As with many others I’m sure I fell in love with that cover when it was first revealed – it is stunning – and the premise had me hooked, and this book was just as beautiful on the inside. The Ones We’re Meant to Find is a book that starts slowly, but it is like a stream that flows down into the river and on to the sea, because it picks up momentum towards the halfway mark, and it sweeps you along with it. I will say that parts of it require patience and a willingness to dig beneath the surface in order to make sense, but it is so worht the effort. This is a beautiful exploration of climate and environmental change, and all the fallout and developments that come from that – and so very timely – but at it’s heart, this is a story with a human heart that beats and feels and grieves and is faced with tough choices, and I loved how He showed this through the two main characters – sisters seperated and caught in very different situations, yet bound by theur love and relationship, and their search for one another. Honestly, this book blew me away and I will be grabbing a physical copy as soon as possible, because this is a book I want to revisit again and again.

I really didn't understand this book at all and it was hard for me to read. I see that a lot of people really love it, though, so I would say that the problem was I and not the book.

Thank you so much for the ARC! It took me a while to get around to it but it was so worth it! This is a heartbreaking sci fi novel filled with poignant moments and characters that are wonderfully fleshed out. The plot twists often had me gasping, and I loved the prose and the way it set up the world. It was a story like none I've ever read before, and such a great summer read.

This was so unexpected. I was quickly drawn into this sci-fi fantasy read that was rich in description and completely unique. I really enjoyed the little twists in this book and thought the author did a great job of creating dynamic characters that popped off the page. While there is definitely some room for improvement, overall I was completely captivated by this book and can't recommend it enough - I even brought a physical copy.

I was intrigued by the book cover and that is the main reason for requesting this book.

The book is written in both main characters point of view which is great for me as I love that type of writing.
It is a very tense story which at times got complicated but I was soon able to piece it together.

The writing style was amazing and I could not (at times) put this book down.
It does feel slow at first but you should really go on and not give up on it because the reveal is so worth it.

Great book will deffo buy for my bookshelf.

This book completely took me by surprise. I wasn't particulary sure what to expect going in, but what I got was this complex world and even more interesting characters. I loved both of our main characters which made switching between their POV's interesting and fun, and the plot twist had me absolutely reeling. My only criticism is that it sometimes felt like the book was dragging out the reveal of information a little too much, but the reason for that became clear when I reached the plot twist

The Ones We're Meant to Find is such a beautifully written book. The prose and dialogue is meaningful, it resonated deeply within me.
The characters are relatable and they are all fully fleshed out.
It made me feel a cascade of emotions. And it made me think.

Wow. I really needed a moment to collect my thoughts after finishing The Ones We're Meant to Find. Such an intense, complex and unique story. The Ones We're Meant to Find is a story about two sisters, Celia and Kasey. Celia, also Cee, is trying to find a way back to her sister after waking up on an abandoned island and having no collection of how she got there. Kasey is mourning the death of her sister from the safety of the eco-city while also struggling to find a way how she can use technology to save Earth.

Joan He's writing is simply impeccable. After being immediately pulled in and mesmerized by her compelling worldbuilding, The Ones We're Meant to Find keeps you on your toes with its fascinating turn of events. The beginning is a bit confusing trying to understand the workings of this world, but soon after the story picks up the pace and takes you on a captivating journey.

I'm very curious to read more of Joan He's work.

I have mixed feelings about this story. On one hand i really liked the writing style and concept. On the other i was really confuse at times and i'm not a fan of open endings which made me lower my rating

“None of us live without consequence. Our personal preferences are not truly personal. One person’s needs will deny another’s. Our privileges can harm ourselves and others.”

Cee needs to find her sister, she doesn’t know a lot, including who she is or where she came from, but she knows she needs to find Kay. So Cee spends her days building her escape from the deserted island she finds herself on with only a dictionary definition regurgitating robot for company. Kasey, on the other hand, is dealing with the aftermath of a missing sister, a collapsing ecosystem and virtual handcuffs on her technological abilities. Through switching perspectives and rich settings from the city in the sky to the tiny island in the great expanse of sea, reality feels blurred and what is possible feels both limitless and exceedingly finite, but it all leads back to the sea.

This book was a roller coaster.

This is the only way I can describe it, the slow upward journey, watching the different components build, knowing something will happen soon. You’ve dragged your way through forty per cent of the book then bam, you’re flying. It took me weeks to read the first third and yet I read the rest in an evening. I finished the book wanting to read it all over again and feeling completely shaken. Yet, it lost that one star because it didn’t need to be a roller coaster, it could have been slick and fast-paced all the way through, but it retains a draft like quality that really shone in the first third that felt partially confusing and definitely slow. At one point I assumed I would rate it lower, but it came together brilliantly, and I refuse to give anything away, but it was full of twists and turns and it blew my mind just that little bit.

I really enjoyed the focus on sibling relationships, having a close bond with my sisters I appreciated how it was both well and a nice change from a romance central theme, especially in the young adult genre. The characters were layered and interesting. I loved Cee’s determination and hope and despite the contrast with Kasey’s perspective, whose straightforward and logical mind cuts through Cee’s emotional chapters, both characters still portrayed such obvious love for their missing sister. Additionally, although I’m not usually a dystopian fan, the climate dystopian futuristic landscape was heartbreakingly realistic and well thought out with a range of interesting concepts, such as ranks based on the minimal amount of environmental negative impact caused within your family tree. At times it was a little confusing with the inclusion of scientific jargon and equipment, but I loved the ideas.

I wouldn’t say this was a perfect piece of work but it is one I would recommend if you love climate dystopian, sibling relationships and twists and turns. The themes and concepts are imaginative and vivid and I’m incredibly excited to read more from this author.

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. celia, a girl so in love with the sea that she swims in it despite the danger of being poisoned. a girl so in love with living; so determined to soak up all that is real and alive. celia's story is beautiful and heartbreaking.

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. though kasey would disagree, i do think the story is pro-robot-rights. the reader is meant to empathize with cee before it's revealed (to her, or to us) that she's actually not celia. she's cee, a bot coded by kasey to awaken when the earth is inhabitable again. even if she isn't the true celia, even if she is designed for the sole purpose of waking up her sister, cee's bravery and empathy still shine. kasey doesn't recognize her as the real celia, but the reader does. her ultimate conflict is the choice between her ingrained duty and her desire for autonomy.

which leads me to the open ending. cee jumps into the water and swims. is she swimming to the depths so she can wake kasey, as she was programmed to do? or is she swimming for the sake of swimming, for the joy of it, just as celia always loved to do? i don't mind that this is up for interpretation, but what's baffling is the final words of the book: kasey, in her dreams, speaking to celia, "I love you. And even if you failed me, I'd never replace you." all i can take this to mean is that kasey does not consider cee to be a replacement for celia; cee is merely a bot, designed to do one job. i'd love to hear more thoughts about this, because even after buddy read discussions, i feel lost about this bittersweet ending.

the theme of family connections is strong, but i was surprised to be touched by the gentle taste of love story as well. i mean... a love story between a bot designed to wake humanity and a bot designed to stop her from doing so. they're trapped on a lush deserted island together. neither of them is fully aware of their programmed objectives, and they both have a strong desire to retain their autonomy regardless of said objectives. they want to live, and they struggle to remember their pasts. it's oddly romantic, isn't it?

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.

Thank you to the publisher Roaring Brook Press and Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy for honest review.

This was an ambitious novel that I unfortunately could not connect with. The themes of futurism, the environment, technology, and 'utopia" instantly appealed to me, and (like many others), I thought the cover was absolutely stunning. Like, hang it on a wall stunning.

The issue for me was with the writing style. I felt that a great deal of time was spent not saying much, and I didn't feel like I knew the characters well even far into the book. However, I don't think this is a genuine fault of the book as I don't typically connect well with literary styles.

The twist has certainly shown to be polarising and I can't decide which side I fall on, and I think this exemplifies my feelings about the whole experience - I'm simply lacking strong feelings either way.

The Ones We’re Meant to Find is confusing and tries to be smarter than it should be.

The book introduces us to Celia - who is stuck on an uninhabited island and is desperate to get back to her sister-, and Kasey - who is trying to find out what happened to her missing sister.

I wanted to love The Ones We’re Meant to Find, but the writing style really bothered me. It made me feel stupid, somehow. Not because it is eloquent or uses big words, but because something would happen and it wasn’t really explained like four sentences later, but it was somehow expected you’d understand. Like they would be laughing, but it wouldn’t be written out until four sentences later, but somehow I should’ve realized they were laughing the entire time? The writing felt very pretentious at times, and I didn’t care for it.

The constant switching from first person POV to third person POV was annoying as well. I get that it tries to create an even bigger distance between the two characters, but I personally find it off putting. It tears me away from the story every time the POV changes.

The story didn’t really pick up for me until way after the half way point. Especially Cee’s story was a bit boring until then - a lot of the same. And once the story did pick up, I wasn’t entirely sure I understood it half the time.

Maybe it’s me, but I cared very little for the characters and the story. Which makes me sad, because I really wanted to love The Ones We’re Meant to Find. The ending left me confused and unsatisfied as well. Maybe this book just isn’t for me.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me an earc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Ones We're Meant to Find immediately grabbed my attention with that gorgeous cover but when I read the synopsis and saw that it was pitched as We Were Liars meets Black Mirror with a dash of Studio Ghibli, I was sold.

Right when I started this book, I felt completely transported to this otherworldly place with all this fascinating technology. It indeed reminded me of Black Mirror a lot and I loved it.

The pace was pretty slow in the beginning but the dual perspective, interesting technology and underlying mystery of what the hell was going on definitely made me want to keep on reading.

This book follows two sisters Cee and Kasey who have been separated from each other and it follows both of them trying to find each other and so much more. I don't want to give to much away because with a book like this, it's best to go in as blind as possible.

I'm a big fan of books with a dual perspective and I particularly loved it in this book because it switched from first person to third person. Now, normally I'm not a fan of this at all but for this story and for those two characters it made a lot of sense.

At one hand, you have the survivalist story with Cee who is stuck on this abandoned island, completely alone and with no memory of who she is, how she got there or why she's there. She only knows that she has a sister named Kay and that she has to find her. I think Joan He made the right call by writing her chapters in first person because it really made me feel like I was there with her and I certainly was as confused as her as well.

One the other hand, you have Kasey's pov that us written in third person. In this POV you learn more about the world and the technology and also that it has been three months since Celia has disappeared. Kasey decides to retrace Celia's steps to find out what happened.

When I tell you that this book shook me to my core, I am not joking. When it was finally revealed what was going on and everything came together, my jaw dropped and I just had to pause. Should I have seen that twist coming? Probably. But I didn't and I'm honestly glad because that twist being revealed was one of the best experiences I've had while reading any book. This is why I love reading.

The only reason why I didn't give this book 5 stars is because of the pacing, especially after that reveal. The book already had a slow beginning but you had this great build up. Then you had that great reveal and I didn't want the pace to slow down but it did. I'm also not sure how I feel about the ending. At one hand I like it a lot but on the other hand I wanted more. I wanted a few extra scenes but it was still a solid ending.

Overall, I'm so happy I read this book and I can't can't to eventually reread it.

I absolutely fell in love with this book — it weaved together stories of hope, grief, and the bond + love the sisters have for one another. I felt the worldbuilding kept on pace with the plot and character development. I fell in love with both Kay and Cee (but I have a soft spot for characters like Kay) and was immediately invested in how their two timelines intersected. I would highly recommend this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Absolutely a joy to read! I loved the characters, I love books that center around family and sisterhood so this one was up to its potential and I really enjoyed the writing and the storytelling.

Imagine waking alone at the water's edge, denied of any clothing to cover you, memories to orientate you in the world, or even a name to answer the question of who you are. This is Cee's reality. She has spent years residing on a small island, with one ramshackle house for shelter and a basic robot for company. She has filled her days with rebuilding the wrecked boat that somehow transported her there and hopes it can return her to the figure in every one of the scant memories that have returned to her, her sister Kasey.

I know we should never judge a book by it's cover, but... look at it! I want to frame this artwork, along with the cover for Wilder Girls, as they are two of the most ethereal and exquisite illustrations I have ever laid my eyes upon. However, whilst the cover did catch my eye it was this author's name that hastened me into picking this book up.

Joan He's debut, Descendant of the Crane, is one of my favourite YA fantasy novels. It is an extraordinarily well-penned and emotional story, and I could see the same spark of unique brilliance radiating inside this book, as well. Unfortunately, the bones of the story worked far less well for me.

This was a novel full of unforeseen twists and a story that left me with no real understanding for much of it. This was a major part of its original allure but I think this lack of concrete foundations might have continued for just a tad too long, tipping me from intrigued to bewildered before any mysteries were even close to being solved.

This story is one that was experimental in design and will work for many a reader. I am, unfortunately, not one of those. I enjoyed my time within these pages and appreciated the innovation of the design, if not every part of how it was executed. He is an author I will continue to return to as, despite my middling rating, I still consider myself a fan of her talent and wonderful penmanship.

First thoughts
Wow okay this was good in so many ways! This is also fast becoming a wildly dividing book with so many people saying no and others raving about it. I'm definitely in team yes! Let me tell you why, and if, you should read this.

The Ones We're Meant to Find
First and foremost, this is scifi so if you're coming here wanting fantasy and are not a fan of scifi, this ain't for you! This is a futuristic story of two sisters and the complexities of what it means to be human.

So we have Celia who is missing and presumed dead from the beginning of the book, after she disappeared at sea. At least, that's what her sister, Kay, thinks. Kay is a no-nonsense character who presents on the spectrum, though that side of things is never discussed.

Celia has her own chapters, however. Her chapters are about her stuck on and Island and trying to get back to Kay. She's all on her own, living in an adandoned hut with a small robot called U-Me who I loved. So the reader impatiently waits to find out how these two storylines come together.

This world is on the brink of an environmental disaster and collapse, with the entire history of earth's polluting activities finally reaching peak and resulting in toxic water, megaquakes and other natural disasters.

To combat this, Kay and Celia's family established a system whereby people who rank highly (1 being the highest) can live on eco-cities. These float about the ground in the air. Your rank is determined by how small a footprint you leave on the earth, AND how your ancestors lived. So anyone with family history in mining is screwed basically.

The whole book toys with the idea of who deserves to live and who gets to choose. People living on eco-cities enjoy perks of living safely and have good health, and they're the ones calling the shots. So you get to enjoy the moral greyness of people trying to be just, but usually being clouded by selfishness.

What to expect
Whew okay that was a long recap. There's just SO much happening in this book. This is a low-hitting scifi (so nothing as complex as the likes of Christopher Paolini's To Sleep in a Sea of Stars or anything by Peter F. Hamilton, for example). It's on the same "complexity" level as Claudia Gray's Firebird series.

Robots feature heavily and are involved in key moments that are pivotal to the direction of the plot. Science is present, but simple and not overwhelming (no physics here, tyvm).

Ultimately, you're about to read a story that really breaks down what it means to be human. It's a story that questions beliefs that people hold dear, and it challenges the defining aspects of being "good".

My one complaint?
An open bloody ending. Dear god I hate open endings. This does not have a solid and conclusive finale, HOWEVER, it's not unforgivably open ended.

The plot really speeds up and turns this into a page turner shortly after midway, and if you pay attention I think it's clear enough what the author was angling for with the conclusion. It's not impossible to work out could have happened and is one of the most palatable open endings that I've read.

As a tiny side note, I enjoyed Hero, but really would have liked to see his role grow even more important by the end. Nonetheless, he was crucial to the story.

Things I loved
Honestly I loved Kay's character. Her struggle to recognise and respond to "normal" emotions added something to the story that tipped it into a category of its own. I loved it, and it paralleled the robotic themes throughout the book as Kay questions how human she is when she doesn't function on the same emotional levels as others.

I also freaking loved U-Me omg. Such a funny little addition. She's a robot who works on a scaled rating system. She can't say yes or no, or respond with answers. Only with strongly agree to strongly disagree. I don't know, I just found her great.

Final thoughts
A really enjoyable read, but could have had a better ending. I was fascinated by the concepts that were tackled and I'm excited to read more by He!

I'm so sad that I felt a bit confused by this book, I wanted to really love it (mostly because of that gorgeous cover) but I just found myself lost when reading it. This book just really wasn't for me at all sadly. I'm sure someone would love it though!

So I enjoyed this book. I definitely preferred Celia’s chapters on the Island to Kasey’s chapters. I kept hearing that this book was confusing which I didn’t find at all. There was a plot twist that I did not see coming and the whole book was written so beautifully I’m excited to see what Joan He comes out with next!