A review by carriepond
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

3.75

This dystopian tale that begins as a global pandemic ravages humanity read more like a series of interconnected stories than a true novel, which had some positives and some negatives for me. On the positive side, it was interesting to see the story develop and see how the various chapters connected to the ones before it; however, it sometimes felt a little hard to track the threads and the pacing felt clunky off-- the beginning third or so really gripped me, but then there was a lull for me until it grabbed me again at the end. It also made for a slow reading experience, especially because of the heavy subject matter, though, perhaps that was ultimately a good thing-- some books are better consumed slowly!

That said, Nagamatsu writes beautifully, and the stand-out parts of this book will stick with me for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Child death