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A review by richardrbecker
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Maybe it's because the real pandemic we shared is too fresh in my experience to appreciate the one imagined Sequoia Nagamatsu, none of the stories within How High We Go In The Dark resonated with me. The work is desolate and bleak, filled with people so used to this imagined climate plague that their often similar and even repetitive analysis overshadows any empathy, emotion, hope, or anything.
That's not to say that writing isn't without merit. Sequoia Nagamatsu is a fine writer. The premise is almost suitable, linking characters over hundreds of years to tell the story of humanity in the aftermath of an arctic-born virus.
It's just that while the story is supposed to tell about the resiliency of the human spirit, the plague is so hard-baked into people's psyches that they cannot escape it, even after they escape it. Ergo, if How High We Go In The Dark started with the Black Plague instead of the one imagined, we would still be talking about it daily as if it shaped our existence.
Fortunately, humankind isn't like that. In the next decade, we'll mostly forget about the last pandemic because the fading of its experience is as much a part of the healing process as finding a place for it in our collective history. Unfortunately for the characters tucked inside Nagamatsu's work, that will not be the case. They will be forced to think of little else, even when faced with more intimate and immediate loss or gain.
That's not to say that writing isn't without merit. Sequoia Nagamatsu is a fine writer. The premise is almost suitable, linking characters over hundreds of years to tell the story of humanity in the aftermath of an arctic-born virus.
It's just that while the story is supposed to tell about the resiliency of the human spirit, the plague is so hard-baked into people's psyches that they cannot escape it, even after they escape it. Ergo, if How High We Go In The Dark started with the Black Plague instead of the one imagined, we would still be talking about it daily as if it shaped our existence.
Fortunately, humankind isn't like that. In the next decade, we'll mostly forget about the last pandemic because the fading of its experience is as much a part of the healing process as finding a place for it in our collective history. Unfortunately for the characters tucked inside Nagamatsu's work, that will not be the case. They will be forced to think of little else, even when faced with more intimate and immediate loss or gain.