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common_nonsense's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Death, Terminal illness, Child death, Racism, and Grief
bethboo's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I have mixed feelings about this book. It was recommended to me, similar to Cloud Cuckoo Land. I don't know how true that is, since I have never read CCL. This book didn't have a main character. It was a collection of stories from different peoples points of view. Each narrative had certain details that ran through them all or references to past stories. Each one had something to do with human nature in the face of a death focused world. It was interesting and it felt like there was some weight to it because of the pandemic.
It had a few stories that were just plain weird. Not dark or edgy or different. Just fucking weird, that made me make a face and wish that their narrative would end ASAP. Those kind of took the magic out of the book for me. Like the pig one or the copycat Eternals moment at the end.
I really enjoyed the story of the guy who worked at the amusement park and fell in love with the mom. I enjoyed the painter's story. The one with the guy working at the print house was sad.
My stars are given for my level of enjoyment, not the inherent worth of the book. So, while the book was very well written with a cast of characters trying to piece their humanity, culture, and image of death together was a wonderful subplot, I found myself bored at moments and a little unattached to certain characters. I'm glad I read it, but it will not be a reread option for me.
It had a few stories that were just plain weird. Not dark or edgy or different. Just fucking weird, that made me make a face and wish that their narrative would end ASAP. Those kind of took the magic out of the book for me. Like the pig one or the copycat Eternals moment at the end.
I really enjoyed the story of the guy who worked at the amusement park and fell in love with the mom. I enjoyed the painter's story. The one with the guy working at the print house was sad.
My stars are given for my level of enjoyment, not the inherent worth of the book. So, while the book was very well written with a cast of characters trying to piece their humanity, culture, and image of death together was a wonderful subplot, I found myself bored at moments and a little unattached to certain characters. I'm glad I read it, but it will not be a reread option for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Child death, Suicide, Death, Grief, and Mental illness
Moderate: Medical content and Medical trauma
danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
sad
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? No
5.0
Beautiful, emotional, sometimes funny, Kafka-esque, and existential. This book is about love, death, the need for human connection; about the failures of capitalism and hope that humanity will find a way to chart a better future. This is one of those books that will have me thinking for a long time.
To call it a novel I think is somewhat of a misnomer. It’s kind of a strange love child between a novel and a short story collection. But the stories are all interwoven and take place against the backdrop of a singular uniting event. This structure also drives home one of the themes of the book, which is the ways in which we form human connection, sometimes unexpectedly. Sometimes the narrator from a previous chapter will pop up as a side character in another person’s chapter and we get updates on their life, which was also always welcome.
To call it a novel I think is somewhat of a misnomer. It’s kind of a strange love child between a novel and a short story collection. But the stories are all interwoven and take place against the backdrop of a singular uniting event. This structure also drives home one of the themes of the book, which is the ways in which we form human connection, sometimes unexpectedly. Sometimes the narrator from a previous chapter will pop up as a side character in another person’s chapter and we get updates on their life, which was also always welcome.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Child death, Grief, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Chronic illness, Death, Animal death, Suicide, and Terminal illness
jasminrain's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I really enjoyed this book! I knew it was dystopian but I was definitely not prepared for the scifi elements that unfolded throughout the story and I absolutely loved it! I also loved how subtly all the stories were connected to one another and going back and forth between the stories trying to connect the stories of different people. As you might expect, not all the stories were equally strong and I'd probably overall rank them from 3-5 stars, but the overall quality of them was overwhelmingly high and I really enjoyed the story that they told about humanity all together. It's definitely a book that you need to reread to make most out of it and I know that I'll return to it someday.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Grief, Medical content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Death, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit
tifcochran's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Suicide, Child death, Mental illness, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Death
dnlrbchd's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Medical content, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Grief, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
unsuccessfulbookclub's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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 #PlagueNovelPals book was surprisingly uplifting and in many ways a balm for our current world. It is super dark and sad - it is about a plague brought on by climate change - but it is also about humanity’s ability to persevere, to invent and to eventually overcome. It’s an epic story built through small human interactions. My friend Meg described it as a combination of Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy and Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves and I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment. I would also sprinkle a little bit of Chuck Palahniuk’s macabre zaniness and unlikeable narrators to the mix.
I enjoyed the format for this book - it’s a series of short narratives that are loosely connected rather than a straight through plot. In that way it is quiet and helps you experience the world Nagamatsu built in a very relatable way, through each character’s eyes. The stories end up being more connected than they initially seem but the end and that speaks to a beautiful restraint from Nagamatsu. The writing is impeccable. Each of the characters is interesting and understandable, and you visit many locations and situations on Earth and throughout the universe. I liked that this book was emotionally impactful and dealt heavily with grief and death but it wasn’t gory in the way some books like this are. It’s an emotional sledgehammer but it also puts you back together when it’s done.
👍🏻Recommended! Plague novel/science fiction fans will love this book. Please mind the CW, it is heavy content but in the end it is very hopeful.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Death, Drug use, Medical content, Xenophobia, Body horror, Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Pregnancy, Self harm, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
hmatt's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Little thoughts that I'll have every intention to assemble more later but probably will not:
- I like the idea of a narrative created through short stories where some of the stories intersect, but this wasn't pulled off with 100% effectiveness. Maybe 60%. I was really invested in some stories and just not at all interested in others. I think fewer stories could have achieved the same effect, and I feel like the author could have done a bit more to interweave them. Also, I was a bit out on some of the stories that go off the deep end a bit, including the last one (I wanted to think it was cool, but it felt too convenient and also self-indulgent).
- I commend the choice to use an ensemble cast for the audiobook where the narrators were meant to sound like the (sometimes obviously racialized) POV characters, but some of the chosen narrators were, um, not very good at narrating.
- I remain solidly "pro" on pandemic fiction.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Terminal illness, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, and Suicide
mel_s_bookshelf's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
3.75 stars
An ambitious fusion of short story collection and novel, How High we go in The Dark is creative, beautiful, and inspiring, whilst simultaneously being terrible, tragic, and haunting. It rides a very fine line between being absolutely absurd and eerily close to reality, which makes it even more disturbing than it would otherwise be. Think Black Mirror, but instead of stand-alone episodes, a collection of stories based around the same overarching theme and where characters and connections become loosely intertwined.
When I bought this book, I didn’t realise that it was more akin to a collection of short-stories than a novel, and so I felt a little put off when I got very invested in the first chapter only to find out that the next chapter (and each there-after) was an almost completely different story. For someone who highly prioritises developing a connection to characters, I found this to be a down-fall, however, despite this, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this book.
Nagamatsu’s writing is stunning, and I found many quotes that deeply resonated with me. Although I was initially jarred by the use of short stories, I was also very impressed at the way in which these stories were linked together. In saying that, I did find that my enjoyment of each individual story varied greatly. I did thoroughly enjoy most – the themes within were complex and fascinating, and one even made me cry; however, a few were quite boring to me, and I found myself skimming over these.
Despite this not being what I thought I signed up for, this book most definitely left an impact on me and won’t be something that I forget anytime soon.
If you loved Black Mirror, or just generally enjoy Sci-fi, then I highly recommend this. I also recommend it if you like unique and interesting books that are very well written. There are a few trigger warnings for this one though so definitely look those up first!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, and Medical content
Moderate: Animal death and Grief
yooniereads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I would just like to start us off with the fact that this book gave me the emotional catharsis that “A Little Life” couldn’t, and that’s saying something.
Nagamatsu’s anthology is so visceral and heartbreaking because of the expanse of stories you follow through. What I love about this is how he trusts his audience— he doesn’t spoon feed you the whole picture, because he trusts you to unravel it. That factor lends to how palpable and real these stories felt. His use of language is so intentional, and his writing draws you in so easily in the short handful of pages these characters exist in. You root for them, you cry for them, and you definitely feel for them. It’s simply so masterful at that!
And because of how it closes in on how the big, big chunks of history affects an individual, it’s a good thinking piece of how our social reality constructs so much of how we grieve, how we love, and how we feel. And since you’re following these stories through a span of so many years, you see how it affects people from different walks of life: those who lived before the plague, those born during, and even those born after.
This book is certainly existential, and I know I will spend days thinking of and crying over certain lines. That’s what I love about it. It holds up a mirror to our own current landscape and says, “This is what it means to be human.” I highly recommend, and I hope it brings you the same sense of solace it gave me. :)
Nagamatsu’s anthology is so visceral and heartbreaking because of the expanse of stories you follow through. What I love about this is how he trusts his audience— he doesn’t spoon feed you the whole picture, because he trusts you to unravel it. That factor lends to how palpable and real these stories felt. His use of language is so intentional, and his writing draws you in so easily in the short handful of pages these characters exist in. You root for them, you cry for them, and you definitely feel for them. It’s simply so masterful at that!
And because of how it closes in on how the big, big chunks of history affects an individual, it’s a good thinking piece of how our social reality constructs so much of how we grieve, how we love, and how we feel. And since you’re following these stories through a span of so many years, you see how it affects people from different walks of life: those who lived before the plague, those born during, and even those born after.
This book is certainly existential, and I know I will spend days thinking of and crying over certain lines. That’s what I love about it. It holds up a mirror to our own current landscape and says, “This is what it means to be human.” I highly recommend, and I hope it brings you the same sense of solace it gave me. :)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Medical content
Moderate: Medical trauma and Pregnancy