Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

202 reviews

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

like any short story collection, some were absolutely hits and others were misses. i wish i could’ve given this 5 stars based on some of the stories but others unfortunately brought it down. none of them were bad but some were just boring or lackluster. that was definitely a small amount of the stories though, most were very very good!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Medical trauma, Grief, Alcoholism, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, Violence, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Medical content, Alcohol, Body horror, Animal death, Child death, Child abuse, and Chronic illness

jerica_mercado's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Child death, Terminal illness, Death, Death of parent, and Suicide

raisinreads's review against another edition

3.75

Though stories are vaguely connected, it is more short story collection than novel. Like any collection, there are stories that stand out a lot more than others. Overall, very enjoyable & interesting read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Death, Grief, and Child death

allistronomy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Suicide

billiekate's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

3.5

Good audiobook! Had trouble pushing myself to the end because of the amount of unlikeable characters. Each chapter is a different main character but the stories get connected over time. I enjoyed the chapter with the pig and with the rollercoaster. Nagamatsu is a really talented author in painting a scene and a character so realistically with just a few details.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, and Child death

thoughtsontomes's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

This is in the same wheelhouse as Station Eleven, so if you liked that I would try this. Except instead of following the same characters, every chapter is a different POV across time during and following a pandemic. Some of the stories weave together closely and some more subtly but it is masterfully done.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Terminal illness, and Child death

definestrange's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

melvin02's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

This book is composed of multiple short stories, many of which we published independently before the release of this book. Keeping that in mind, I can only describe the connections between each stories characters to be a writing marvel. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

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

ktia11's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

A poetic book, with a plot promise that I truly enjoyed. Some chapters were much better than others however, and the lack of consistency made the book feel quite long to me. The very last chapter kind of saved the book for me, but I believe the way the story ends would not be everyone's cup of tea, even if it does wraps things up nicely. But sometimes we do like some mystery left to our imagination, don't we?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness and Death