Cover Image: How High We Go in the Dark

How High We Go in the Dark

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Member Reviews

A mix between sci-fi and literay, this is a novel that will stick with you long after you finish. A must read for those who enjoy multiple narratives. Such a great debut!

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Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience

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Reading this after a pandemic was probably a different experience than it would have been reading it pre pandemic. But well worth the occasional resurfacing of queueing outside Tesco memories. This is a beautiful, moving book

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My 51st book of the year and I LOVEDDDDDDD IT. Straight into my top 3 faves of 2022 and likely my top 10 of all time. How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu is a speculative fiction novel about a pandemic so I’d delayed reading it due to Covid, but if anything this epic, sweeping book made me hopeful humanity endures and I’m so glad I read it now. If you read and loved Station Eleven, it gave me those same feelings of hope in the face of the world, ostensibly, ending.

What can I tell you about How High We Go in the Dark? Oh my god, THE IMAGINATION. I want to sit down with the author @sequoia.n and ask him everything. For the first time in writerly history the question “where do you get your ideas from?” would yield an interesting answer. Told through interconnecting short stories with recurring characters, the novel opens with scientists discovering a long-dormant virus in the body of a Neanderthal girl uncovered by the melting polar ice caps, then cuts forward dramatically in time with each section tracing the path of humanity’s response to the “Arctic plague”. Anyone who’s seen me in real life these last few weeks has heard me say “I’m reading the most incredible book – it has a talking pig!” or “there’s a theme park for the dying so they can have one last fun day before a rollercoaster puts them to sleep forever, can you imagine?” Though the story repeatedly and thematically circles death, the imagination and reinvention with which it’s told means it’s never morbid. It’s beautiful. But if you’re grieving, I’d save this one for later.

I understand the comparisons to Cloud Atlas due to its epic scope and structure, but this is without doubt one of the most original and imaginative books I’ve ever read. Just as the story soars beyond the confines of our planet and human understanding, this is a book that soars far beyond the confines of its covers. Just sublime. Put me down as the number one fan.

Huge thanks to Bloomsbury for the ARC and I’m only sorry I delayed reading it so long!

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A series of interlinked stories about a worldwide plague pandemic and its aftermath, each occupying a chapter. Some chapters hit the mark whilst some do not, but overall imaginative and interesting writing.

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A really striking debut of linked stories set in the past, present and future that sucessfully blends sci-fi, eco-thriller and apocalyptic fiction.
Reminiscent in structure and reach of David Mitchell, the ending doesn't quite pull everything together, but it is an impressive, entertaining and enjoyable first novel

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This book gripped me but not as thoroughly as I was expecting with the high praise that it has been receiving, so my review is not as extensive.

I thought that the characters were well thought out and relatable, but the plot slightly fell flat for me. I thought perhaps the ideas were slightly too ambitious

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This was a really absorbing dystopian fiction focusing on a devastating pandemic that results in death becoming a huge part of everyone's daily life.

Most of this book was very affecting and beautifully written, with a large number of different POVs that take you through the years before and far after the pandemic itself. Many are intertwined, with characters mentioned and then appearing later or having their own POV told. This could be quite confusing, as some are very similar, but it was also interesting to see how they fit together. I felt like I needed a tree or diagram or something.

The speculative and sci-fi parts were really interesting, and I loved some of the unusual ideas discussed. Some chapters were devastating, and made me think a lot about my family and friends, and the future. It's a really strange book, and a difficult one to recommend due to the strong themes, but one that I do keep thinking about after finishing, and would reread.

A social media review will follow.

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An interesting read and timely with our own climate crisis backdrop. The characters played well together and the overall story was well written and depicted. I did get to parts where it was hard to persevere but overall it was enjoyable.

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I think originally when I first came across this story, I wanted to read something that was akin to the global pandemic of 2020 onwards. But not totally like it, as, well, we were all living it.
So a speculative sci-fi/fantasy/dystopian novel sounded perfect. Right?
Wrong.
It’s 2022, I’m catching up on my NetGalley books and have found that I, like a lot of people in the world, am completely fatigued by the pandemic, and that includes a fictionalised version of it too.

Many thanks for the ARC, and my profuse apologies, but I just can’t. It’s honestly become too much.

It’s not the book, it’s me.

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How High We go in the Dark is a speculative dystopian with a stunning cover that’s been compared to Station Eleven and Cloud Atlas. It caught my eye straight away, and I really wanted to like this one more than I did.


It is an original, imaginative and bold story of a terrifying pandemic spawned from an ancient virus which spans generations. You would think another pandemic tale may hit a little too close to home, but that isn’t the case here. This pandemic is much more deadly, and its consequences so bizarre and bleak that it felt almost otherworldly, and it works. This is an incredibly ambitious, explorative and wondrous piece of work.

But, I did have some issues. The first being the most obvious – this book is so full of death, it’s incredibly depressing. I know it’s the sign of a good author that they can make you feel so much, but this is a book you need to pace yourself with to avoid emotional trauma. It is incredibly bleak, with every chapter feeling like it ends in more death and desolation.

But, it is creative, and there’s some glimmers of genius in the sci-fi world the author creates. There’s a euthanasia theme park for children, a elegy hotel, robot dogs and even a talking pig.

I think another issue I personally had with this was the way the story was told. It’s promoted as a novel, but it’s essentially a collection of very loosely connected short stories. I’ve never got along with short stories, I don’t have enough time to connect with the characters, and that detracts from the story for me.

The characters started to feel repetitive. I liked that they were mainly all Japanese American or Japanese, but they’re also all mainly male, with complicated relationships with their parents and their culture. This would have been interesting to read about, except all their backstories started to feel the same, and reading the same self-centred diatribes and sob stories re-treaded numerous times in different forms became a little tedious.

So, I’m not sure how I feel about this one. It took me a long time to get through, and it’s not something I’d rush to recommend to friends. But I can’t help but respect the creativity, the scope of this novel and the incredibly evocative, emotional writing which will get under your skin – whether you want it to or not.

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This is an honest review in exchange for an ARC.

I am a big fan of dystopian novels and have found a lot of them very samey the last few years. While the basis of this story is nothing new to the genre it is a wonderfully written story with great depth.
The novel opens with a father travelling to Siberia following the death there of his somewhat estranged daughter. We learn of their loving but seemingly distant relationship and what has brought her there. What follows is the unleashing of an virus on the world. Similar to World War Z each chapter is taken from a different POV character which initially seem independent of each other but are expertly interwoven as the book progresses.
There are some heartbreaking and often harrowing moments in the book but also moments of beauty, love and hope. Within these moments are critiques of society and it's inequalities.
I really enjoy it and plan to reread to absorb more.

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A fascinating and well written exploration of humanity in the face of ruin - every character and story was at the very at least enjoyable to read, with several providing stand out moments that made me breeze through. Early contender for book of the year!

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I was absolutely blown away by this book, I think it's definitely one of my favourite books in recent years. I found the second chapter quite harrowing, but I also found a lot of solace and even comfort in facing some of my fears (that have been heightened in the last two years) about mortality through reading this book.

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As many people have already pointed out, the novel is beautifully written as a series of interconnected stories about life dealing with a plague.

Some of these stories, the scientist going to Alaska, and the fairground ride operator, are very affecting, and haunting in their portrayals of everyday, working class lives within a society that has been reorganised to treat mass death as normal.

I enjoyed reading this, but as someone who has read a lot of dystopian novels, there wasn’t much here that I thought was new.

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I have picked this book up and put it down so many times, I think How High We Go in the Dark is a case of the right book at the wrong time. The writing is gripping and the story pulls you in but I think it might be a little too close to the bone for right now.

I will definitely be starting (and hopefully finishing) this book again in the future.

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A very accomplished debut novel made of interlinked stories mingling a number of speculative themes, namely science fiction, climate fiction, into a inventive, magnificent piece of literary fiction that transcends the limits and the tropes of genre. The starting point is the death of a young researcher in Siberia an epidemics brought by a virus contained in the body of a girl unearthed from melting permafrost. The interconnected stories that ripple from her father’s narrative explore the impact and the aftermath on individuals and society in mostly in unexpected ways, from euthanasia theme parks to strange hotels developing on the desire of people to be with their deceased ones, to relationships in conditions of terminal illness.

While there is a strong focus and critique of capitalism and the way it still managers to define people’s lives, and some stories explore futuristic scenarios, the individual portraits Nagamatsu sketches are minimalistic but deep, keenly observed and make this novel a true epic of grief in a world dominated by death and loss. Visionary, unmissable milestone for those interested both in literary and speculative fiction.
4.5
Thanks to Bloomsbury and Netgalley for an ARC in exchangr for an honest review

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I knew that this was a speculative sci-fi and to be honest, I was a little unsure whether I’d gel with it. It’s a genre that I sometimes enjoy but other times, it seems a little too clever for me and I wasn’t sure which side of sci-fi this book would land on.

In 2030, an archeologist travels to Siberia to continue his dead daughter’s work uncovering the secrets underneath the melting ice. One of these secrets happens to be an ancient virus, which will change life on Earth immeasurably. The coming chapters explore the creative, heartbreaking ways that humans adapt to living alongside a devastating disease that is ravaging the globe.

Before her death, research scientist Clara gave up a lot to try and make the world a better place. Some people will say that the long periods of time away from her young daughter makes her selfish but her diary entries depicted her as a determined revolutionary, who had nothing but her daughter’s future in mind. Achieving big dreams like this will always require equally big sacrifice and Clara pays the ultimate price for that.

The idea of a deadly virus, hibernating under miles of snow being unearthed is a horrifying thought, especially in light of the pandemic that we are still living through. However, when I think about the damage that we’ve done to our world, it seems inevitable to me that there are more plagues just waiting to be unleashed. Something will wipe us out eventually and perhaps it’s only a matter of time. It sounds bleak but this book reminded me of the very scary possible future that awaits us, if we don’t start looking after ourselves and the planet.

There is a section of the book narrated by a worker at a euthanasia park for terminally ill children. The park is home to a rollercoaster that kills the kids very quickly and parents bring their dying offspring to the park when all hope for them has gone. It’s a truly horrific, gut-wrenching concept but it makes for a very powerful, moving story of human strength and spirit.

The book is also very reflective on life and the unexpected joy and relief that some people find at the end of it. It’s a huge concept for me to try and wrap my head around but the idea that death can be welcomed is an uplifting one. To be so calm and accepting of the inevitable is an enormous thing to be able to do and it definitely put me in a very thoughtful headspace.

There is a part where a group of people who seem to be between the worlds of the living and the dead have congregated and these beautiful, glowing orbs containing their memories appear. Watching them revisit their lives and having the opportunity to see their impacts and legacies played out before their eyes was such a beautiful concept. I think I’d love to read a whole novel set in this strange, weightless, in-between place with characters learning all about what they’re leaving behind.

No contemporary literary novel is complete without some commentary on the world we live in and there were parts that alluded to the injustices of class systems and societal prejudices. These only serve to fuel our deep reflections on where we are as humans and highlight the areas that urgently need our attention.

How High We Go In The Dark is a lot more than a dystopian, pandemic novel. It’s very imaginative while maintaining a lot of reality. The writing is full of carefully thought-out phrases and ideas, which often blew my mind. It is a wonderful novel about resilience, connection and sacrifice and the limitless world of the human mind.

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In 2030, an archaeologist arrives in Serbia to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter, who has discovered the remains of a long-dead girl preserved in the ice who appears to have died of an ancient virus. How High We Go in the Dark is a collection of short stories stemming from the outbreak of the Arctic plague, exploring humanity’s adaptation to tragedy. From a euthanasia theme park for terminally ill children, to a test-subject pig developing the capacity for human speech, to hotels for the dead, this book spans centuries and continents, showing the resilience of the human spirit and the threads that connect the universe together.

This book was totally not what I was expecting – and it was brilliant. It isn’t exactly light reading, especially in the midst of the current pandemic, but it is also incredibly compassionate and compelling. Fortunately, the Arctic plague is different enough from Covid-19 to keep a fantastical, fictional feel to the story.

There were, of course, some stories I liked more than others – the opening story with the discovery of the body containing the virus, and “Pig Son” featuring Snortorious the talking pig were my particular favourites – but I really appreciated the way they all linked together.

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A post apocalyptic tale told using short stories from various characters at different points throughout the plague unleashed by a virus discovered in melting permafrost!

I really enjoyed this selection of stories, my favourites were the one featuring the theme park which euthanises sick children (so touching) and Pig Boy which had me sobbing.

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