**5+/5 Stars**

Where to even start with this magnificent book? Sequoia Nagamatsu‘s How High We Go in the Dark is a series of deeply interconnected stories told across thousands of years (maybe a couple million years?!) of time and over numerous generations of families. I will warn you that this is a difficult book to read if you are down or depressed. If you have experienced child loss or any sort of really terrible thing as of late, Chapter 2 is probably not for you. Some of the content may feel all too familiar after surviving a plague of our time.

If you can handle the overwhelming wave of emotions that comes when reading about life and death amid a devastating global plague, then please, please read this book. I was initially drawn in by the character of an archaeologist, who loses his daughter to an odd prehistoric virus found in the remains of an ancient child’s skeletal remains. Each story that follows after this is sort of like Russian nesting dolls; they have overlapping patterns, themes, and people who are all struggling to find meaning in the world. This book isn’t just about darkness and death; it is also about hope, grit, resilience, and longing. It covers the entire range of human emotions.

As someone who loves futuristic dystopian novels, I was immediately sold on this book, as weird and unique as some of its stories are. There is an entire chapter about a genetically modified pig who learns to speak, and you will find yourself never wanting to eat bacon after it. Some chapters make you question the ethics of how we might recall and recreate our loved ones in the not-too-distant technological future. Many chapters make you question what makes us human and what emotions may be unique to our species.

Overall, this was an incredibly powerful book and I cannot wait to see what this author writes in the future.