How High We Go In The Dark || Sequoia Nagamatsu ★★★★☆ Started: 31.05.2025 Finished: 07.06.2025
How High We Go in the Dark || Sequoia Nagamatsu ★★★★☆ Started: 31.05.2025 Finished: 07.06.2025
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. From funerary skyscrapers to hotels for the dead, How High We Go in the Dark follows a cast of intricately linked characters spanning hundreds of years as humanity endeavours to restore the delicate balance of the world. This is a story of unshakable hope that crosses literary lines to give us a world rebuilding itself through an endless capacity for love, resilience and reinvention. Wonderful and disquieting, dreamlike and all too possible.
More Posts from Embracing-the-shortness and Others
Pandora's Box || Osamu Dazai ★★★★☆ Started: 24.02.2025 Finished: 13.03.2025 The war is over. Japan is defeated. Together with his country, a young man must rebuild his life. He will begin at a sanatorium, where everyone gets a nickname, surrounded by an interesting ensemble of patients and caregivers.
Autobiography of Red || Anne Carson ★★★★★ Started: 25.01.2025 Finished: 22.02.2025 “There is no person without a world.” And, it turns out, there is no monster without a world. An immensely rich, if, by his own admission, somewhat monochromatic inner world. "Autobiography of Red" is not so much a typical contemporary mythological retelling, and more a tale of self discovery, painful love, and, inevitably, acceptance, set against a relatively modern backdrop (read: not the Ancient Greece the namesakes of these characters inhabited). More than anything else, it's the writing itself that elevates this work into a true masterpiece: concise, evocative, at times heart-wrenching, unfailingly exquisite. It is no easy task to fit so much meaning into so few pages, most authors veer into empty purple prose in attempts to justify their retellings, but not Anne Carson - therein lies her strength as an author. She doesn't simply rehash the myth as we know it, but reinvents it, brings it into the new age, makes it speak to the modern audience. In her novel "A Short History of Myth", Karen Armstrong argues the following: “A myth, therefore, is true because it is effective, not because it gives us factual information. If, however, it does not give us new insight into the deeper meaning of life, it has failed.” Following this logic, it wouldn't be unfair to say that, where most contemporary retellings fail "Autobiography of Red" achieves a roaring, resounding success.
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter || Brandon Sanderson ★★★★★ Started: 15.02.2025 Finished: 23.02.2025 Yumi comes from a land of gardens, meditation, and spirits, while Painter lives in a world of darkness, technology, and nightmares. When their lives suddenly become intertwined in strange ways, can they put aside their differences and work together to uncover the mysteries of their situation and save each other’s communities from certain disaster? The second one of Sanderson's secret projects that I read (after Tress of the Emerald Sea, another five star read), and Yumi is just as good, if not better - the narration is similarly humorus, the world is completely different yet still whimsical and meticulously thought out, and the characters - simply lovable - you can't help but root for Yumi and Painter from start to finish. The action does take some time to truly pick up the pace, but the payoff is absolutely worth it!
If bravery is the wind that makes us soar like kites, fear is the string that keeps us from going too far.
Tress of the Emerald Sea, Brandon Sanderson
January 2025 reads!
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi || S.A. Chakraborty ★★★★☆ Started reading: 01.01.2025 Finished reading: 07.01.2025 This was a lot more fun than I thought it would be! I can't wait to see what the sequel has in store for us!
All the Lovers in the Night || Mieko Kawakami ★★★☆☆ Started: 28.12.2024 Finished: 18.01.2025 Hmmm, given how popular Kawakami is, I expected more from this book… not that it was bad, per se, just that it wasn't particularly remarkable or even memorable. Maybe I should have tried "Breast and Eggs" first
Anxious People || Frederik Backman ★★★★★ Started: 24.01.2025 Finished: 30.01.2025 Buddy read Trust Frederik Backman to make you cry with his heartwarming novels about found family.
The Will of the Many || James Islington ★★★★★ Started: 25.12.2024 Finished: 31.01.2025 Favourite read of January 2025 ♥ Where do I even begin with this incredible book? I loved the worldbuilding, I loved the characters, I loved the writing - it could not have been much better, and I had some pretty high expectations going in. James Islington managed to surpass them all. Safe to say I'm impatiently waiting for "Strength of the Few"!
𝔱𝔯𝔦𝔠𝔨 𝔬𝔯 𝔱𝔯𝔢𝔞𝔱! 🎃 happy halloween my friends!
Working 9 to 5, reading 5 to 9. I do occasionally post in Bulgarian.
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