Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

11 reviews

spacekaydet's profile picture

spacekaydet's review

4.5
adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

An amazing and entralling book. Concepts that I wouldn't even be able to begin wrapping my head around but I do enjoy entertaining the theory.
The ending being completely mysterious is both amazing and incredibly painful, I want to know what world Charlie brought them to!!!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Overall it was an interesting story, just much darker than I was expecting. The idea of using the consequences of being thrown into an ever-increasing multiverse and finding your way home was neat, but other than that

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

kelly_fuddy's review

4.0
adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
keaganbailey's profile picture

keaganbailey's review

3.0
adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The book starts off well, but by the end of chapter 1 you know exactly what's going on until near the last third. The plot until over 60% of the way through is straight forward, the main character doesn't even realize what happened to them until about 40%. This is frustrating as the reader as you're sitting around waiting for the book to catch up to where you know it's going. 

The main character is one dimensional and does not change at all throughout the book, interestingly this ties into the plot and is excusable. What isn't excusable is that all other characters in the book are also one dimensional, the son could be replaced with a cardboard cutout the wife carries around and the story would not change dramatically. There are also several characters at the end of the story that the author explicitly tells the reader that they have "changed" but goes into no detail about this and does not explore the concept beyond the surface observation that their motivation has changed because the plot demands it. 

As much as it pains me to say it, the show Rick & Morty has explored many of the concepts in this book and dulled the wonder of interacting yourself in a multiverse. But if you have not watched the show this book may be a 4 or 5 star for you. 

If you enjoy the dilemma at the end of the book you will also really enjoy the game SOMA which came out in 2015, it goes on sale for $5 often. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is science fiction I would recommend to everyone. Great read. Makes you reflect on everything you have done in your life as well.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is the kind of book that is really going to sit with me for a while. I had no idea what this book was really about going into it apart from everyone saying it was a great novel so I really did not anticipate the wild ride that I got. I was never quite sure where it was going and what was happening, so it was a great summer read. 

This book was a lot of fun, and I thought that all the actual science parts were well explained but I never felt too bogged down with information. I thought that Jason was compelling enough to really care about what happens. This book did have a little bit of a perfect white man saviour issue, but it never got obnoxious and I actually think that it thematically helped the novel. Sometimes this really drives me nuts but it didn't become a big issue for me. The two women in the novel are not over the top emotional and total idiots so it has some saving grace. 

I am still mulling over the ending and I am not 100% sold on loving the ending but I think that it was the only way that it all could have ended. This book leaves you with a lot of big questions not only about the story but also philosophically and I am not sure if I love the way that he wrapped up these large ideas. 

My only other complaint is that the pacing dragged a little in the middle. By the nature of the story it was very cyclical but I could have done with a few less cycles. Overall though, I think its a great read if you are looking for something pretty action packed and relatively fast paced outside of the normal thriller genre. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
coolfoolmoon's profile picture

coolfoolmoon's review

3.25
adventurous dark hopeful reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Something must've been in the book publishing water in the 2010s because this is the second book I've read dealing with the multiverse. Now there's so many multiverse movies! Or maybe this is nothing because I don't have enough evidence but still !!!

At first I thought this was just like that episode of Rick and Morty, then I realized it was like a different episode of Rick and Morty, kinda, then I realized none of these other medias will ever be EEAAO. So.

Negative points for being written by a man. When he said "Spanish eyes" I went oh lord here we go but also the action scenes made me think aww boys having fun playing with their toys so he kinda got the points back there. I really liked the ending.
I like when things can't go back to how they were. Even though, after we learn there's multiple other Jasons, that means there are universes with no Jasons at all and he could've just went to one of those... But also loving your wife so much you'd kill multiverse versions of yourself? That's so real. This one's for the yearners.


Last note, nothing to do with the book, it must be really acclaimed because when I placed the audiobook hold I started off in 57th place. Had it on hold almost 3 months.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book took me days to stop talking about, I think I convinced about twelve people to read it. It's such a cool take on the multi-dimensional thriller with some aspects I hadn't seen before. I am proud to say that I saw TWO plot things coming and that makes me happy. Because of this book, Blake Crouch is pretty much on my auto-read list now. 

There are several realities that just rip your frooken heart out and stamp on it, it leaves you with questions and arse backwards arguments you want to have with the characters and just. Wow. Yes. Do. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
kyrstin_p1989's profile picture

kyrstin_p1989's review

4.5
adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings