How High We Go In The Dark Review

Follow a cast of intricately linked characters over hundreds of years as humanity struggles to rebuild itself in the aftermath of a climate plague

Beginning in 2030, a grieving archeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus.

Once unleashed, the Arctic Plague will reshape life on Earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy. In a theme park designed for terminally ill children, a cynical employee falls in love with a mother desperate to hold on to her infected son. A heartbroken scientist searching for a cure finds a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects—a pig—develops the capacity for human speech. A widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter embark on a cosmic quest to locate a new home planet.

From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead to interstellar starships, Sequoia Nagamatsu takes readers on a wildly original and compassionate journey, spanning continents, centuries, and even celestial bodies to tell a story about the resiliency of the human spirit, our infinite capacity to dream, and the connective threads that tie us all together in the universe.

General Impressions

The only reason I requested this book was that I simply would not pass the chance of reading a book by a person named Sequoia. I rightly assumed that only great things could follow such a name but, still, I was not prepared for the carousel of pain this book was about to put me through.

The first thing I read upon opening this book was a letter from the Bloomsbury editor who you could just feel had been through some things while reading this book. After finishing it, not only do I completely understand what, but we are in the same boat and I think a support group should be created.

This book consists of a collection of short stories starting when an expedition to the melting North Pole uncovers a family of Neanthartals and unleashes a virus that goes on to not only kill millions but change the way everything that humanity has grown used to works from economy to health to religion. From there on, each chapter is told through the point of view of a different character, in a different place and time. Each story is interconnected with the next but it's only when you get to the end of the book that the larger plot becomes obvious.

This is such an unforgettable and paradigm-changing book because not only did it put its finger on how humans would react to a pandemic but it took it several steps further by interconnecting that with capitalism, climate change and the new trillionaire led space race. Happy endings are few and far between so you have to find happiness and peace in the small moments, much like life.

I don't know what else to say about this book other than it changed me.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Bloomsbury for sending me this proof.

Rating: 5/5