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