A stunning cli-fi read

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The Ones We’re Meant to Find is a stunning and captivating Cli-Fi read; it drags you into its currents, and you struggle to keep treading water while the story inundates you with unexpected twists and turns, dropping subtle clues about the larger story like desperate gasps of oxygen into aching lungs.

Kasey and Celia, two sisters farther apart and more closely bonded than you can imagine after reading the first few chapters, have stories that are intertwined so closely and are perpetually caught in each other’s undertow. Their relationship is the bedrock of this story, even when an ocean separates them and the danger humanity faces is rising quicker than sea levels.

This novel isn’t afraid to challenge its readers — the journey readers are taken on parallels that of the sisters’ journeys: a hunt for answers and for solutions, paralyzing questions about the future, and an ever-shifting worldview on ethics and philosophy of life as we know it.

The Ones We’re Meant to Find has a slow start, and at times I did struggle to engage with the first half. However, if you make it through the first half, the pay-off is definitely worth it. This style of slipping in information and world-building like droplets of water creates small ripples that builds into a wave — and it crashes to the shore in an epic conclusion that changes everything, and leaves readers to reel in its wake and face what’s been washed away, and what’s been revealed and left behind. A delicate balance is struck between the larger plot at play, the push and pull of characters and their relationships, and a broader — yet fathomless — conversation about climate change and the questions we must all begin to face about our privileges, what we owe each other and humanity, and our future as a planet.

It’s hard to talk too much about the plot of the book without getting spoilery, so I won’t do that. All I’ll really say is that I finished this book a month ago, and I’m still thinking about it. I’m still asking questions. He’s debut novel, Descendant of the Crane, surprised me with its plot-twists and the imperfect (often just bad) choices its characters frequently made. The Ones We’re Meant to Find, though completely different and in a new genre, shared many of those qualities that made it feel like a He book — and it’s one of the reasons I loved it. Celia and Kasey aren’t infallible characters — they’re human, painfully so. There’s a deep level of honesty in He’s books, and especially on the topic of climate change, that creates room for a compelling and moving narrative. At its core, this book is about not just finding a sister and finding solutions — it’s about finding ourselves, our own truths — and part of our own truths is recognizing how we exist in our world. What role do we play in the larger picture of humanity, what role do we play in our communities — and, in turn — what are we responsible for?

To conclude, The Ones We’re Meant to Find is a deeply honest and challenging narrative about self-discovery, the love we have for people in our lives and for humanity, and how we all must live in order for us all to live. The Ones We’re Meant to Find doesn’t shy away from darker truths, from the failures of people. But neither is it completely without hope, and the idea remains that life is, in and of itself, something worth fighting for. In the end, there’s a reminder that individualism is incapable of saving humanity, and that it’s worth giving some things up to save what’s truly important.