Reviews

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

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tvislife's review against another edition

2.75

This book could have been a lot more. In the near future, a plague is spreading around (yikes where have I heard that before), and climate change is increasing at a rapid rate, causing life on earth to alter dramatically.

This book doesn’t follow one set of characters with a main plot; it’s one of those books (like Cloud Atlas) that has a series of interconnected shorter stories. And I gotta say, that is not my fave genre! That’s not to say this was bad—it was fine! But I found it hard to care about the characters by the end.

I think the strongest story is the euthanasia amusement park; but that could also be because it was towards the beginning of the novel. I mean, I think it’s an objectively good short story, but I just think that as the book wore on, it got harder and harder to care about the characters. I could tell that there were some deep, profound feelings I was supposed to be feeling about what was going on; but I was just bored by the end, I’m sorry to say it.

mbutler8's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

3.0

brynnmaxiine's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

cavendish9's review against another edition

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2.0

It just wasn’t for me - there is too much darkness and death.

blairsatellite's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

amaliabu's review against another edition

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5.0

The collection of interlinking short stories both broke my heart and made it feel at peace - each more so than the last. Your storytelling is incredible and I am proud to have had you as a creative writing professor - you’ve helped me grow as a writer more than you could know!

You inspire me to keep creating, transferring worlds in my head to words on a page. I will be on the lookout for any future work!