Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

20 reviews

emmonsannae's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.75

Not sure whether to give this book a 2 or a 5—it’s brilliant and I largely did not enjoy it. The main theme (and the one from which the novel gets its name) is the lengths to which humans are able to stretch to form community and help each other, and the ways all living things are interrelated over time and space. The main subject matter is inherently distressing, though, resulting in a beautiful book that is phenomenally executed and which I hope I never have to read again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Death of parent, Medical content, Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Abandonment, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol, Blood, Mental illness, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

shoshin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

5.0

I cried, I was constantly surprised and unprepared, I thought and felt deeply. A trip and a half. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Medical content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Death, Death of parent, Child death, and Grief

Moderate: Cancer, Abandonment, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Violence, Dementia, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, and War

If you like to be warned about disturbing content:

There is euthanasia of children in large numbers. There is also a sentient pig who chooses to die rather than suffer a painful death or be studied by the government. These are both pretty graphic descriptions, and aren't really captured by the content warnings. It's an intense book.

kellysbookverse's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, War, Death, Child death, Death of parent, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Grief, Body horror, Medical content, and Abandonment

alisonbrookins's review against another edition

Got desprender as fuck and couldn’t keep reading

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child death, Medical content, Terminal illness, Death, Death of parent, and Grief

lilacwhisker's review against another edition

emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A must-read. My new favorite book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Abandonment and Addiction

samarakroeger's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.25

this started off so promising and ended up being a huge disappointment. the first two stories/chapters were really intriguing (and each had enough ideas there to have been fleshed out into a longer narrative). then it became a little boring and obvious, and then it got very repetitive. the stories progressively got more lackluster as the book went on (a common problem with short story/essay collections, although How High We Go in the Dark is attempting to be a novel in stories).

for some reason I thought this was written by a queer woman? obviously I was wrong; almost all of the characters we follow are (lackluster) men, and almost every single one of them is obsessed with some bland excuse for a woman. apparently queer people have no place in the apocalypse. I would understand the heteronormative worldbuilding if we followed only one or two characters — but we had to listen to FOURTEEN different perspectives. I am not a multiple-perspectives-told-in-first-person fan (with one notable exception — Our Wives Under the Sea, which has two perspectives), and this totally fell into the trap of “all the characters are written with the same voice” which is just bad and confusing.  I did like that it followed mostly Japanese and Japanese-American characters, though. 

Nagamatsu also tried to cram all the tropes and possible elements found in speculative fiction and post-apocalyptic works in to the mediocre worldbuilding. his influences are glaringly obvious. this doesn’t have to be a bad thing, but starting with the talking pig, he kinda lost me on that front. either I want to see rock-solid, detailed worldbuilding or I want to see a subtle, quietly unfolding dystopian landscape to the likes of Ishiguro or Ling Ma.  safe to say that this was neither; I was not that curious. it felt pretty sloppy, on the whole. 

I think if you’ve never read any speculative fiction, dystopias, or post-apocalyptic stories, you might like this and think it was clever. however, if you generally like this sort of thing, the whole time you’ll be reminded of how this one pales in comparison. now I think I finally need to get around to reading Emily St. John Mandel. 

the absolute best thing that the publishers did for this book was having a full cast of talented audiobook narrators. the different voices helped separate the perspectives and sections much better than the written version ever could, seeing as they are all written almost identically. the monotony of the themes will still not be lost on you, however. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Child death, and Death

brynhayes's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Confinement, Medical content, Abandonment, Alcohol, Cancer, Child death, Death, Death of parent, and Grief

trippalli's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

A series of vignettes about a world changed my plague I was looking forward to the interesting twists like a comedian working in ideas in Asia hospital but it didn't really follow one plotline It was really just lots of little short stories that jumped around in time in the future and the distant past It even went into space and it did tie them together but it felt loosely tied together and I didn't really fall for feel that any characters were memorable or relatable and sometimes I was just confused about the plot because it got so philosophical and I think there is parts of it set from a coma state but well interesting I struggle to recommend it It was not that interesting to me maybe to others despite all the exciting plot lines none of them really developed anywhere

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Chronic illness, Child death, Confinement, and Abandonment

readwithserena's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is so beautifully written. Each chapter is a snapshot of a story that evokes so much emotion and reflection. It reminds me of the aspects I loved of The Overstory- stories that overlap slightly, but could also stand alone.
I think this book is particularly difficult because it sits so closely to our current reality. Like Black Mirror, sometimes the most terrifying stories are the ones that we can truly imagine happening. 
I want to send this to my Environmental literature professors and my philosophy professors so that I can discuss it with them. I also want all my friends and coworkers to read this and discuss it with me too. Honestly, everyone should read this book and then have a worldwide discussion to process.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Animal death, Death of parent, Medical content, and Suicide

Minor: Abandonment, Classism, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Religious bigotry

bookbuzzard's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.5

I liked the idea of an event viewed over time from a multitude of perspectives, but it sometimes felt to me like there was a little too much going on,

a talking pig, a rift in someone's head, euthanasia theme parks, a generation ship and an alien that seeded life on earth...

it's a lot to keep in one's head all at one time, it doesn't really weave into a complete narrative for me. 
This book ended up being a lot more surreal than I had expected, though that was a bit of a relief as it kept me from reflecting too closely on the Earth's current predicaments...  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Chronic illness, Drug use, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Xenophobia

Minor: Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, and Religious bigotry