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A review by yooniereads
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I would just like to start us off with the fact that this book gave me the emotional catharsis that “A Little Life” couldn’t, and that’s saying something.
Nagamatsu’s anthology is so visceral and heartbreaking because of the expanse of stories you follow through. What I love about this is how he trusts his audience— he doesn’t spoon feed you the whole picture, because he trusts you to unravel it. That factor lends to how palpable and real these stories felt. His use of language is so intentional, and his writing draws you in so easily in the short handful of pages these characters exist in. You root for them, you cry for them, and you definitely feel for them. It’s simply so masterful at that!
And because of how it closes in on how the big, big chunks of history affects an individual, it’s a good thinking piece of how our social reality constructs so much of how we grieve, how we love, and how we feel. And since you’re following these stories through a span of so many years, you see how it affects people from different walks of life: those who lived before the plague, those born during, and even those born after.
This book is certainly existential, and I know I will spend days thinking of and crying over certain lines. That’s what I love about it. It holds up a mirror to our own current landscape and says, “This is what it means to be human.” I highly recommend, and I hope it brings you the same sense of solace it gave me. :)
Nagamatsu’s anthology is so visceral and heartbreaking because of the expanse of stories you follow through. What I love about this is how he trusts his audience— he doesn’t spoon feed you the whole picture, because he trusts you to unravel it. That factor lends to how palpable and real these stories felt. His use of language is so intentional, and his writing draws you in so easily in the short handful of pages these characters exist in. You root for them, you cry for them, and you definitely feel for them. It’s simply so masterful at that!
And because of how it closes in on how the big, big chunks of history affects an individual, it’s a good thinking piece of how our social reality constructs so much of how we grieve, how we love, and how we feel. And since you’re following these stories through a span of so many years, you see how it affects people from different walks of life: those who lived before the plague, those born during, and even those born after.
This book is certainly existential, and I know I will spend days thinking of and crying over certain lines. That’s what I love about it. It holds up a mirror to our own current landscape and says, “This is what it means to be human.” I highly recommend, and I hope it brings you the same sense of solace it gave me. :)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, and Medical content
Moderate: Medical trauma and Pregnancy