[Subdue]How High we go in the dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu, 4.5 stars

[NancyJ]

I just finished this book and the last story was so exciting and satisfying to me that it spiked a book high! I love how the author structured the book overall. I immediately gave it 5 stars, but in balance, it might drop down to 4 stars when I consider the parts that were less enthralling. This book is a set of interconnected short stories set over the span of hundreds of years -- and a lot longer when you consider the beginning and ending. The book is speculative fiction based on the idea that there might be deadly substances buried in the arctic ice in Siberia. In the first story, scientists discover the body of a girl buried under the arctic ice. A virus is released that has unusual effects in the bodies of children especially. This is different (worse) than Covid, but of course our own experiences will influence how we interpret some of the stories. All (or nearly all) of the stories are connected to at least one other story. Often we'll hear the perspectives of several characters within a family or group. I want to go back now and reread the first couple stories along with the last, to confirm my perception of how certain events or characters were linked. I'm particularly curious about the links between two mother-daughter pairs. There was one story in the middle that I skimmed through because it seemed meaningless (and depressing), but later there was a story from his brother's pov that made me want to reconsider my initial judgment.

One aspect of the book that I enjoyed was the idea that entrepreneurial-minded humans will always find ways to capitalize on changes in the world. In this case, death related businesses became big - which is good since many other jobs were now obsolete. My favorite was the amusement parks designed for terminally ill children. It's a creative (but dark) twist on the Make a Wish idea. Some of these chapters are depressing, but I enjoyed the creativity and found some humor there.