Reviews with content warning for Terminal illness - How High We Go in the Dark

Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

203 reviews

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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syinhui's review against another edition

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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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marpaige's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-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

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clarabooksit's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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? It's complicated

3.25

I had such a hard time rating this book because parts of it are stellar and other parts ruined it for me.

Things I liked:

-The lengthy fallout of a devastating pandemic, i.e. not just immediate aftermath but inherited trauma.

-Moving, intricate portraits of grief that opened a chasm in my chest.

-Fascinating exploration of how societies alter and form around death, the death industry and practices.

-The everyday ordinariness of getting used to things even in the most horrific times.

-Each voice felt distinct to me—the audiobook is fantastic, each chapter has a different reader.

Where the book lost me:

-The weird, out-of-the-blue sci-fi elements that did not mesh with the story I thought was being told.

-The blanket heteronormativity. This is a contemporary setting, so where are the queer people? Also, the disabled? Neurodivergent?

-Almost no dates or timestamps, so the timeline is difficult to keep track of. While sometimes obvious, a lot of the time I wasn’t sure how far away we were from the initial outbreak in each chapter—a year? 30? 100? I don’t know.

The biggest letdown, though? The ending. I hated it. I was okay with the sci-fi elements because I can see what they were doing, even if they weren’t my favorite. But that ending was like hiking up a tall mountain only to discover that the mountain is fake and so is the view.

This book took me on a roller coaster and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It’s clever and beautiful, and I even thought it would be rewarding to reread it to see all the threads I missed. But the ending was beyond disappointing. So, I won’t be returning to this one. Ever.

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smalljules's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

2.5

i want to start with: this is a good book.
The authors writing style is absolutely beautiful.
I loved the first few chapters or sections but I felt like it drew a little long and dark in the middle which isn’t bad, it just wasn’t the right style for me.
The ending has a very interesting concept/twist that has some breadcrumbs it ties back to.
I would recommend this to someone who is interested in a more dystopian style read, but there is a lot of death and dying in this book so keep that in mind before reading/recommending.

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