The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He Published by Text Publishing on May 4, 2021
Source: Publisher
Genres: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Amazon | Book Depository | Publisher | Angus & Robertson | Booktopia
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Two sisters. An unputdownable story.
Cee woke up on the shores of an abandoned island three years ago with no idea how she got there. Now eighteen, she lives in a shack with an ageing android, and a single memory: she has a sister, and she has to escape to find her.
From the safety of the eco-city floating above Earth, now decimated by natural disasters, sixteen-year-old Kasey mourns Cee whom she’s sure is dead. She too wants to escape: the eco-city is meant to be a sanctuary for people who want to save the planet, but its inhabitants are willing to do anything for refuge, even lie. Is Kasey ready to use technology to help Earth, even though it failed her sister?
Cee and Kasey think that what they know about each other and their world is true. Both are wrong. If you loved We Were Liars or Black Mirror, you’ll love The Ones We’re Meant to Find, a clever, inspirational scifi thriller with a dash of Studio Ghibli.
If a book has Asian characters, I’m definitely down for it, but also one with a beautiful cover? Count me in. The Ones We’re Meant To Find is about two sisters looking to find each other again, and I was immediately curious at the blurb. A sister on an abandoned island and a comparison to Black Mirror and We Were Liars? I definitely didn’t know what to expect when I picked this one up.
This one took me a while to get into, as the perspectives between Cee and Kasey are incredibly different. Cee’s is told in first person, and she’s accompanied by a robot called U-me. She’s on an island trying to survive, unable to see in colour, and can’t remember much about her life nor how she ended up there. All we know is that she’s looking for her sister.
Kasey’s perspective is told in third person, and I really struggled with the odd blend of technospeak and the info dumping. She lives in an eco-city in the sky, and much of her point of view is focused on establishing the world-building of how they ended up there, but a lot of it went over my head.
It took me a while to get comfortable with this odd blend of survival story and technological sci-fi, and it doesn’t really happen until over 50% of the book. I was definitely more comfortable reading Cee’s perspective because there was less to take in, and it’s more of straightforward survival mystery, compared to Kasey’s point of view. Thankfully, after the half way mark, there’s a huge twist that changes the perspective of the story and really drew me in afterwards. Reading The Ones We’re Meant to Find is an unexpected experience, you never really know what’s waiting on the other side or the answers that are waiting for you as the plot is revealed.
So was it worth the read?
The Ones We’re Meant to Find is a story that requires patience to read, and takes time to build the suspense and world. Unfortunately, I feel like a lot of readers may drop out before they get to the halfway mark, due to the sheer complexity of trying to get your head around how the story is written.
That being said, I appreciated a lot about it, like how it focuses on sisterly love, ethics and science, and having Kasey as a neurodivergent character who thinks in facts and figures. I do think it’s worth the read if you’re interested in these themes, but it definitely requires patience. The open ending did kind of annoy me towards the end though, even though I do think it was fitting to the story.
Rating: 3 out of 5
The Ones We’re Meant To Find is available from Australian bookstores for RRP$19.99 or from Booktopia or Book Depository.
Thanks to Text Publishing for sending me a review copy!
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