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A review by christynhoover
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
- 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
4.0
It was the audiobook and I didn't give it the concentrated attention that it probably deserved.
It was part dystopian and part speculative fiction. Eventually I recognized that descendents of earlier characters were appearing in the story line so it unfolds as a collection of connected stories over maybe a 100-year period in the course of the book.
The most interesting part was that there is what I'll call a novel micro-organism that causes a worldwide pandemic (called "plague" in the book) that was generally fatal and how individuals dealt with mortality knocking at their door So a kind of story for/of our time! But by midway or so in the book the storyline is in the AFTERMATH of the plague with individuals looking back on it, etc.
There was a thread of a focus on LOVE --characters making it a point to TELL others that they love them and, in some cases, characters expressing REGRET at NOT telling someone that they loved them. That softened the tone of the book for me.
It was part dystopian and part speculative fiction. Eventually I recognized that descendents of earlier characters were appearing in the story line so it unfolds as a collection of connected stories over maybe a 100-year period in the course of the book.
The most interesting part was that there is what I'll call a novel micro-organism that causes a worldwide pandemic (called "plague" in the book) that was generally fatal and how individuals dealt with mortality knocking at their door So a kind of story for/of our time! But by midway or so in the book the storyline is in the AFTERMATH of the plague with individuals looking back on it, etc.
There was a thread of a focus on LOVE --characters making it a point to TELL others that they love them and, in some cases, characters expressing REGRET at NOT telling someone that they loved them. That softened the tone of the book for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide, Terminal illness, Animal death, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Child death, Grief, Death, and Death of parent