Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

149 reviews

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

cassidybolton's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, and Child death

mmmmmats's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

This is a story in which the common thread is a global pandemic on earth, and while I would say his depictions are not nearly as gruesome or violent as say, Octavia Butler, the pandemic, the climate crisis, lack of government support, etc feels too close at times. Once you can push past that, it reads like a collection of short stories that take place in the same world that I think are beautifully woven.

I think Nagamatsu focuses on technological and medical advances and financial entities and foregoes potential social advances as he makes it through an imagined future. He reinforces the poor will be poorer (and worse), everyone is alone with all that technology, everything is hetero narrative. Made me wonder, does the government stay in tact or is it all just privately funded? Weren’t there people who pushed back? Missed opportunities in my opinion, but I guess I get it, that would be one large book and one gets to write the world they imagine based on their life experiences, and Nagamatsu did that very well.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicide

carriepond's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

3.75

This dystopian tale that begins as a global pandemic ravages humanity read more like a series of interconnected stories than a true novel, which had some positives and some negatives for me. On the positive side, it was interesting to see the story develop and see how the various chapters connected to the ones before it; however, it sometimes felt a little hard to track the threads and the pacing felt clunky off-- the beginning third or so really gripped me, but then there was a lull for me until it grabbed me again at the end. It also made for a slow reading experience, especially because of the heavy subject matter, though, perhaps that was ultimately a good thing-- some books are better consumed slowly!

That said, Nagamatsu writes beautifully, and the stand-out parts of this book will stick with me for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Child death

l1brarygirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Death of parent and Suicide

eemadeeberry's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Suicide

rhi_reading's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

My favourite book of the year, maybe ever. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Medical content, Death, Death of parent, Child death, Terminal illness, and Suicidal thoughts

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

Beautiful book about humanity and its possibilities. Each chapter is a separate short story and all the stories are subtly interwoven. It’s fun figuring out how each new chapter’s characters relate to those from earlier chapters. 

The book explores people’s response to the disaster of a world-wide ancient plague that kills millions; it’s more about how the people face the challenges and grow rather than an exploration of the plague itself. So well-written that the words just flow smoothly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, and Pandemic/Epidemic

acecatlady's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Was very hard for me to rate. Was super high up until the very very end, then it did a

Memories of Emanon / ancient aliens that are there for like every famous thing, thing

and it sort of deflated a lot of the emotional connection I had to it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, and Death of parent

itspronouncedtessa's review

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, Suicide, Terminal illness, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, and Death