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

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

 
Look at this cover...gorgeous. Also, this was billed as being for fans of Station Eleven (which I loved) and Cloud Atlas (which I read a long time ago, way before I began reviewing/blogging, but do remember really enjoying). So really, mostly a no brainer on adding it to my "to be read" list. 
 
How High We Go in the Dark opens in the year 2030, with a grieving archeologist who joins a team in the Arctic Circle that uncovers the body of a young girl in the melting permafrost, a body that, as it is being studied, unleashes an ancient virus. A virus that becomes what Earth will call the Arctic Plague, changing the shape and reality of the world as we know it for generations, for the entire future, to come. From the immediate impact, hundreds of thousands of deaths with no cure in sight, to the research into treatments and the industries that spring up around death and mourning, to the search for alternatives with virtual reality and interstellar exportation, to the coping mechanisms and rebuilding of generations down the line, these interconnecting voices tell a chorus of experiences over generations as they confront and adjust to a population- and planet-altering pandemic. 
 
Whoa, was this ever correctly marketed! Amazing. This mixes the speculative fiction style of apocalypse/post-apocalypse life on Earth with the literary device of myriad interconnected stories/narrations (a la Girl, Woman, Other), with legitimate sci-fi theory and imagination, with spectacular metaphysical reflection on what it means to live and die, with truly impressive character development considering that each only gets a single chapter to make their individual perspective heard. Let me just focus on the writing to start. It was fantastic. Considering how many different MCs told this story, I felt that each was unique and had their own voice. This was maybe partially helped by the fact that the experiences they had were so different, and that listening to the audiobook (which was read by a full cast) meant each had its own different narrator, but still, I was impressed. The little details and side characters from each of the chapters that show up dispersed throughout the other sections do a fantastic job tying things together. Plus, this style was a great way to jump forward in time to get the highlights of progression over time, keeping things moving and the reader invested and not getting bogged down in the details of time passing. And beyond that, it was just really smooth, compelling, writing. 
 
Topically, this was like a much-worse-than-COVID plague situation, combined with an environmental collapse that is also more dire than our present situation (though perhaps not *that* far off), so it was foreign enough to feel ok to read it, even as we are still coming out of our own pandemic situation. However, do be careful if reading something along these lines could be a potential trigger for you - there is quite a bit of death and death-related content. In fact, the themes of end of life care and decisions, grief and mourning, and moving on (or not), are central throughout, and the reader is treated to myriad ways that these things can play out as people figure out how to face these realities. I was absolutely fascinated by the array of industries that pop up around death, including euthanasia theme parks, funerary skyscrapers and hotels for the dead, robodogs with stored recordings, creative ways to spread ashes and hold funeral ceremonies, and more. It was both frighteningly capitalistic and also increasingly creative and artful, the way people created ways to comfort during end-of-life, to say goodbye, and to keep memories of dead loved ones alive. I especially appreciated, across the board, the highlighting of the importance of art for remembrance and honor and resilience of individuals and civilizations. Because this novel addresses not only the immediate hard truths, but also takes us into future generations, to explore how honoring and remembering historical tragedies changes across cultures and as generations get further and further removed (yet also shows how imprints of and some changes that resulted stay permanent). There was not a lot of delving into complications of diversity as far as race and queerness and other complicating factors (though definitely a recognition of socioeconomic differences), so that's depth of perspective that wasn't quite there. Overall though, inventive and incredibly moving. 
 
I want to mention one other thing before closing this review: that last chapter though! I mean I was fully invested in and impressed with this novel anyways, but the framework that last chapter gave you to re-contextualize everything you had just read, the way it pulled not only this story but all of Earth's history together before it, together was so conceptually cool! There were a couple specific date/event mentions or callouts that crossed the line into a little too cheesy or perfect, but I understand the gravitas that gave the speaker, the assurance to the reader that they're speaking truth and not from their own (potentially misguided) self-importance, so I'm giving that a pass. Maybe cheesy, maybe trope-y, but it was unexpected enough that I ended up loving it. 
 
For a book that primarily deals with and focuses on death/dying, there was just so much insight into life and living and healing, both during and post-tragedy, on levels both micro and macro, and I was really affected by this expansive, creative, and fundamentally human story. A surprise early contender for my favorite books of the year list! 
 
“It’s time to wake up.” 
 
“People like to forget about the sadness of the city […] They walk and walk. No one stops. It’s like we’re all still infected. We choose to be blind to each other’s suffering. It might make things easier to bear, but our hearts are cold.” 
 
“In suffering, he said, we found our heart. In suffering, we found new tradition, a way forward.” 
 
“Death had become a way of life.” 
 
“Hope, love, ingenuity.” 
 
“I don’t regret finding love and always thinking about possibility…” 
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