Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

10 reviews

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.

---

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

emmonsannae's review

challenging dark hopeful reflective sad fast-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? Yes

3.75

Not sure whether to give this book a 2 or a 5—it’s brilliant and I largely did not enjoy it. The main theme (and the one from which the novel gets its name) is the lengths to which humans are able to stretch to form community and help each other, and the ways all living things are interrelated over time and space. The main subject matter is inherently distressing, though, resulting in a beautiful book that is phenomenally executed and which I hope I never have to read again.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Death of parent, Medical content, Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Abandonment, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol, Blood, Mental illness, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

baileybooks's review

adventurous 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Drug use, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Suicide, Medical content, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Child death, Xenophobia, Infidelity, and Death

viireads's review

emotional hopeful reflective tense 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? No

3.25

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Chronic illness, Stalking, Pregnancy, Confinement, and Cancer

Minor: Drug use, Suicide, Animal death, War, Murder, and Death

saloninareads's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? N/A

3.75

This is a book that I'm going to need to mull over for a bit. So touching in parts with an ending I'm still trying to piece together with the other chapters/stories. All in all a wonderful expression of mourning and loss. Might change my rating after thinking about it but wow this book is going to stay with me I think.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death and Death

Minor: Drug use

ivana's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Beautifully written. A lot sadder than I expected, but definitely could have been more queer. As with all books that contain short stories, some were a  bit of a miss and some were really good.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Medical content, Terminal illness, Blood, Child death, Chronic illness, Vomit, Cancer, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug use, and Grief

unsuccessfulbookclub's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

This #PlagueNovelPals book was surprisingly uplifting and in many ways a balm for our current world. It is super dark and sad - it is about a plague brought on by climate change - but it is also about humanity’s ability to persevere, to invent and to eventually overcome. It’s an epic story built through small human interactions. My friend Meg described it as a combination of Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy and Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves and I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment. I would also sprinkle a little bit of Chuck Palahniuk’s macabre zaniness and unlikeable narrators to the mix.

I enjoyed the format for this book - it’s a series of short narratives that are loosely connected rather than a straight through plot. In that way it is quiet and helps you experience the world Nagamatsu built in a very relatable way, through each character’s eyes. The stories end up being more connected than they initially seem but the end and that speaks to a beautiful restraint from Nagamatsu. The writing is impeccable. Each of the characters is interesting and understandable, and you visit many locations and situations on Earth and throughout the universe. I liked that this book was emotionally impactful and dealt heavily with grief and death but it wasn’t gory in the way some books like this are. It’s an emotional sledgehammer but it also puts you back together when it’s done.

👍🏻Recommended! Plague novel/science fiction fans will love this book. Please mind the CW, it is heavy content but in the end it is very hopeful. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Death, Drug use, Medical content, Xenophobia, Body horror, Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Pregnancy, Self harm, Suicide, and Suicide attempt

readwithserena's review

dark emotional hopeful 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

This book is so beautifully written. Each chapter is a snapshot of a story that evokes so much emotion and reflection. It reminds me of the aspects I loved of The Overstory- stories that overlap slightly, but could also stand alone.
I think this book is particularly difficult because it sits so closely to our current reality. Like Black Mirror, sometimes the most terrifying stories are the ones that we can truly imagine happening. 
I want to send this to my Environmental literature professors and my philosophy professors so that I can discuss it with them. I also want all my friends and coworkers to read this and discuss it with me too. Honestly, everyone should read this book and then have a worldwide discussion to process.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Animal death, Death of parent, Medical content, and Suicide

Minor: Abandonment, Classism, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual content, and Religious bigotry

daisylady's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Animal death, Violence, Terminal illness, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Medical trauma, Medical content, Death of parent, Death, and Confinement

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, Alcohol, and Alcoholism

bookbuzzard's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-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

3.5

I liked the idea of an event viewed over time from a multitude of perspectives, but it sometimes felt to me like there was a little too much going on,

a talking pig, a rift in someone's head, euthanasia theme parks, a generation ship and an alien that seeded life on earth...

it's a lot to keep in one's head all at one time, it doesn't really weave into a complete narrative for me. 
This book ended up being a lot more surreal than I had expected, though that was a bit of a relief as it kept me from reflecting too closely on the Earth's current predicaments...  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Chronic illness, Drug use, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Xenophobia

Minor: Mass/school shootings, Physical abuse, and Religious bigotry