One of the most twisty, surprising, engaging page-turner YAs you’ll read this year—We Were Liars meets Black Mirror, with a dash of Studio Ghibli.
Cee awoke on an abandoned island three years ago. With no idea of how she was marooned, she only has a rickety house, an old android, and a single memory: she has a sister, and Cee needs to find her.
STEM prodigy Kasey wants escape from the science and home she once trusted. The eco-city—Earth’s last unpolluted place—is meant to be sanctuary for those committed to planetary protection, but it’s populated by people willing to do anything for refuge, even lie. Now, she’ll have to decide if she’s ready to use science to help humanity, even though it failed the people who mattered most.
Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Hello, friends!
Today’s The Ones We’re Meant to Find tour stop is featuring my review (among others), and I can’t wait to share with you my thoughts on my new favorite book. Seriously, reading the book allowed me to regress to my middle school days hungering over Sci-Fi novels. I had so much fun trying to dissect every word and mystery while trying to see if I could solve the big plot twist! It was thrilling.
I also had so much fun creating an aesthetic board, which involved curating images that give me very very much Studio Ghibli vibes.
Thank you to Joan, Macmillan and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
The Ones We’re Meant to Find is We Were Liar meets Black Mirror while telling a story layered with complexity about two sisters, climate change, and humanity. After reading Descendant of the Crane, my expectations were already high but Joan blew it out of the water–get it? I went in without knowing what to expect and came out wanting for more. The book compels you from the first page and I promise that you won’t want to put down the book once you start. The Ones We’re Meant to Find goes beyond your typical Sci-Fi world and explores the illusion of hope itself. In a way, this book also subverts the Sci-Fi trope and compels its readers to ponder the question philosophers (and English Literature teachers) kept asking–does the end justify the means?
What I’ve always loved about Sci-Fi is that the genre tells a parallel story about our own present, and Joan delivered just that. The Ones We’re Meant to Find felt eerily familiar because it’s supposed to be a relatable story using elements that we’re all too familiar with: losing loved ones, estranged familial relationships, love, and of course the looming threat of climate change. Within the story, Cee and Kay are foils of each other yet they’re more similar than we even realize. To not spoil, I’ll just say that each represents human ideas and how we choose to cope.
For the characters themselves, I fell in love with Cee and Kay immediately. Cee embodies the lull of the sea, inviting and lovely while Kay is the mysterious storm beyond our reach. Joan truly gave them such depth and complexity that you can’t help but fall in love with the characters. They’re a lot like us, grappling with decisions and what we’d risk ourselves for.
The Ones We’re Meant to Find is an ingenious story about things that are most important to us while delivering the promises of hope and love. Like the ocean itself, the book offers all the mysteries of its depths while salting our hearts with pain and providing the ebbs and flows of sweetness that’ll remain in your mind even after you leave its pages.
Joan He was born and raised in Philadelphia but still will, on occasion, lose her way. At a young age, she received classical instruction in oil painting before discovering that storytelling was her favorite form of expression. She studied Psychology and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Pennsylvania and currently writes from a desk overlooking the Delaware River. Descendant of the Crane is her debut young adult fantasy. Her next novel, The Ones We’re Meant to Find, will be forthcoming from Macmillan on May 4th, 2021.
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BUY LINK: https://www.joanhewrites.com/ordertowmtf
Thank you to Paola for organizing this tour, and to the rest of Hesina’s Imperial Court for compiling such a fantastic tour! You can find the rest of the tour schedule below.
allegory of words. 
Such a cute moodboard aaaa
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