Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

9 reviews

_david_'s review against another edition

dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

2.0

Oof to me, every part of this book missed its mark. In general I found everything in the book a bit over the top. 

First of all, Jason is supposed to be a genius. Yet it takes him ages to even think of the theory which can be figured out as a reader very quickly. If you've figured it out before Jason, there's not much joy in reading the story until he has figured it out too. You're just waiting and turning the pages until he does and you can finally continue. The way he acts is so hard to relate to. It's very hard to imagine the situations he encounters so it's hard to emphasize with his choices. However, at least after it all goes wrong once you'd think he change his behaviour right? 

Secondly, I'd like to discuss the science behind it. To me, it's very noticable that what we're reading has been written by an author who wanted to tell a story and then looked up the physic theories which would fit it best. The logic is not consistent and some of it almost works like magic. Yet the characters in the book use big words and existing theories to clarify the science behind it all. This is a very personal ick, I've barely ever encountered a piece of media that manages to do this well. The only ways I have seen this be pulled off, is to make up your own very clear very consitent rules or just pretend it's magic and do not explain it beyond what is necessary. 

My favourite part of the book beyond the very first chapter, in which Jason only talks about his family night and life choices, are the final few chapters. Yet I wish they pushed a little further. Let Jason be a little more selfish or a little more existential. I've read another review which points out a major flaw related to the inconsistent physics which did ruin these last chapters for me as well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Blood, Physical abuse, Gore, Violence, Murder, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Forced institutionalization, Stalking, Grief, Kidnapping, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Abortion, Car accident, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Alcohol, Animal death, Drug use, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Self harm, Drug abuse, Pregnancy, and Suicidal thoughts

meat_muffin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Stalking, Confinement, Cursing, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death, and Grief

Minor: Child death, Forced institutionalization, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

wickedgrumpy's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.75

The good:  I enjoyed the UberChat.  I felt that right when that was introduced a different ending could have spawned that turned into a lighthearted rom-com and I like to imagine that.

The bad:  I knew pretty early on that this was not going to be a favorite.  I don't read a lot of thrillers in general but I enjoy sci-fi so I figured I would give it a shot.  I couldn't stand the main character.  And thus, the book was doomed in my eyes.  The pacing was jumpy, and the plot was predictable (as in, I guessed what really happened in the first chapter and the main character didn't figure it out until the ~50% mark).  There was some promise for some thoughtful introspection but the approach was heavy-handed at best.  Some of the descriptions were vivid and others were flat out whacky.

I don't know if I will try another book by the author, but I don't think I was the intended audience for this work so who knows what the future holds.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abandonment, Body horror, Classism, Confinement, Torture, Pandemic/Epidemic, Rape, Self harm, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gore, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexism, Violence, Alcoholism, Cancer, Car accident, Child death, Infidelity, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

faeriefox's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

This book was incredible.

The worldbuilding between all of the worlds Jason went into was incredible; you really got the essence of each world from the start.

I also really loved *our* Jason. He never lost his moral compass, unlike so many other versions of him, and as a result, Daniela chose him over the others. It was so touching, too, when so many Jasons let the family go free once they knew what Daniela wanted, culminating this beautiful love story. 

I really got emotionally attached to the characters as well; I was devastated when Amanda left and constantly afraid for Charlie, Daniela, and Jason.

 

This book made me think a lot; it challenges so many ideas about life, love, identity, and choice. 

I also appreciated the fairly easy-to-understand scientific explanations; the fact that they were understandable added so much to the book, as well as just being very interesting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing

Moderate: Gun violence, Drug use, Sexual content, Medical content, and Violence

Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Mental illness

megan_wy's review

emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

Wow wow wow!!!! Just finished this book and I flew through it. That’s saying a lot too because I’m a very slow reader. I was really wanting to try a different genre of book after reading a few too many cheesy romance novels. This book easily hooked me and has me wanting to read more thriller / sci-fi novels. The story of Jason and the endless underlying meanings and interpretations of this book will keep you up at night questioning life. I had to stop and think a few times throughout the book to try and make logical sense out of some of the things that were happening. That’s part of the beauty of this novel I think, you really don’t know if the end is real Jason? Considering there’s a new version of Jason for every single choice he makes even AFTER the initial switch in the beginning, who’s to prove that the Jason in the end is the “real” Jason 🤯🤯🤯 

This story is just so different. It’s so intensely unique that it opened up so many new frames of mind for me in an amazing and analytical way. Although some parts are deeply confusing if you try to think to understand all the science and logistics behind it, the overall meaning and plot can still be easily followed. Each version of Jason wanted one thing, a happy life with someone he loved. That someone, even in the version where he left her for his career, was Daniela. He essentially had the “perfect” life in Jason2’s world, but we know that isn’t true. Jason2 was unhappy dreaming about a perfect life with Daniela and a family. I am so speechless over this book. I would highly recommend it!! Just be prepared to do lots of deep thinking and questioning of our reality that is “life.”

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Mental illness, Blood, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, and Death

katiefurms's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Not only is this an incredible concept for a story, but it is so phenomenally well written that i could not put it down. Absolutely incredible book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Cursing, Death, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Drug use, Gun violence, Grief, Gore, Kidnapping, Mental illness, and Murder

Minor: Gun violence, Infidelity, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Addiction, Body horror, Car accident, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Mental illness, Medical content, Pregnancy, Vomit, Dysphoria, Gore, Suicide, and Violence

ellie_the_banshee's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Stalking, Terminal illness, Abortion, and Alcohol

kyrstin_p1989's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

A sci-fi thriller, this book kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. It was interesting and well-written. The story is compelling, unsettling, and fantastical. parts of the science-y description/explanation were outside my realm of comprehension but all in all this book is incredibly accessible to all readers. The chapters are really long but the writing style made the book fly by for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Blood, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Sexual content, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Stalking, Torture, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Abandonment, Animal death, Grief, Gun violence, and Animal cruelty

now_booking's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

4.25

This is my second book by this author and it was again mind-bending and confusing and yet absolutely wonderful. 

Even though I don’t read much sci-if, I was completely mind blown by this complex eminently human story of love and trying to find your way home when you are irrevocably lost. In this humanity, it was very similar to Recursion in being a sort of love story and an epic journey as much as it is about science.

The premise is that Jason is living a happy if somewhat “basic” and unspectacular life with his wife and son. While he and his artist wife, Daniela, might not have fulfilled the promise of spectacular careers in physics and art, having sacrificed that for building their family. They are more or less happy, until Jason is kidnapped and thrown into a multiverse and has to battle the dangers of infinite possibilities as well as all the different facets of himself to see if there’s any way to get the stars to align and find his way back home. 

For me, I adored every aspect of this. Jason as a character was compellingly human. Perhaps a bit too perfect, but a great, well-developed character to carry the story. The multiverse provides ample opportunity to challenge and stretch Jason and give us a sense of what he’s made of. And through that, we insert ourselves into the story and begin to think of what we would do and how we would react if we were in his shoes. This was sad, exciting, traumatic, adventurous, fun and I cannot recommend this enough.

If there are weaknesses, I think it’s in lots of loose ends. I also wondered how come Amanda’s place in the multiverse was never explored. Logistically-speaking, what are the implications for the characters in the way the book ends. It’s hard to explain what I mean without spoiling the book but I feel after the level of detail with which the sci-fi premise was put forth, the resolution was a little too abstract. That said, I did enjoy this and highly highly recommend even for non-sci-if fans. It’s absolutely brilliant. After I read Recursion, this was recommended to me a lot, and it has not disappointed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Kidnapping

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Abandonment, Stalking, Alcoholism, Death, Dysphoria, and Violence

Minor: Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, and Classism