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taybug0001's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
One of the most intense books I’ve ever read. The characters’ stories are integrated in ways that make you feel like you need to read the book over and over again as not to miss a single thing. I can’t WAIT to read this again someday.
<SPOILER> Character Map:
1) 30,000 Years Beneath a Eulogy - Clara and her crystal pendant, Clara’s first Earth daughter, and Miki the artist
<SPOILER> Character Map:
1) 30,000 Years Beneath a Eulogy - Clara and her crystal pendant, Clara’s first Earth daughter, and Miki the artist
2) City of Laughter - Skip, Dorrie
3) Through the Garden of Memory - Everyone in this dark room was in a coma I think? We see memories of Clara and her first Earth daughter, and old Skip remembering Dorrie and Fitch (Ch 2), the lawyer Dan Paul (Ch 10), and the baby that was given a second chance at the end was Baba (Ch 13 Grave Friends).
I feel like there are more connections in this chapter but they went over my head.
4) Pig Son - Dorrie’s ex-husband
5) Elegy Hotel - Brian Yamato, his younger brother Dennis, and Dennis’s girlfriend Val who is later a passenger on the Yamato
6) Speak, Fetch, Say I Love You - robo-dog Hollywood that is later part of the shrine to deceased relatives (Ch 13 Grave Friends)
7) Songs of Your Decay - Laird who was the subject of one of Miki’s paintings?
8) Life Around the Event Horizon - Theresa (previously Clara) wears a crystal pendant and is married to Brian and is the one actually responsible for the Yamato
9) A Gallery a Century, a Cry, a Millennium - Miki and Dorrie paint the walls of the ship, Brian’s son and Val are also passengers
10) The Used-to-Be Party - Dan Paul the lawyer (Ch 3), Mabel the tattoo artist (Ch 12)
11) Melancholy Nights in a Tokyo Virtual Cafe - Ms. Takahashi also wears a crystal pendant and is looking for her mother. We later learn that she’s Nuri (Clara’s first daughter before Earth)
12) Before You Melt into the Sea - Mabel the tattoo artist and Dan Paul the lawyer (Ch 3, 10)
13) Grave Friends - Baba has memories of being a baby crawling through people (Ch 3), Hollywood is an old robo-dog from a great-great aunt
14) The Scope of Possibility - We learn Clara, Theresa, and the mother of the Siberian girl are the same person and the one who created Earth. She is searching for her daughter Nuri on Earth. She doesn’t know her daughter is Ms. Takahasi (Ch 11) who is also searching for her! </SPOILER>
Content Warnings
Minor: Chronic illness, Suicide, Child death, Blood, Animal death, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Terminal illness
sawyertaylor's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic and Death
gentlemanjack's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Injury/Injury detail
em_the_wallflower's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Grief, Terminal illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Death
Moderate: Animal death, Chronic illness, and Medical content
erinhunt's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
tense
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
4.75
How High We Go in the Dark is a beautifully painful exploration of life, death, and grief. The interweaving of stories is so engaging (though I docked a partial star as I didn’t experience that with some later half storylines). This is definitely going to be read again, knowing these stories will hit in different ways each time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Medical content, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Death, Child death, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Terminal illness
kaanda's review against another edition
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? It's complicated
4.75
Extremely emotional, but so beautiful in its imagery. I could not put it down even when I couldn’t see through the tears. Every character stuck with me and the connections between the short stories kept blowing me away. Loved it!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Child death, Death, and Terminal illness
purplatypus's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Grief, Medical content, Terminal illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Death
Moderate: Death of parent, Cancer, Body horror, and Suicide
Minor: Pregnancy
erebus53's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
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? Yes
5.0
Welp... (gets off rollercoaster) that was certainly a trip!!
I picked up this book as a buddy read from book club. As an audiobook it differed from so many books in English with many Japanese names and words by having narrators who were of Japanese descent and who could actually pronounce Japanese.. SUCH a relief! Being able to understand what people are saying is really hard when they are approximating and getting half the words so mangled it's inaudible.
This is a deeply emotional book, that I think you can only get the most out of if you invest in it. Each section of the book is from a different view point (stitched together like short stories) and they are all subtly connected which makes it really rewarding when you realise what those connections are. Each personal viewpoint deals with grief. The world depicted is stricken by a plague that is bigger and weirder than anything humanity has yet experienced. It takes our current experiences and racks the intensity to 11.
In a world that develops fun ways to enjoy euthanasia *wince*, and novel traditions for remembering and celebrating the lives of those we have lost, this story spans centuries. In so doing it deals with the loss and displacement caused by illness, ecological instability, and human affected climate change - wildfires, flooding, mass extinction... and the hopes that humanity has for colonising space in ways that will not displace indigenous life out there.
Some of the science is .. unlikely but not completely outside the bounds of possibility. You have to strap on those Suspenders of Disbelief (+4) to embrace some of the ideas about Roswell, and cryptids - but some of the heroic characters are steeped more in the idea of believing that things might be true until they can be falsified... which allows them to believe things that seem improbable.
Major themes involve the focus on family, on long-term planning and, the things that are so important that we can't be there for our children. Unlike adventure stories of the past where fathers are absent seeking glory, this deals a lot with mothers who have to step away from family obligations for a Greater Purpose, and the grief and strife that causes.
Honestly.. I am the right agegroup that most of the music talked about in this story is familiar to me. That anchors the story emotionally. There is a lot of painting and art in the narrative as well.. which highlights the creativity of humanity, and the ways that we process grief and nostalgia, and how we chronicle our history. I bawled my eyes out in many different chapters. I found this really beautiful fiction and though not all the science was airtight I will borrow the saying from Amanda Tapping "that's why they call it sci - FI". The emotional resonance makes it highly enjoyable so I'll give it a 5.
I picked up this book as a buddy read from book club. As an audiobook it differed from so many books in English with many Japanese names and words by having narrators who were of Japanese descent and who could actually pronounce Japanese.. SUCH a relief! Being able to understand what people are saying is really hard when they are approximating and getting half the words so mangled it's inaudible.
This is a deeply emotional book, that I think you can only get the most out of if you invest in it. Each section of the book is from a different view point (stitched together like short stories) and they are all subtly connected which makes it really rewarding when you realise what those connections are. Each personal viewpoint deals with grief. The world depicted is stricken by a plague that is bigger and weirder than anything humanity has yet experienced. It takes our current experiences and racks the intensity to 11.
In a world that develops fun ways to enjoy euthanasia *wince*, and novel traditions for remembering and celebrating the lives of those we have lost, this story spans centuries. In so doing it deals with the loss and displacement caused by illness, ecological instability, and human affected climate change - wildfires, flooding, mass extinction... and the hopes that humanity has for colonising space in ways that will not displace indigenous life out there.
Some of the science is .. unlikely but not completely outside the bounds of possibility. You have to strap on those Suspenders of Disbelief (+4) to embrace some of the ideas about Roswell, and cryptids - but some of the heroic characters are steeped more in the idea of believing that things might be true until they can be falsified... which allows them to believe things that seem improbable.
Major themes involve the focus on family, on long-term planning and, the things that are so important that we can't be there for our children. Unlike adventure stories of the past where fathers are absent seeking glory, this deals a lot with mothers who have to step away from family obligations for a Greater Purpose, and the grief and strife that causes.
Honestly.. I am the right agegroup that most of the music talked about in this story is familiar to me. That anchors the story emotionally. There is a lot of painting and art in the narrative as well.. which highlights the creativity of humanity, and the ways that we process grief and nostalgia, and how we chronicle our history. I bawled my eyes out in many different chapters. I found this really beautiful fiction and though not all the science was airtight I will borrow the saying from Amanda Tapping "that's why they call it sci - FI". The emotional resonance makes it highly enjoyable so I'll give it a 5.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, Grief, Drug use, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Abandonment and Colonisation
Minor: Sexual content and Stalking
em_lavee's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-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? No
5.0
This book will stay with me for a long time. What a beautiful exploration of humanity, life, death, possibility, and relationships. This book made me weep, wonder, laugh, hope. The writing is beautiful and the plot is brilliant. Every short story is connected to an overarching plot, and the major or minor connections between them was so brilliantly done.
I will be reading this again. I feel like I’m a better person because I read this.
I will be reading this again. I feel like I’m a better person because I read this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death and Death
bodenleben's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Child death
Moderate: Death and Abandonment