Incredible and Daunting

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When I first saw this cover I thought it was going to be a fantasy. Then after reading then synopsis I thought it was going to be a thriller. It’s really not either of those things though, so admittedly it took me a while to find my footing in The Ones We’re Meant to Find.

There was so much going on in this book, even with somewhat of a slow start. Celia and Kasey are sisters, separated by an unknown amount of space and time. The opening chapters feature Cee alone on a deserted island and Kay living as a kind of recluse in a densely populated eco-city. Kasey has been grieving the loss of her sister for three months, who was last seen embarking out into the dangerous waters surrounding their city. Cee, on the other hand, has been trying to escape ever since she first woke up on the island, dreaming of the only person in the world who’s important to her now: her sister.

We don’t learn a lot about the world the girls live in in Cee’s chapters, but while Kay is attempting to retrace Celia’s last moments before her disappearance we’re introduced to more and more of its harsh realities. After refusing to take action to protect the environment, humans have found that it’s turned on them. While some regions have adjusted, massively reducing their carbon footprints, spending a third of their lives in stasis pods among other things, many have flatly refused and continue to cause damage. And I have to say, after over a year of collective foot-dragging and tantrum-throwing when it comes to basic things like wearing a mask or getting vaccinated during a worldwide pandemic by some, this is probably the least surprising thing about the world depicted here by Ms. He.

The society Kay is a part of is one of the more interesting aspects of the story. There’s some typical Black Mirror stuff—holographs, memory storing and erasing, a social standing score, etc.—but I think the more unique bits are when the technology isn’t the focus and instead the morality around it is. Where does autonomy overlap with selfishness? Is it more important to protect individual interests or collective ones? Can causing intentional harm be excusable if it serves a greater societal good? The Ones We’re Meant to Find is about climate change, technology, humanity, ecoterrorism, capitalism, family and so much more.

But I think, at its core, this book asks what we owe one another. Some of that is broader, what do we owe other people living on this earth, but it also extends to a more personal level. The bond between these two sisters is the driving force of the novel, propelling them to re-examine their own very different world views in an attempt to understand one another. Cee is different from the person she used to be. Kay has always felt like a less complete version of her sister. In order to fully *get* this book, you have to get Cee and Kay.

Which is probably why you’re going to see a smattering of low ratings mixed in with the high ones. This book is not going to be able to sink its claws into everybody, and that’s fine. It’s probably too slow at the beginning, maybe also a little confusing at first, but once it clicks, it clicks. And I think as time has passed (I finished it about a week ago), I’ve come to appreciate what Joan He did here even more. The Ones We’re Meant to Find is a daunting, transfixing journey into a world that’s both too close to and too divergent from our own to ever feel completely comfortable in. I’d recommend readers to take their time getting into it, try and revel in that discomfort and to let yourself be swept away.