatever she puts out, i shall read!

I loved this book so much, it's probably going to end up being my favourite of the year!
I started reading it almost 2 months ago but I was a bit confused with the first few chapters so didn't continue. I wish I had, because I picked it back up this month and fell in love! I was intrigued just after the 5th or 6th chapter and couldn't stop after that. The Ones We're Meant to Find is about a girl named Cee who has been on an abandoned island for 3 years without knowing why, but what she does know is that she needs to find her sister, Kasey. However, the book turns to be much more than just that, it has many amazing twists to keep you intrigued, break your heart but also make it feel full and make you stare at the wall. I loved the all the emotions in it. The story is told from both the sisters' points of view and I loved that! I especially enjoyed Cee's POV, which might be because some of the science talked about in Kay's confused me. (just a me issue!)
This book is also said to have a dash of Studio Ghibli, with which I completely agree, I listened to music from Ghibli movies while reading and thought The Name of Life from Spirited Away fit the story very well!
I already want to reread TOWMTF and can't wait till I get a physical copy and also see that beautiful cover in person. I know it will be a read I'll always be thinking and screaming about. I'm very interested in and can't wait to read Joan He's debut, Descendant of the Crane and any of her new works as well, as I loved the writing style! Thank you for making me feel sad and blowing my mind!

[screams into the void] THIS BOOK IS MAGNIFICENT.

The Ones We’re Meant to Find is a sci-fi standalone that follows two sisters, Celia and Kasey. Cee, the oldest, has been trapped in a desert island for the past three years, and she doesn’t remember anything – where she came from, how she got there, who she is – but she remembers having a sister, Kay. And Cee needs to find her.

The youngest, Kasey, is a science prodigy living in an eco-city, a new form of habitation design by her own parents to shelter and protect the human race from the climate changes threatening society – caused by this same society. In these eco-cities, citizens are expected to spend more than half of their time in stasis pods, circulating by holograms, to reduce their environmental footprints. Very antissocial, Kasey is fine with this lifestyle, but the same can’t be said about her sister Celia, the very opposite of Kasey, who dreamed of swimming in the sea and bathing under the scalding sun. However, no one would have expected Celia to, one day, rent a boat and disappear in the sea.

Three months after Celia’s disappearance, logic tells Kasey that Celia must be dead. However, after public pressure becomes too much, Kasey starts to trace her sister’s last steps so she can find her closure, while, at the same time, she watches as her society falls into despair trying to clean the environment, as megaquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis keep getting worse, threatening their lifestyle and the outcasted and poor population – who, of course, didn’t manage to get into the safety of the eco-cities.

To try to describe this book is very hard. I could say it’s a social commentary on human intervention in Earth, and how all the shit we do is going to bite us in the ass later. It’s about that. I could also say it’s a commentary on human behavior and its many layers, and how selfishness and selflessness can coexist in a single action. It’s also about that. I can say it’s a close and real look on a relationship between sisters, the protectiveness and the jealousy, and how they can drift apart at times but still manage to reconnect when it’s most needed. How they can fail to see when the person they love the most is hurting. It’s about that, too. It’s about missing someone, and also finding yourself in that loss.

The author’s prose is fantastic. Celia and Kasey’s voices are so different and unique, and I absolutely adored the little details, how Celia’s chapter numbers are marked like a survivor marks its days, while Kasey’s are blunt numbers. I got thrown off at first when I saw the different verb tenses in the POVs (Kasey’s are third person past tense and Celia’s, first person present tense), but it makes so much sense to the characters and the plot; after all, Kasey is the logical sister, objective and detached, while Celia puts her heart into everything. While a bit confusing at the beginning, because of all the science terms and dystopian-like tech, the worldbuilding was easy to dive into, not in a info dumpy way, majorly because Kasey is so close to its foundation and maintenance. The plot, and all its surprises? Chef’s kiss. My brain kept making theories while I was reading, and it was so fun to find out I was completely wrong about certain things and a bit right about others. It’s important to say that there is romance in the book (and I loved it), but it’s not the main thing.

What stands out to me the most, however, are the characters. To start, I really loved the side characters, how they brought up different sides of Celia and Kasey and new questions that they weren’t ready to face, but also how they shined on their own. Now, Kasey and Celia are fantastic protagonists. Each one of them is trying to survive their own struggles, in their own way. And it’s beautiful and heartbreaking to see how they rotate in each other’s orbit, thinking more of the other and less of themselves. How Celia is the one person that can make Kasey act unlike herself, and vice-versa. At some point of the novel, Kasey says that logic ends where love starts. She’s not wrong.

There’s not much else to say about it without giving away anything, but this book is truly incredible. I don’t read much sci-fi, but oh dear if I knew this book would take my breath away like this, I would have dived into the genre much sooner. I strongly recommend picking up this book.

This book is really good, and I mean, really, really good folks. The book follows Cee, a girl who awoke on an abandoned island with no idea of how she got there. The only things she has on this island is a house that is falling apart, and an old android and one singular memory: That Cee has a sister, and she needs to find her. It also follows Kasey, a STEM prodigy, who lives in The Metropolis, the last place on Earth that remains unpolluted. The Metropolis is meant to be a sanctuary for those that are committed to planetary protection, but it is filled with people willing to do anything for refuge from the elements outside. Now Kasey must decide if she's ready to use science to save humanity, even those who failed Earth.

The plot was unexpected and a breath of fresh air. I have not read much light sci-fi as I typically prefer space operas and harder sci-fi, but this one was very good. The pacing in the beginning was slow, but it really built up and sped up after the 25% point. It was unpredictable and left me screaming "What the fuuu" every 50 pages or so.

The worldbuilding and the way the world felt so real and believable made the story that much more enjoyable. The characters touched the world, not the other way around, and the bonds of sisterhood propelled the novel to the unexpected ending. There were twists and moments of intrigue that left me breathless and the mystery of it all left me wanting more and more. I just could not put this book down. It was easy to sit and read over 100 pages in one sitting because I just needed to know what Cee and Kasey were going to do next.

The novel also touched on the ever present and long lasting effects of climate change on our world and I think Joan He did a really great job weaving this very real and very hard-hitting issue into a story about sisters overcoming all to reunite. Climate change is something that we hear a lot about today. We hear plenty about the effects and what humans may have to go through in the next few decades, and this book is no different. It shows humanity on the brink of destruction and what they'll do to ensure their continued existence.

This book told the story of two sisters in a very near-future timeline that felt real and hard-hitting while also feeling fantastical. I don't want to give too much about the plot away, because if I do, it might give away some twists that had me sobbing and open mouthed, but what I will say is I loved the characters. They were flawed but so colorful and real, with their own unique voices.

Another thing that left me speechless, were the ever present bonds of sisterhood and the way that the characters would go to the ends of the earth to find each other. The writing was vivid and fresh, and Joan He does not spoon feed you anything. She presents the world and it's problems and lets you come to your own conclusions from there. The world and the issues the characters face in TOWMTF are real and complex are are their solutions.

I will say no more, because this book is one that you want to go into with very little prior knowledge. It's the way I went into it, and it's the way I recommend you go into it. I highly recommend this book to anyone and everyone and plan on getting myself a finished copy on release day!

More like 4.5 stars.

The link for my blog is a post in Portuguese. My link for my bookstagram is actually a shorter and an English version of my Portuguese review. Below, you can read what I said on my bookstagram:

Thank you for the eARC, Text Publishing and NetGalley. My opinion is, nevertheless, genuine.

Tomorrow is the release date of The Ones We're Meant to Find, by Joan He, so I thought I could post here a shorter version of my Portuguese review that is on my blog since this afternoon. This post here will be in English, of course.

This YA Sci-fi novel is about two sisters, Cee and Kasey, who are separated by the sea and want to find one another. Cee is alone in an island for 3 years. She only has an android and one memory: she has a sister and she needs to find her.

Kasey lives in an eco-city, which is supposed to be a safe place due to the fact that there are many natural disasters going on because of climate change. But Kasey is grieving and people aren't helping the planet and their own situation at all. Will she be able to use her acknowledge in technology and science to help the planet, even though her sister didn't get help?

They both believe they know each other well and that their world is real. Well, both are wrong.

This is a very well written story. I love how there were some poetic passages throughout the story. They made the book even more beautiful.

The way themes like the environment, climate change, science, technology, and humankind were explored? Well done as well. It really makes you think a lot about what we are doing to our planet, our home, to other human beings, and even to ourselves. It makes us question a lot, too. For example, if you had all this acknowledge regarding science and technology, but you had your own motives too, would you help humankind or follow your motives? Also, what makes us really human? What can we do to save our planet?

The characters are the best part of the whole book. They are so complex and they are the ones who help us explore these themes. Don't think all these thoughts and feelings are simply given to the reader. No. As we follow our characters' steps, we are making our own road regarding understanding and exploring these issues.

A really great dystopia YA book
4.5 stars! Out tomorrow, May 4th!