The Ones is (inside and out) an expressive, beautiful, and heartrending science fiction book. Two complex and evolving characters with complementing voices that clash and bond over a shared desire to find the place (and the people with whom) they belong are placed in a world that is literally tearing itself apart: cataclysms chip away at what remains of the human race, claiming back the sea and sky that has been poisoned by humans for millennia. Cee and Kasey’s stories are told in alternating chapters (in first- or third-person) that crisscross between points in time that eventually converge to reveal the gravity of choice—and for whom we make those choices.
This is the first sci-fi book I read in a while—and I must admit that I was drawn in almost solely by the book’s cover: the soft sunrise, seafoam, and waves, soothing like the quiet solitude that begins the book. I am predisposed to classic and literary fiction, and I was most gripped by the intricacies of Kasey’s character in her third-person chapters and the way that the narrative unfolds, little piece of the puzzle by piece, gaps filling in as you read and connect two stories that happen at entirely different times and places. That the characters could spiral in and out of control created for me a profound humanity in this novel, which is so open about the raw nature of self-preservation and hope (“What if human nature is the last disease we have yet to eradicate?”). The twists and ambiguous ending leave a hole that I think could only be filled with the reader’s answer to the choice between love and logic, in a world where both are fighting to coexist.
I rate Joan He’s book 5 stars for reminding us to breathe, love the sea, and search unapologetically for the people and places we’re meant to find.
This is the first sci-fi book I read in a while—and I must admit that I was drawn in almost solely by the book’s cover: the soft sunrise, seafoam, and waves, soothing like the quiet solitude that begins the book. I am predisposed to classic and literary fiction, and I was most gripped by the intricacies of Kasey’s character in her third-person chapters and the way that the narrative unfolds, little piece of the puzzle by piece, gaps filling in as you read and connect two stories that happen at entirely different times and places. That the characters could spiral in and out of control created for me a profound humanity in this novel, which is so open about the raw nature of self-preservation and hope (“What if human nature is the last disease we have yet to eradicate?”). The twists and ambiguous ending leave a hole that I think could only be filled with the reader’s answer to the choice between love and logic, in a world where both are fighting to coexist.
I rate Joan He’s book 5 stars for reminding us to breathe, love the sea, and search unapologetically for the people and places we’re meant to find.