Book: How High We Go in the Dark
Author: Sequoia Nagamatsu
Genre: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Fiction

Alex wants you to know that this review is written as he is curled up in the corner in the foetal position, crying and asking “why”.

That. Was. Depressing.

Seriously, like what the hell.

How High We Go in the Dark is basically a collection of pandemic era short-stories written post-COVID. They range from the downright depressingly morbid, to the absolutely bat-shit mental.

If I take a moment to reflect on this collection, I think I have a better time of understanding it if I see it as a transition from story-to-story, as though the author is attempting to move the reader through the seven stages of grief. From downright shock and denial at what is happening, through to acceptance and hope.

I don’t usually do this, but I’m going to give a one line-review of each of the short-stories given they all change in both tone and quality so much:

30,000 Years Beneath a Eulogy: A strong set-up for what will become a time-spanning epic series of stories. 3/5
The City of Laughter: Horrible, morbid, depressing. Just awful. 1/5
Through the Garden of Memory: Too edgy for my tastes. 2/5
Pig Son: Just the right amount of edgy for my tastes. 3.5/5
Elegy Hotel: Dennis is an asshole. 2/5
Speak, Fetch, Say I Love You: This one hurt my heart. 4.5/5
Songs of Your Decay: Everyone is a bit of an asshole. 2.5/5
Life Around the Event Horizon: Trippy but weirdly real. 3/5
A Gallery A Century, A Cry A Millennium: Beautiful. 4/5
The Used-To-Be Party: Weirdly relatable. 4/5
Melancholy Nights in a Tokyo Virtual Reality Café: A sad story of loneliness. 4/5
Before You Melt into the Sea: Putting the fun in funeral. 4/5
Grave Friends: An insight into the way grief and familial relationships work. 3.5/5
The Scope of Possibility: A superb ending to complete the collection. 4.5/5

I nearly DNF’d after story 2 but as you can see from the above, the book gets vehemently better as you go.

A harrowing, and often unnecessarily morbid and depressing take on the fears that humanity now have to live with in a world that can be so easily impacted by disease.

3.4/5.0

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