A review by realadhdoug
Recursion by Blake Crouch

3.75

For the most part, I thought this was a riveting, mind-bending story filled with so much humanity. I really liked the concept of déjà vu and false memory being actual memories of past lives and branched realities. I thought the concept was complicated and hard to wrap your head around, but it was executed so well that I found it pretty easy to follow along anyway.

The characters were well-done. You really felt their grief, their regrets, and their frustrations. I found myself really rooting for them to figure it out. And I guess that brings me to the biggest drawback—there's a long period where the two main character's are constantly going through time loops to try to figure out how to prevent the apocalypse, and it gets a little repetitive and tedious.

Despite the story being a little too drawn out, I think it wrapped up in a satisfying way. I thought for a moment that it was gonna end with the actual destruction of the planet but, thankfully, it didn't take that turn. Oh, and I thought the little open-ended cliffhanger at the end of the epilogue was adorable. If you're into solid, character-driven science-fiction, I'd definitely give this one a shot.