A beautiful portrait of our common humanity
The Ones We’re Meant to Find centers on Kasey, genius daughter of a philanthropist whose older sister Celia is presumed dead at sea, and Cee, stuck on an abandoned island knowing only her name and that she needs to get back to her younger sister. Neither Kasey nor Cee understands their role in their larger world, but as they each unravel the mysteries in their lives, they both find they have a bigger role to play in their world.
I love how attentive Joan He is to how Cee and Kasey speak, even inside their own heads. You can learn so much about them just from the writing style. Cee is very unattached to her surroundings in early chapters, and the only thing she really loves is U-me, the bot who’s the only other person on the island, and Hubert, her ticket out of there. she disavows M.M.’s house and things; none of this is hers, and all of her island life is temporary. That drops off eventually as she becomes happier and her life becomes a little more full and a little more indulgent.
Kasey is detached from her surroundings, at least superficially; she doesn’t relate to other people the same way most people do. I’m pretty sure she’s meant to be neurodivergent, even though Kasey says she investigated her own brain and found nothing notable. I love Kasey’s emotional journey; she loves Celia so much, even if that love looks different from how it does for other people. She definitely feels things; we see how her terror for Celia leaks into her mind even when she’s trying to reject her own muted emotions. And as someone who is alexithymic, meaning I experience a disconnect between emotions and my conscious self, I loved Kasey’s growing determination to live her life even if she’s different.
The prose is so good, I would sell my soul for it!
Re: perspective, I understand why Cee’s chapters were in first person because that made me experience everything WITH her, but I don’t understand (yet) why Kasey’s chapter were in third person. I think it made it too “easy” for Kasey to hide things from the reader, and it would’ve been interesting to be inside Kasey’s mind just like we were in Cee’s and to feel Kasey thinking around certain subjects but never explicitly saying them.
Cee was obviously always pre-disposed to love the world around her, when she felt secure enough to let herself, but the degree to which she is so empathetic and so full of love still blew me away. I adore Cee.
Structure-wise, this feels like two books in one. The first half is about the characters and introducing mysteries, then there is a big shift, and the second half is about fixing problems of all kinds, and it gets very plot twist-y and action-y. Personally, I vibed more with the quiet mysteries and tenderness of the first half, and the second half was a bit too much of a tone shift, but I think which half you prefer will depend on the kind of reader you are. If you love action and more traditional action-y sci-fi, you’ll enjoy the second half a lot!
I didn’t really like the end. It’s written beautifully, just like the rest, but it feels unresolved. Emotionally, I was prepared for a particular thing to happen, and it never happened. Something like it happened inside the character’s head, so we as readers are privy to it, but we never get that emotional resolution because it was never said to the person who most needed to hear it. When the book ended, it all still feels unresolved, like the real ending happened off-page. And it hinged on a vague reason given earlier in the book, but I don't think that very vague reason was clearly explained in the text, so I don’t even understand why we got the ending we got.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book, but I think we could’ve had a stronger emotional resolution. Regardless, I’d love to read more from Joan He! She’s clearly a fantastic writer.
I love how attentive Joan He is to how Cee and Kasey speak, even inside their own heads. You can learn so much about them just from the writing style. Cee is very unattached to her surroundings in early chapters, and the only thing she really loves is U-me, the bot who’s the only other person on the island, and Hubert, her ticket out of there. she disavows M.M.’s house and things; none of this is hers, and all of her island life is temporary. That drops off eventually as she becomes happier and her life becomes a little more full and a little more indulgent.
Kasey is detached from her surroundings, at least superficially; she doesn’t relate to other people the same way most people do. I’m pretty sure she’s meant to be neurodivergent, even though Kasey says she investigated her own brain and found nothing notable. I love Kasey’s emotional journey; she loves Celia so much, even if that love looks different from how it does for other people. She definitely feels things; we see how her terror for Celia leaks into her mind even when she’s trying to reject her own muted emotions. And as someone who is alexithymic, meaning I experience a disconnect between emotions and my conscious self, I loved Kasey’s growing determination to live her life even if she’s different.
The prose is so good, I would sell my soul for it!
Re: perspective, I understand why Cee’s chapters were in first person because that made me experience everything WITH her, but I don’t understand (yet) why Kasey’s chapter were in third person. I think it made it too “easy” for Kasey to hide things from the reader, and it would’ve been interesting to be inside Kasey’s mind just like we were in Cee’s and to feel Kasey thinking around certain subjects but never explicitly saying them.
Cee was obviously always pre-disposed to love the world around her, when she felt secure enough to let herself, but the degree to which she is so empathetic and so full of love still blew me away. I adore Cee.
Structure-wise, this feels like two books in one. The first half is about the characters and introducing mysteries, then there is a big shift, and the second half is about fixing problems of all kinds, and it gets very plot twist-y and action-y. Personally, I vibed more with the quiet mysteries and tenderness of the first half, and the second half was a bit too much of a tone shift, but I think which half you prefer will depend on the kind of reader you are. If you love action and more traditional action-y sci-fi, you’ll enjoy the second half a lot!
I didn’t really like the end. It’s written beautifully, just like the rest, but it feels unresolved. Emotionally, I was prepared for a particular thing to happen, and it never happened. Something like it happened inside the character’s head, so we as readers are privy to it, but we never get that emotional resolution because it was never said to the person who most needed to hear it. When the book ended, it all still feels unresolved, like the real ending happened off-page. And it hinged on a vague reason given earlier in the book, but I don't think that very vague reason was clearly explained in the text, so I don’t even understand why we got the ending we got.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book, but I think we could’ve had a stronger emotional resolution. Regardless, I’d love to read more from Joan He! She’s clearly a fantastic writer.