A review by thechaliceofaries
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

2.0

Honestly, it’s a little difficult to properly review this book. I came in with high hopes, having loved the last book I read by this author, but within a few chapters I felt those hopes dwindling away. I’ve been trying to put my finger on what it is about this that just didn’t work for me. I think a big part of it is simply the shaky scientific foundation the story is built on. To me, Dark Matter feels like the kind of story a really stoned college student might come up with after having had quantum theory explained to them for the first time ever. Imaginative and excitable, but ultimately lacking in substance. Another thing that really bugged me was the writing style – it just felt too simplistic for me to enjoy. I get the advantage of having short, abrupt paragraphs in terms of making an action scene feel more fast-paced, but when those short, abrupt paragraphs are also trying to depict the tranquil beauty of a sunset or the first few flakes of snow in the morning it feels watery and insipid. I’m not saying this book needed pages and pages of “purple prose”, just that I personally feel a bit more thought could have gone into crafting the language that was used in this novel.