Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

16 reviews

plantybooklover's review

adventurous challenging dark sad slow-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

3.75

This is a speculative fiction book,  mashed up with sci fi, and a touch of horror.  A creative and inventive exploration of a fictional pandemic started by Ground water contamination. Each chapter explores themes of the environment, relationships, community, grief, death and dying.  Per notes, this was started in 2011- so it must have been wild for the author to experience the Covid 19 Pandemic as it unrolled.  The parallels are never far from the mind as one reads.   Definitely a thought provoking reading experience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Cancer, Racism, Animal cruelty, Death, Medical trauma, and Medical content

papercrw's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

torismazarine's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death of parent, Cancer, Confinement, Death, Pregnancy, Child death, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Medical content

Moderate: Confinement, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Dementia

Minor: Abandonment, Pregnancy, Classism, and Murder

arlaubscher's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Blood, Cancer, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal death, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Body horror, Medical content, and Suicide

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Classism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Dementia, Confinement, Mental illness, Gore, and Infertility

lpdx's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, Classism, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Chronic illness, Suicide, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Abandonment, Colonisation, Excrement, Pregnancy, and Vomit

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

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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

lottiegasp's review

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.

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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

anni_swanilda's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Child death, Chronic illness, Grief, Death of parent, Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Medical content, Mental illness, Suicide, and Animal death

Minor: Cancer and Sexual content

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.

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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

meagm's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

The audio version of this is the way to go, multiple voice actors really take it up a notch!! I loved this despite it making me cry like a baby for a bio-engineered pig of all things. Great character/plot about a post-pandemic world with a sci fi twist. Every chapter is a new person’s experience at different points in time spanning hundreds of years & they’re all so unique/straight weird sometimes. Dark and often difficult to read but very worth it if you like the more horror side of post-apocalyptic, but want to try something new. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Death, Grief, Terminal illness, Body horror, and Child death

Minor: Animal cruelty