A review by maxgardner
Recursion by Blake Crouch

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

A fun pop sci-fi book that is exactly what you'd expect of a Blake Crouch novel—fast-paced with a crazy concept and concisely developed characters. I've only read one other by Crouch, but this follows a similar formula of taking the implications of a scientific theory and extrapolating them to a tense thriller. I do remember being a bit underwhelmed by Crouch's writing of the female characters in Dark Matter, but he's made an improvement with Helena. I also found the romance between Barry and Helena much more believable and natural. My only real complaints with the book were I wish it had taken more time to explore the psychological impact on the characters, particularly Helena as she takes on this monumental task of trying to save the world from her own creation and Barry as he processes these alternative timelines with and without a family. But I get that this is not a literary novel, and I'm not sure Crouch is even interested in this more indulgent style of writing—he does take brief moments to touch the surface of emotions, but he opts for cliches (albeit, not badly) more often than not to push the plot along. He's conjured up some really heartwrenching, complex scenarios that provide a lot of opportunity to add color to these characters and explore the human condition, but instead he plows through to keep it a solid thriller. I also think there's a lot of suspension of disbelief in the latter half when the characters start making decisions that don't quite add up or make sense within the context of the established rules and with how smart their characters are. But all in all, if you don't think about it too hard, you'll have fun and also have plenty to think about.