Reviews tagging 'Dementia'

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

4 reviews

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

shoshin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

5.0

I cried, I was constantly surprised and unprepared, I thought and felt deeply. A trip and a half. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Cancer, Abandonment, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Violence, Dementia, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, and War

If you like to be warned about disturbing content:

There is euthanasia of children in large numbers. There is also a sentient pig who chooses to die rather than suffer a painful death or be studied by the government. These are both pretty graphic descriptions, and aren't really captured by the content warnings. It's an intense book.

whatswrenreading's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful mysterious 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

4.5

A dark, yet hopeful story that deftly weaves individual stories together in subtle ways. It's dark, plague stories always are, especially in the current world state were living in. But the interconnectedness and human emotions explored in many of these tales leave you with a spark of hope, for safety, for connection, for a brighter future for those who come after us. 

I found some of the stories stronger than the others, a few that could have been cut down or left out without losing anything in the process. Some of the characters are a pain, but that's kind of the point. Also great to mention that most of the characters are Asian, and located throughout various cities in the world. There were times where stories leaned heavily on the experience of growing up under strict Asian parents and the relationship/trauma that came from that childhood. Many if not all the audiobook narrators are also AAPI from my understanding, and they do an absolutely haunting and beautiful job narrating this tale, it was a breathtaking experience. 

The stories that stuck with me most were the Theme park for dying kids, Pig Father, and painting the spaceship (all of which connected funnily enough), as well as the robo-dogs, and the Virtual Reality forums (topical discussion around lack of governmental supports for mental health and support for folks with disabilities). The Void was also very beautiful, despite it feeling out of place until much later in the book. 

Big ol list of TRIGGER WARNINGS:
Pandemic, plague, child death, mass graves, euthanasia, medication, medical trials, mass casualties, suicide, cremation, talk of human remains, emotional abuse, use of recreational drugs and alcohol, dissociation, filicide, death of a disabled child, animal death, sexual content, minor gore. 

All in all, a dark and hopeful tale, with some interesting sci-fi vibes. Check the trigger warnings and take care of yourself while reading💕

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Medical content, Death, Medical trauma, Terminal illness, Body horror, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent, Suicide, Cancer, and Chronic illness

Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Dementia