Review – The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Dystopian
Length: 384 pages
Publisher: ‎Roaring Brook Press
Release Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1250258564
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Amazon Vine
Rating: 3/5 stars

“ Cee has been trapped on an abandoned island for three years without any recollection of how she arrived, or memories from her life prior. All she knows is that somewhere out there, beyond the horizon, she has a sister named Kay, and it’s up to Cee to cross the ocean and find her.

In a world apart, 16-year-old STEM prodigy Kasey Mizuhara lives in an eco-city built for people who protected the planet―and now need protecting from it. With natural disasters on the rise due to climate change, eco-cities provide clean air, water, and shelter. Their residents, in exchange, must spend at least a third of their time in stasis pods, conducting business virtually whenever possible to reduce their environmental footprint. While Kasey, an introvert and loner, doesn’t mind the lifestyle, her sister Celia hated it. Popular and lovable, Celia much preferred the outside world. But no one could have predicted that Celia would take a boat out to sea, never to return.

Now it’s been three months since Celia’s disappearance, and Kasey has given up hope. Logic says that her sister must be dead. But nevertheless, she decides to retrace Celia’s last steps. Where they’ll lead her, she does not know. Her sister was full of secrets. But Kasey has a secret of her own.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a finished copy of this through Amazon Vine to review.

Thoughts: I was expecting to love this but ended up mostly frustrated with it. While I did stay engaged in most of the story and did finish it, I found the ending incredibly unsatisfying.

The story alternates between Cee (who has been trapped on an island for years) and Kasey (her very highly intelligent sister who is living on an eco-city as a result of climate collapse). The first half of the book moves at a very deliberate pace..which I hoped was building to something amazing.

Unfortunately, even though the story does pick up pace in the second half of the book, it starts to jump around a lot both in POV and time and becomes very confusing. I found myself rereading portions over and over again. None of the science here is explained at all and just assumed to be viable at a very high sci-fi level. Some of the leaps in logic and story are just very hard to follow.

Then the ending…absolutely no closure there. This is one of those books where the reader gets to decide what they think happened and I hate those types of books. I feel like the author is just being lazy because they aren’t sure what they actually want to have happen.

So, did I enjoy parts of this book…yes. Did I think the ideas presented were intriguing…yes. However, the pacing was off and, towards the end, the story feels very fractured. Then there is absolutely no closure what-so-ever. If you dig those kinds of books you may love this…for me those kinds of books are my nemesis, I absolutely hate them.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this book was disappointing to me. I liked some of the ideas presented but also felt like the pacing was very inconsistent. The story starts out slow and then kind of fractures, jumping around and switching POV willy nilly. Then the ending just killed me, there is no closure and nothing is resolved…I hate those kinds of books. I finished it, but I won’t be seeking out more of He’s books.