June 2026: "How High We Go in the Dark" by Sequoia Nagamatsu > Likes and Comments

The June book is How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

Discussion will open June 1st, so you can start reading it any time before then.
Until the 1st, if you want to discuss any story specifics while it is fresh, just use Spoiler tags. After the 1st you'll only need them when it's a true spoiler.
Otherwise until then you can discuss generalities like your progress, if you're liking it, other books by the author, etc.

2022, 293 pages, 3.82 stars
$11.99 Kindle, print starting at $12.20, should be at library (put on hold now)

"Dr. Cliff Miyashiro arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue his recently deceased daughter's research, only to discover a virus, newly unearthed from melting permafrost. The plague unleashed reshapes life on earth for generations. Yet even while struggling to counter this destructive force, humanity stubbornly persists in myriad moving and ever inventive ways.

Among those adjusting to this new normal are an aspiring comedian, employed by a theme park designed for terminally ill children, who falls in love with a mother trying desperately to keep her son alive; a scientist who, having failed to save his own son from the plague, gets a second chance at fatherhood when one of his test subjects-a pig-develops human speech; a man who, after recovering from his own coma, plans a block party for his neighbours who have also woken up to find that they alone have survived their families; and a widowed painter and her teenaged granddaughter who must set off on cosmic quest to locate a new home planet."

I'm excited for this. It's been on my TBR for a while so maybe now I'll actually manage to read it haha.

I'm about halfway through now. It's a pleasant surprise.

My library has this! I am excited!

I finished this and am glad I gave it a shot. I think I had some preconceptions that made me wary and it turned out to be interesting. I'll be curious what other people think of it.

I absolutely loved this book and look forward to the discussion.

This was a 5⭐️ read for me. I will never look at rollercoasters the same.

Ah let me add the official...

DISCUSSION IS NOW OPEN

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Wasn't this wild? Very inventive. And some of the ideas were really pretty out there.

The rollercoaster was so bizarre. I can see how someone would come up with the idea (but not use it in reality), but it seems like a lot of things could go wrong.

I think this is one of those books where there are many details you could question, if you are a very literal person, or someone who picks apart what is and isn't "realistic". But the book's strength is partly in that is has imaginative concepts that make you think, if you don't get too mired in the plausibility aspect.

What did you all think?

No one else read this? It would have been good for discussion.

I mentioned in my review that this book really met the fantastical components with what grief and humanity looks like to different folks in varied positions - a young adult, widow, father, mother - coping with grief comes in such a wide range of

I read it 4 years ago and I don’t remember enough to discuss it.

So for those of us that read the book, does this come across as possible? I can see the parent react like they do with the smiley face. To me it is much like a parent watching their kid dying ans putting on the smile to make the kid feel better while the reality was anything but.

Did the multiple threads and jumping with the characters work for anyone?

While I prefer linear stories, I still felt like the jumping around worked here. In a way it keeps you a little off balance and from making too many assumptions, which kind of suits the multiple storylines.

I don't think this exact scenario with the roller coaster is plausible, but I can imagine the possibility of something similar. Maybe that's because I don't understand how it works. When and how do they die, exactly? I imagine things going wrong, and that would be extra nightmarish considering the serious aspect of it and the lack of anyone withint arm's reach. It's almost like it gives the parents an out from actually watching, which may appeal to some but to others would be nearly impossible.

I just got it from my library... I'm not a fan of time jumps, but I am going to give it a go.

I am so far behind…still have to get to this…