Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

69 reviews

alex_olive's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death and Animal death

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.

---

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

amberpb's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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? No

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Minor: Animal death

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. 

---

Content Warnings

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

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

---

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

clarabooksit's review against another edition

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

peach0's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? No

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, Child death, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Animal death

jazhandz's review against another edition

DNF at 35%. This is one part personal (I thought I was ready to read a pandemic book, turns out I’m not even when that pandemic is wildly far-fetched) and two parts about the book (I read the first four chapters/interconnected stories and it felt like reading the same thing four times).

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Child death, and Grief

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Medical content, Terminal illness, and Death

Minor: Animal death

lottiegasp's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad slow-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? Yes

3.25

This book depicts a world in the midst of a global pandemic, shifting from in each chapter to the perspective of a completely new set of characters, occasionally with some links to previous characters. Most of the characters are Japanese or Japanese American, like the author. Eventually it takes us further into the future from speculative fiction to full-on science-fiction as new technologies are used to manage, escape or cope with this virus-ridden world.

The book was well-written and captured various emotions and experiences about loss, feeling inadequate, and complicated relationships.

I generally prefer a story with enduring characters over slice of life vignettes, so I was not able to completely engage with the book. However, the ending did end up tying things together in quite an interesting and satisfying way.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Child death, Medical content, Suicide, Chronic illness, Grief, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Cancer, and Death of parent

singrequiem's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

If you want to be  emotionally devastated in just the most beautiful way over and over again - then this is the book for you. Gorgeous.  I may come back and finish this when I am emotionally stable enough to really give it the proper review it deserves.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Pandemic/Epidemic, Child death, Medical trauma, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Chronic illness, Grief, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Suicide, Violence, Addiction, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Blood, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder

Minor: Classism and Colonisation

There are graphic descriptions of decomposition and bodily changes in a detached, clinical way. (Alongside less detached scenes)