Reviews tagging 'Cancer'

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

48 reviews

yogomagpie's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

I loved the first story, but after reading a few more stories I began to feel very fatigued. I grew bored reading so many similar stories over and over again and became desensitized to all the deaths and grieving. But maybe getting desensitized is the point. Anyway, my fav chapter is the one with the pig. It was so messed up and sad.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Cancer, Child death, Death of parent, Medical content, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Alcoholism, Vomit, Alcohol, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal death

definestrange's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal death, Death of parent, Suicide, Terminal illness, and Cancer

torismazarine's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death of parent, Cancer, Confinement, Death, Pregnancy, Child death, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Medical content

Moderate: Confinement, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Dementia

Minor: Abandonment, Pregnancy, Classism, and Murder

arlaubscher's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Blood, Cancer, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Body horror, Medical content, and Suicide

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Classism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Dementia, Confinement, Mental illness, Gore, and Infertility

pumpkinbaby's review against another edition

inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cancer, Chronic illness, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Child death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

victoriafrombookclub's review against another edition

hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

5.0

I immediately want to reread this book. Namagatsu skillfully creates a deep and complex near-world future with a virus leaking from an ancient burial beneath the melting Siberian ice. Each chapter brings you close to the grief and hope of characters dealing with the pandemic in the immediate aftermath and decades and generations after. A truly epic spec fic novel that points to the cosmos just as much to the human heart.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, Grief, Death, Chronic illness, Child death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Medical content, Body horror, Medical trauma, Suicide, and Cancer

Minor: Pregnancy, Violence, Torture, Sexual content, and Murder

ashleygude's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Fantastic book. Very emotional. Read twice, the second read through is totally worth it to further connect all the dots. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Child death, Death, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, Cancer, and Suicide

syinhui's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This novel is as much about how far we dare go in the dark - to venture into the deep space in search for a new home - as it is about its title, How High We Go in the Dark, wherein the third story, Through the Garden of Memory, a mass of humanity found themselves trapped in a void of semi-darkness. With only the guidance of voices and the touch of other people, they come together to construct a human pyramid, reaching upward into the abyss in hopes of finding a way out.

I am astounded by how imaginative and tragic this book is while at the same time incredibly thought-provoking, hopeful and even intimate. The prose is rich and beautifully written and at times jarring by how death is normalized, by how death had become a way of life. I must say this is an awfully tough book to read, one I had to steel through by how devastating and hard hitting each stories are. The themes of death and grief are all over the pages, one chapter after another.

The prescience in 30,000 years beneath a Eulogy left me terrified. I was sobbing at the end of Pig Son. I've had some questions regarding the science and possibility of a micro singularity, the sudden leap in space technology which enabled an expedition expected to last for thousands of years and how exactly was the plague cured. And then the final chapter blew me away. 

However, some of these stories were just a slightly different version of the other (about people estranged from their families, falling in love with a dying patient/client) and for a book about pandemic, I don't quite understand the choice for a wholly Japanese American cast of characters. Sure, it's interesting but it feels limiting and a bit ridiculous that we mostly get to see the aftermath from their perspectives. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Death, Medical content, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Suicide, Child death, Cursing, and Death of parent

Minor: Body horror and Cancer

atamano's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death of parent, Grief, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, and Cancer

Minor: Abandonment

lottiegasp's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This book depicts a world in the midst of a global pandemic, shifting from in each chapter to the perspective of a completely new set of characters, occasionally with some links to previous characters. Most of the characters are Japanese or Japanese American, like the author. Eventually it takes us further into the future from speculative fiction to full-on science-fiction as new technologies are used to manage, escape or cope with this virus-ridden world.

The book was well-written and captured various emotions and experiences about loss, feeling inadequate, and complicated relationships.

I generally prefer a story with enduring characters over slice of life vignettes, so I was not able to completely engage with the book. However, the ending did end up tying things together in quite an interesting and satisfying way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Child death, Medical content, Suicide, Chronic illness, Grief, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Cancer, and Death of parent