A review by taybug0001
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

One of the most intense books I’ve ever read. The characters’ stories are integrated in ways that make you feel like you need to read the book over and over again as not to miss a single thing. I can’t WAIT to read this again someday.

<SPOILER> Character Map:
1) 30,000 Years Beneath a Eulogy - Clara and her crystal pendant, Clara’s first Earth daughter, and Miki the artist

2) City of Laughter - Skip, Dorrie

3) Through the Garden of Memory - Everyone in this dark room was in a coma I think? We see memories of Clara and her first Earth daughter, and old Skip remembering Dorrie and Fitch (Ch 2), the lawyer Dan Paul (Ch 10), and the baby that was given a second chance at the end was Baba (Ch 13 Grave Friends).

I feel like there are more connections in this chapter but they went over my head.

4) Pig Son - Dorrie’s ex-husband

5) Elegy Hotel - Brian Yamato, his younger brother Dennis, and Dennis’s girlfriend Val who is later a passenger on the Yamato

6) Speak, Fetch, Say I Love You - robo-dog Hollywood that is later part of the shrine to deceased relatives (Ch 13 Grave Friends)

7) Songs of Your Decay - Laird who was the subject of one of Miki’s paintings?

8) Life Around the Event Horizon - Theresa (previously Clara) wears a crystal pendant and is married to Brian and is the one actually responsible for the Yamato

9) A Gallery a Century, a Cry, a Millennium - Miki and Dorrie paint the walls of the ship, Brian’s son and Val are also passengers

10) The Used-to-Be Party - Dan Paul the lawyer (Ch 3), Mabel the tattoo artist (Ch 12)

11) Melancholy Nights in a Tokyo Virtual Cafe - Ms. Takahashi also wears a crystal pendant and is looking for her mother. We later learn that she’s Nuri (Clara’s first daughter before Earth)

12) Before You Melt into the Sea - Mabel the tattoo artist and Dan Paul the lawyer (Ch 3, 10)

13) Grave Friends - Baba has memories of being a baby crawling through people (Ch 3), Hollywood is an old robo-dog from a great-great aunt

14) The Scope of Possibility - We learn Clara, Theresa, and the mother of the Siberian girl are the same person and the one who created Earth. She is searching for her daughter Nuri on Earth. She doesn’t know her daughter is Ms. Takahasi (Ch 11) who is also searching for her! </SPOILER>
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