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A review by _cecilie_
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
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? Yes
3.5
First off, after reading my last short story collection that was a bit underwhelming so to speak, I wanted to take a break but clearly forgot what this book was when starting to read it. Lucky for me, it isn’t structured like the typical collection where the stories may very superficially have similar themes and settings, it’s more like the author had an idea for specific type of setting and story but too many characters and plot ideas for a novel to work, so decided to write a short story collection instead.
All of the stories deal with individual fates in a post-apocalyptic world where some type of virus has swept over the planet, killing millions of people in the duration of the pandemic – very topical indeed. The stories have been arranged chronologically, the first story taking place right after the inciting discovery and following outbreak. The next ones all deal with the dystopian fallout of this new plague, the horror, uncertainty, denial, mourning and death on a global and individual level. Most of them have a deeply melancholic, very personal and occasionally hopeful feeling and are generally linked through their themes, the universe they take place in and some of the characters having a tangential impact on each other's lives. Another big feature in this collection is the trope ‘found family’ which I admittedly enjoy reading about.
The characters are almost all Asian or Asian-American, which offers a perspective that differs from many other sci-fi main charac-ters and I personally thought it was interesting. All of them have at least aspects which are relatable to probably most readers but they do vary: we have scientist who are bad mothers but good people, depressed yet sympathetic comedians, small children, music lovers, researchers and everyday people alike struggling with ethics, pig boys, avoidant sons, quiet parents disconnected from their children, dead relatives, doctors, patients, introverted neighbours, virtual identities and … aliens?
It’s a lot. And that is also my biggest criticism with this short story collection. After a certain time all the voices, all the people, all the individual fates blend together. It’s just too many stories and I’d have rated this higher if the collection had been better curated.
All of the stories deal with individual fates in a post-apocalyptic world where some type of virus has swept over the planet, killing millions of people in the duration of the pandemic – very topical indeed. The stories have been arranged chronologically, the first story taking place right after the inciting discovery and following outbreak. The next ones all deal with the dystopian fallout of this new plague, the horror, uncertainty, denial, mourning and death on a global and individual level. Most of them have a deeply melancholic, very personal and occasionally hopeful feeling and are generally linked through their themes, the universe they take place in and some of the characters having a tangential impact on each other's lives. Another big feature in this collection is the trope ‘found family’ which I admittedly enjoy reading about.
The characters are almost all Asian or Asian-American, which offers a perspective that differs from many other sci-fi main charac-ters and I personally thought it was interesting. All of them have at least aspects which are relatable to probably most readers but they do vary: we have scientist who are bad mothers but good people, depressed yet sympathetic comedians, small children, music lovers, researchers and everyday people alike struggling with ethics, pig boys, avoidant sons, quiet parents disconnected from their children, dead relatives, doctors, patients, introverted neighbours, virtual identities and … aliens?
It’s a lot. And that is also my biggest criticism with this short story collection. After a certain time all the voices, all the people, all the individual fates blend together. It’s just too many stories and I’d have rated this higher if the collection had been better curated.