"How High We Go in the Dark" Discuss Everything *Spoilers*

[Silvana]

Edited (Aug 17, 2024)

This is a group read now!
Hope you all enjoyed it as much as the previous buddyreaders :)

Old post (Jan 20, 2023)
Come and join Adelyn, Joelle, Olga, and I to read How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. BR starts on February 11, 2023.

Don't forget to use spoiler tags and tell us which chapter, page, part or % it's about.

[Cheryl]

I read this about a month ago.

Let me advise you - keep track of the characters! These are linked stories and you'll want to watch them all!

[Adelyn]

Thanks for setting up the thread! I’m excited to read this one :)

[Silvana]

Thanks Cheryl for the insight.
No problem, Adelyn.
And thanks for the mod who added the date in the title, I *knew* I was forgetting something when I made this thread LOL

[Anna]

You always start the threads perfectly, I'll forgive you this one lapse :P

--

This is now the September 2024 group read. Open spoilers starting from message #38

Non-spoiler thread here: First impressions

[Silvana]

Anna wrote: "You always start the threads perfectly, I'll forgive you this one lapse :P"

LOL I found out why I did not put the dates because usually I just copy paste the format from existing threads and yesterday there were none with dates.

On a side (random) note, I love the author's name, Sequoia, wow, I have a thing for tree-inspired names. I thought they're a she, but apparently a he. More about Sequioa: https://babynames.com/name/sequoia Such a cool name.

[Mindy]

I've heard a lot of great things about this book and I'm going to do my best to join!

[Silvana]

Would be glad to have you with us!

Okay I have two books to finish before this but will try to start on time-ish.

[Silvana]

Starting today

[Adelyn]

I’ll start later today too then. :)

[Joelle.P.S]

Oh, yall're so timely!
Meanwhile, I'd forgotten till about yesterday that local Horror Bookclub is this Thursday, so I'm squeezing in both The Stepford Wives (short, yay!) and The Last House on Needless Street (creepy!), in addition to a This All Come Back Now reread for Tuesday bookclub....
But I will start reading this book within the next few days!! :-D

[Silvana]

No worries, it seems that I'll be going slowly with this one

[Olga]

And of course I totally forgot about this BR, but fortunately got the notification about the thread.
Will do my best to start today. Looking forward to sharing this reading with y'all <3

[Adelyn]

Two chapters in. It's definitely got Station Eleven vibes. I'm enjoying it. It's a bit haunting.

[Silvana]

I am in the middle of chapter 2 I think, around 11%. The tone is a tad bit too melancholic for me, and my current headspace is now more geared to a more fast paced, less introspective read. Will try to continue to read but in very small doses.

[Adelyn]

I finished the book last night. I generally like short books with linked stories like this one, but this one won't be one I recommend.

I thought the early chapters were better. City of Laughter reminded me of the end of I Am a Cat.

Vague ending spoiler / Recommendation:
(view spoiler)[
If you like the book up until the last 15 pages, just go ahead and skip the end. It took away from what the author was attempting to build before that -- compassion, what it means to survive and be human, etc.
(hide spoiler)]

[Olga]

Almost halfway through chapter 2 and find it very difficult to go through all the news reports :(

[Joelle.P.S]

I started this book on the train home from bookclub yestereve and finished chapter 2 before bedtime. I'm captivated! (Omg: Osiris! 😱)

[Olga]

"Trough the garden of Memory" was a bit less depressing. It’s interesting to see how the stories are getting intertwined. I wonder, if there is any connection between the newborn and "Pig Son"…

I usually binge books, but this one I can’t read more than one chapters at a time. Yesterday somehow read these two and went into overdose. I do hope that there’s something positive in the end of the book…

[Silvana]

I have the same feeling, Olga, after reading the third story. The book is depressing. One story a day is max for me :-D

[Silvana]

41% percent now. The pig story (view spoiler)[was so sad, I almost cried. (hide spoiler)]

[Olga]

Done reading and still not sure if I'm glad I've read the book...
Copying the review from my page here, hope it's OK.
(view spoiler)[More like 3.5 rounded to 4.
It was a very difficult book to read.
At first - because of all the sadness and being so close to an actual pandemic, the book couldn't but make me think what if this really happened. It was just too close to home.
Then - because the characters and their crossovers between chapters started to accumulate and it was a bit difficult to fully grasp their connections.
Overall the book feels a bit underwhelming. The first chapters felt like a terrifying crescendo and I expected something cathartic should happen by the end of the book. The reading got easier after the chapter with the space ship because it became like a normal sci-fi book with little or no connection to the real world and the stories after that were just not that impactful for me (though still very sad). One of the chapters went absolutely over my head, I couldn't see its connection to the rest of the story beyond the fact that it's one more heartbreaking snapshot of someone's life in the wake of the pandemic.
The last chapter was the greatest surprise and the greatest disappointment. It did not make me feel proud for humanity conquering the virus and standing strong together in the face of unthinkable challenge. And it still left lots of questions unanswered. (hide spoiler)]

[Joelle.P.S]

Silvana wrote: "41% percent now. The pig story [spoilers removed]"

I agree! 😥

[Adelyn]

Olga, I completely agree (view spoiler)[ about the ending and your review. The build/terrifying crescendo just fizzled out. The ending just makes you go "wait.. so it's not about humanity overcoming an obstacle? It's about ... aliens who gave us the virus???" (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]

[Cheryl]

Hm. Overall I found it sad, yes, but not depressingly so like so many other books. I did enjoy it, much more than I would have a dystopia or something. I don't remember anything unsatisfying about the ending; maybe I'll go check it out.

[Silvana]

Just finished this and the first word coming out from my mouth was Huh?

I agree with Olga and Adelyn. Was prepared to give the book three stars but the ending made it two instead. I don't think it is well earned, idk.

[Joelle.P.S]

I've crossed 80% & I've enjoyed the book so far! I think each chapter is really imaginative.

The 1 thing a local bookclub friend said to me before she realised I hadn't yet read this 1: "That last chapter is totally unnecessary." Now that I see some of yall's reactions to the ending I'm looking forward to seeing what that's all about. ;-)

(I haven't clicked any end-spoiler tags yet. I'll get there in a day or 2!)

[Silvana]

Glad you are enjoying this, Joelle. I was thinking whether the depressing stuff would be more palatable or relatable with me if it is not divided into stories. I read many depressing, gut-wrenching books but able to enjoy them in some ways cause these sufferings are useful to the overall plot and/or character development but having it spliced into several stories where I barely had time to adjust and relate, it just did not work for me.

[Olga]

Yes, Silvana, absolutely! I was looking for stronger connections in later stories that would bind the overall continuum.
I just remembered, that I forgot to mention in my review that this felt very much similar to The Cloud Atlas. Where I expected to see some transcendental experience, were just a few barely connected stories that just brushed each other at best.

[Silvana]

Olga wrote: "Yes, Silvana, absolutely! I was looking for stronger connections in later stories that would bind the overall continuum.
I just remembered, that I forgot to mention in my review that this felt very..."

So glad to have you in this BR since you basically read my mind and able to put it into words LOL

"Where I expected to see some transcendental experience, were just a few barely connected stories that just brushed each other at best..."

Yet we have different ratings for the book...I think it's because I almost gave up a few times.

[Joelle.P.S]

Finished! I really liked it it all the way through, including the ending! I thought each chapter was a really imaginative thought experiment of some aspect of life in the wake of the pandemic. I enjoyed the connections sprinkled throughout, seeing previous chapters' main characters appear as side characters (or smaller mentions) in later chapters. I still needed to know more about the purple crystal necklace mentions going into that final chapter, & that was definitely answered, & not in a way I would have guessed! But the whole book had for me sorta a magical feel to it. I just really enjoyed the ride.

[Jessica]

This was on my TBR list so I read it too. I really appreciate the advice to only read one story at a time, until the final three stories that's what I did and it kept me making steady but slow progress through a pretty depressing book. I don't consider this a novel, to me it's a collection of short stories with similar themes. The characters didn't feel very distinct, and the female characters didn't feel female. The last story (view spoiler)[was difficult to follow and seemed like it didn't belong with the other stories; I'm not sure what the intended purpose was other than shifting to a universal perspective so the book didn't end on a depressing and tragic note (hide spoiler)]. I didn't enjoy it and don't plan on reading anything else by the author.

[Silvana]

Jessica wrote: "This was on my TBR list so I read it too. I really appreciate the advice to only read one story at a time, until the final three stories that's what I did and it kept me making steady but slow prog..."

Relatable....

Can you expand of what you meant by "the female characters didn't feel female"? I am curious.

[Silvana]

Joelle.P.S wrote: "Finished! I really liked it it all the way through, including the ending! I thought each chapter was a really imaginative thought experiment of some aspect of life in the wake of the pandemic. I en..."

do you think the book will go into the hugo best novel finalists?

[Joelle.P.S]

I've found myself enthusing about this book in multiple conversations lately. :-D

[Silvana]

Joelle.P.S wrote: "I've found myself enthusing about this book in multiple conversations lately. :-D"

a good chance then! I've seen many good reviews so it could be a strong contender.

[Jessica]

Silvana wrote: "Can you expand of what you meant by "the female characters didn't feel female"? I am curious.
--So many of the stories were about young people who did not meet the expectations of their families and were estranged from them, and family expectations are so frequently subtly or not-so-subtly gendered, that it surprised me that I could discern none of that in the stories. In fact, I sometimes had difficulty discerning what gender the characters were (when it was a female POV), they just seemed sort of neuter to me. I was also reading Nalo Hopkinson's Brown Girl In the Ring at the same time, and her characters were strongly and clearly female. Nagamatsu's weren't.

[SFFBC, Ancillary Mod]

A few questions to get us started:


1. What did you think of the world?
2. What did you think of the characters?
3. What worked or didn't for you?
4. Overall thoughts?

Non-spoiler thread here: First impressions

[Kevin]

I'm sorry to say I couldn't make it through this one. I actually started it a few months back and noped out after chapter two. I rarely give up on a book midway, but it was just way too heavy. I regretted even finishing chapter two. I had to actively find things to focus on for a day or two to get it out of my head.

It's good writing. I just couldn't handle it.

[Nelle]

Very understandable, Kevin! I read this back in 2022 so I don't remember many details, but remember thinking it was the darkest thing I had ever read. I did finish it and liked the story overall, but d--n, that roller coaster...

[Kevin]

Yup, the roller coaster was what did me in. I forced myself to finish the chapter even though I knew what was coming, I don't even know why I did that. The smart thing to do, knowing myself, would have been to just let it go mid-chapter.

[Cody]

This was my first read with the book club, and I loved it. There were a handful of chapters that had me in tears, and some stuck more than others, but overall I found it a really moving arc.

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

I was moved to tears. The novel is a lovely elegy about humanity - until that last chapter. Then it was that sound the record player stylus makes when tearing across the vinyl record moment!

[〰️Beth〰️]

Haven’t been active on GR in some time but am just returning and saw this was a monthly read. I read it when it first published and was moved by it. Actually read it in one sitting. I can see where some people might not enjoy it but I loved how everything was interconnected. Looking forward to getting involved in the group again.