Intimate and Heart-wrenching
I’ve seen this book all over my Twitter feed and I’m honestly still surprised I was able to get my hands on it, but I’m so so glad I did because wow! What a delightfully intimate, heart-wrenching character-driven story about relationships new and old, lost and found. And with such fantastic plot twists!! (This review will be spoiler-free).
Through this book, we follow sisters Kasey and Celia who, through mysterious circumstances, find themselves separated. Cee, living one of Earth’s many sky-cities, is convinced her sister is dead. Kay, who’s found herself washed ashore of an abandoned island, is determined to find a way back to her sister. I loved the intimate focus on their frankly messy relationship, especially the spotlight on Cee. The two sisters carry a lot of baggage and He unravels those dirty secrets, those pained memories, masterfully.
I particularly found myself resonating with Cee, social introvert and science genius. Early on, she struggles with the disappearance of her sister, but instead of the pain of the loss of her sister, she confronts an emptiness, a lack of feeling. I’ve personally faced similar situations with the exact same reactions and asked myself the same questions and the nuanced exploration of this feeling was delightful. Cee’s tone might come off as dead or unfeeling to some, but I assure you that tone is so so accurate in this situation and I’m in awe at how well He has managed to capture and depict that emotion.
The storytelling is laid out in one of my favorite formats, told in alternating chapters between Kay and Cee’s POVs, where details from one storyline will answer questions brought up three chapters ago in the other. He really does a masterful job of keeping the reader fully engaged, teasing information as one goes, and building an ever-growing sense of unease as you slowly realize certain details aren’t aligning properly. Without going into spoilers, I will just say the plot twists here are just amazing, truly re-contextualizing the story with every turn.
This is the second eco-focused/solarpunk novel I’ve read this March and I’m really loving this trend. The Ones We’re Meant to Find is set on an Earth humanity has brought to the brink of destruction, and humans have had to resort to cities in the sky to escape mega earthquakes and massive tsunamis. Of course, with space in these sky cities a scarcity, every person carries a rank based on their impact, and their ancestors, on the planet. There’s a subtle underlying dystopian vibe I wish was explored more, but He chooses to play it straight, instead focusing mainly on the character relationships
Overall, I rate this book a 4.5/5. He uses this eco-dystopian setting to intimately explore a complex, messy relationship between two sisters, told in alternating POVs that layer details on details into a delightful story!
Through this book, we follow sisters Kasey and Celia who, through mysterious circumstances, find themselves separated. Cee, living one of Earth’s many sky-cities, is convinced her sister is dead. Kay, who’s found herself washed ashore of an abandoned island, is determined to find a way back to her sister. I loved the intimate focus on their frankly messy relationship, especially the spotlight on Cee. The two sisters carry a lot of baggage and He unravels those dirty secrets, those pained memories, masterfully.
I particularly found myself resonating with Cee, social introvert and science genius. Early on, she struggles with the disappearance of her sister, but instead of the pain of the loss of her sister, she confronts an emptiness, a lack of feeling. I’ve personally faced similar situations with the exact same reactions and asked myself the same questions and the nuanced exploration of this feeling was delightful. Cee’s tone might come off as dead or unfeeling to some, but I assure you that tone is so so accurate in this situation and I’m in awe at how well He has managed to capture and depict that emotion.
The storytelling is laid out in one of my favorite formats, told in alternating chapters between Kay and Cee’s POVs, where details from one storyline will answer questions brought up three chapters ago in the other. He really does a masterful job of keeping the reader fully engaged, teasing information as one goes, and building an ever-growing sense of unease as you slowly realize certain details aren’t aligning properly. Without going into spoilers, I will just say the plot twists here are just amazing, truly re-contextualizing the story with every turn.
This is the second eco-focused/solarpunk novel I’ve read this March and I’m really loving this trend. The Ones We’re Meant to Find is set on an Earth humanity has brought to the brink of destruction, and humans have had to resort to cities in the sky to escape mega earthquakes and massive tsunamis. Of course, with space in these sky cities a scarcity, every person carries a rank based on their impact, and their ancestors, on the planet. There’s a subtle underlying dystopian vibe I wish was explored more, but He chooses to play it straight, instead focusing mainly on the character relationships
Overall, I rate this book a 4.5/5. He uses this eco-dystopian setting to intimately explore a complex, messy relationship between two sisters, told in alternating POVs that layer details on details into a delightful story!