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A review by yak_attak
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
3.0
How High We Go in the Dark was a book that I was *sure* for so much of it that I would end up liking quite a bit. It presents as a series of interconnected short stories, that build and weave together, telling stories surrounding an incredibly deadly outbreak of an ancient virus, the social changes that it influences, and how humanity continues and lives on through and becomes more than its grief and pain. The stories are decently written, told in a nice straightforward style, and a couple of them in particular are fairly heart wrenching.
The thing that really dragged on me is, unfortunately, how samey they ended up being.
Nagamatsu is working with a lot of good stuff. He's particularly focused on damaged or estranged families, grief, loss and coming to terms with death, on immigrant asian experiences, and lastly some simple but sci-fi technological ideas to base things around - a robot dog that records your loved one's voice, a black hole generator, a roller coaster that kills you.... It's a wonderful mix of great themes that lead to a number of great stories and poignant moments, it's just that... it's kinda always the same theme done the same way. If you read one or two of the stories, I don't know that any of the others are going to surprise you.
I think the themes hit their apex early with 'Elegy Hotel', a story about an estranged son who works at a death hotel, who's being asked by his brother to care for his dying mother. Partially I think things are at their most straightforward here, and there's no sci-fi twist to really get in the way. Nothing wrong with those stories, but this is the core of things. 'Pig Son' is the other big standout, and I quite liked the generation ship story nearer to the end as well.
But more and more it felt like reading repeats. The same ideas, the same tone, the same outcome - these are beautiful things to deal with, but I'm not sure Nagamatsu *does* enough with it over the course of the stories. We weave together stories and characters meet each other, but it doesn't matter because they all seem homogenous, bland.
This is likely a me thing, I think if you read the first few stories and love them and weep (very likely) you'll love the rest of the book. Most seem to. And don't get me wrong, I think on the whole these are great stories, I just wanted more from this - a book that's poignant and moving on the surface, but that I'll walk away from and forget about pretty darn quick.
The thing that really dragged on me is, unfortunately, how samey they ended up being.
Nagamatsu is working with a lot of good stuff. He's particularly focused on damaged or estranged families, grief, loss and coming to terms with death, on immigrant asian experiences, and lastly some simple but sci-fi technological ideas to base things around - a robot dog that records your loved one's voice, a black hole generator, a roller coaster that kills you.... It's a wonderful mix of great themes that lead to a number of great stories and poignant moments, it's just that... it's kinda always the same theme done the same way. If you read one or two of the stories, I don't know that any of the others are going to surprise you.
I think the themes hit their apex early with 'Elegy Hotel', a story about an estranged son who works at a death hotel, who's being asked by his brother to care for his dying mother. Partially I think things are at their most straightforward here, and there's no sci-fi twist to really get in the way. Nothing wrong with those stories, but this is the core of things. 'Pig Son' is the other big standout, and I quite liked the generation ship story nearer to the end as well.
But more and more it felt like reading repeats. The same ideas, the same tone, the same outcome - these are beautiful things to deal with, but I'm not sure Nagamatsu *does* enough with it over the course of the stories. We weave together stories and characters meet each other, but it doesn't matter because they all seem homogenous, bland.
This is likely a me thing, I think if you read the first few stories and love them and weep (very likely) you'll love the rest of the book. Most seem to. And don't get me wrong, I think on the whole these are great stories, I just wanted more from this - a book that's poignant and moving on the surface, but that I'll walk away from and forget about pretty darn quick.