Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

149 reviews

maddie_can_read's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

Very unique book, really enjoyed it. Author was really good at getting you to care for the many characters. Lots of interesting speculative fiction and science fiction ideas. 

The first few chapters were a lot sadder than I expected and I cried 3 times and I don't normally cry for books.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Infidelity, and Suicide

I found the ends of chapter 2, "city of laughter" and chapter 4 "pig son Incredibly sad. Chapter 2 involves the death of a terminally ill child and chapter 4 involves the death of a terminally ill pig- hybrid who is child-like

torismazarine's review

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

clairewick4's review against another edition

dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

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

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

augie_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic and Child death

Moderate: Medical content, Pregnancy, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Confinement, War, Violence, and Xenophobia

softanimal's review against another edition

Truly incredible writing. Creative, morbidly funny, moving, and unique. The performances in the audiobook were also very good. But this is just too sad for me right now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, Death of parent, and Medical content

Minor: Car accident

lpdx's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, Classism, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Chronic illness, Suicide, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Abandonment, Colonisation, Excrement, Pregnancy, and Vomit

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