Seattle summers just make everything feel possible. You can see the silver linings a little better in the sunshine. And that makes it a little easier to enjoy some sad summer reads. Right?

If you want proof, check out Sequoia Nagamatsu’s How High We Go in the Dark, a speculative fiction masterpiece published in 2022 that still has Meet Me Here co-host Katie Campbell reeling.

No one is feeding our desire for escapism fantasy on a hot summer day quite like Sequoia. And the guy has hot takes to match the heat. He joined us this week for a special bonus episode to talk about them.

If you need some help filling the void after reading “How High We Go in the Dark,” check out Sequoia and Katie’s RIYL:

• We Lived on the Horizon by Erika Swyler

• Light from Other Stars by Erika Swyler

• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

• The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel

• Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

• The Changeling by Victor LaValle

• Anything by J.G. Ballard

• The Complete Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino

• Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

• Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

• Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

• Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers

• Noumenon trilogy by Marina J. Lostetter

• Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton

• The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton

• A House Between Earth and the Moon by Rebecca Scherm

Event recommendation:

• Sequoia Nagamatsu and Aram Mrjoian talk about the latter author’s debut novel, Waterline, at Elliott Bay Book Company on July 15, 2025

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