Reviews with content warning for Drug use - Dark Matter

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Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

56 reviews

turtlebread's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

An exciting, gripping tale and a meditation on choice and identity. A fantastic entry into the speculative fiction genre. Very enthralling, fast paced, a total page turner.

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whatathymeitwas's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Well that hit like a truck full of bricks.

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_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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kaadee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I feel like this book is what the Midnight Library tried so hard to do.
A philosophical book about how we have many facets and lives. It was enjoyable, so enjoyable I finished it in a day. There are many problems I have though

First off, the writing style. I’m not usually one to dog on a writing style (because I mean I’m not a published author so what say do I really have?) But specifically this writing style gets very annoying after a while. It’s kinda like this.
He runs.
He hides.
He cries.

I mean, I enjoy different sentences lengths but there were too many short sentence that took up a majority of the book.

My second problem is the cube. I mean, we barely know anything about it. What about the Jason who built the cube’s world? I feel like we get no explanation except for Amanda, which we learn basically nothing about. I mean, what happens to the cube after this? Will the cube be around forever? If Jason2 dies does that mean his reality dies with him? How is the cube still around? I feel like personally I just have a ton of unanswered questions about how the world works.

My third problem is Amanda. I really enjoyed her character, I mean what we got from it. We don’t really get any explanation to who she is except she was Jason2’s therapist. I mean from the story they seemed like lovers or something along those lines. Half way through she just ups and leaves???? I mean HELLO?? What happened to her? Is she ok? Is she happy? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS??

My fourth problem is the ending. I enjoyed it but I felt like something was missing. I feel like the story is unfinished (and maybe that’s for a reason) but I feel like this story could have REALLY benefited from an epilogue. What happens to them after they open a new door? Are they happy? The author put me through a whirlwind of emotions just to give me NOTHING 👏👏👏👏

There’s tons of things I like about the story though. I really enjoy Jason’s character and how much he strives for his family’s happiness, even willing to sacrifice himself. I enjoyed Amanda, I enjoyed Dani and Charlie.
I really liked the multiple Jason’s trying to kill him and especially the ending where they all look at him go into the cube. I thought the plot was really interesting I just wish it had a bit more in terms of good ending and explanation.
Otherwise it’s really good!

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bluedesi's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Really struggled reading this book because I wasn’t in the right mental mind space to read something this intense & dark but also because I felt as if I knew where it was going in the beginning. I will say I was surprised by the book as it started to delve deeper into the science (which was super hard to understand ps) and picked up more speed but it did spiral out of control as the climax happened.

I am grateful for the happy ending however. It was intense reading all the other Jasons coming out of the woodwork to basically force Daniela and Charlie to stay with them instead but I liked the ending scene with all of them parting to give them a path.

I felt the exploration of different realities was only interesting to read when Jason was with Amanda and I wish she had stuck around but hopefully she’s happy somewhere. Also, the whole security craziness of the lab Jason2 came from was never fully explained - why were they just killing everybody?!

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m_hates_reading's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Literally incredible I cannot describe how amazing it is the way it combines theoretical physics with thriller

won’t give any spoilers but the last few chapters are VERY intense and I was reading the ending through tears with several people on the bus staring at me

I forget how much I love books where the MC is actually a GOOD person who you’re attached to- Jason is very lovable and someone you really care about and are rooting for, even in his darkest moments.

A beautiful story about love and family, with a healthy amount of murder and intense action.

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cinderellasbookshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

What if you were given the chance to live in an alternate version of your life had you done things differently. Would you take it? That is the question DARK MATTER by Blake Crouch explores in a science fiction journey through time and reality.

Jack Dessen is a college physics professor happily married to his wife, Daniela, and a father to their teenage son, Charlie. He once had an opportunity to become a renowned physicist with his research into quantum mechanics, but instead chose to marry Daniela and have the life he has now. On a night like any other, he is kidnapped by a masked assailant and taken to an abandoned area where is drugged and led inside a machine. When he awakens, he is surprised to find himself in a different reality where he is a celebrated physicist, but is no longer a father and married to Daniela. How did he get here? Was the life he had always known ever real? And is there a way he could ever return to it?

I had read Blake Crouch’s other novel, Recursion, which I loved. So, I was looking forward to reading what he had in store for Dark Matter. I thought the story was mind-bending, but not at all confusing, and had about the same level of urgency and mystery as Recursion. However, I felt that since Dark Matter was written before Recursion, it felt more like an early version of what Recursion would become. There were some secondary characters that could have been fleshed out more, especially one specific character who helps Jason throughout the story. And while Recursion was an action packed adventure beat after beat, I felt that some of that energy was missing in Dark Matter. That’s not to say I didn’t like it. Each reveal had me wondering what would happen next and kept me engaged. I liked the overall idea of the story which reminded me of Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library, and its underlying theme about love and family and what you are willing to do for it - or in this case, get it all back.

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klubbgodis's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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ggcd1981's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Rating: 4.0 estrelas

TRIGER WARNING: Gun Violence, Confinement, Dubious Concent, Moderate Sexual Content

Dark Matter foi bom, não foi ótimo, mas foi bom. Este livro foi indicado por VÁRIOS Booktubers, mesmo assim não tinha as expectativas altas porque o resumo em si foi apenas moderadamente interessante para mim. O que me fez ler esse livro na verdade foi o fato de que Ewerton o escolheu para ler junto comigo, assim para incentiva-lo a leitura adiantei Dark Matter na minha lista. Ler comentando junto com Ewerton foi divertido, porém fora essa experiência não tenho sentimentos fortes pelo livro em si. Isso não significa que achei o livro medíocre ou ruim. Na verdade, o enredo é original e posso dizer que nunca vi um filme/livro sobre dimensões paralelas parecido com Dark Matter. Por mais da metade do livro eu genuinamente não conseguia prever como Jason Dessen, o protagonista, resolveria o problema. Então o principal ponto a favor da obra é sua originalidade.

Pontos negativos houveram alguns poucos, nenhum realmente grave. O primeiro foi a escrita seca e fragmentada. Crouch escreveu a história em frases diretas e curtas, sem espaço para muita fluidez no texto. O segundo ponto fraco foi o personagem do filho do protagonista, Charlie. Eu não entendo porque sequer ele existia no livro. A todo momento o protagonista nos lembrava de seu amor pela esposa Daniela. Seu desespero em voltar para Daniela foi expresso em diversos momentos. Contudo os sentimentos expressados de Jason por Charlie eram pálidos em comparação do fervor do seu amor por Daniela, ao ponto que Charlie foi relegado a um dispositivo do texto para quando o autor precisava que uma ação fosse realizada por alguém que não Jason ou Daniela (Exemplo: Ligar o celular para que outros Jasons fossem capazes de rastrear o aparelho até a família). Por último, um ponto negativo subjetivo, porém foi um fator, não consegui me conectar a nenhum personagem, logo não estava investida em nenhum deles.

Apesar dos problemas mencionados a história foi original e manteve meu interesse. Não foi previsível e foi bastante cinematográfica (assistiria uma adaptação do livro para o cinema). No geral foi uma obra sólida de ficção científica que me entreteve e proporcionou boas conversas com Ewerton.

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novi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

This book is what not I expected! In a good way! I didn't expect to be made soooo emotional throughout the whole thing. Because it's science fiction. And in my head I thought I don't like science fiction. But that's a topic for another day because this book is very much a thriller suspense, the science-ey stuff is the tool and the background. It also gave a lot of things to be questioned about and philosophized about. I initially wanted to give this book 4.5 stars because I just don't like reading the science-ey part, but what the hell. This book is more than that.

It sucked me in from the beginning. I wanted to know what happened and why. Around 40% in, my curiosity is relieved. I thought I knew where the rest of the book went, so I didn't care that much anymore. But I was wrong. Yes, the book did went to the direction I predicted, but not in the simple way my head thought of. There are so many twist and turns and the journey was so thrilling and just heart-wrenching. I got so many chills reading this. I was scared and screamed "this is HORROR!!!" twice when reading it. This book made me care so much about its characters that I was scared of what's going to happen to them, down to the last page. It might not be my favorite book ever, but the experience is 5 stars and I will recommend this book.

This little excerpt of the book was exactly what I thought when reading the latter half of the book:
"Here's where things get really crazy."
[redacted] asks, "Things aren't already crazy?"

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