A review by cinderellasbookshelf
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

What if you were given the chance to live in an alternate version of your life had you done things differently. Would you take it? That is the question DARK MATTER by Blake Crouch explores in a science fiction journey through time and reality.

Jack Dessen is a college physics professor happily married to his wife, Daniela, and a father to their teenage son, Charlie. He once had an opportunity to become a renowned physicist with his research into quantum mechanics, but instead chose to marry Daniela and have the life he has now. On a night like any other, he is kidnapped by a masked assailant and taken to an abandoned area where is drugged and led inside a machine. When he awakens, he is surprised to find himself in a different reality where he is a celebrated physicist, but is no longer a father and married to Daniela. How did he get here? Was the life he had always known ever real? And is there a way he could ever return to it?

I had read Blake Crouch’s other novel, Recursion, which I loved. So, I was looking forward to reading what he had in store for Dark Matter. I thought the story was mind-bending, but not at all confusing, and had about the same level of urgency and mystery as Recursion. However, I felt that since Dark Matter was written before Recursion, it felt more like an early version of what Recursion would become. There were some secondary characters that could have been fleshed out more, especially one specific character who helps Jason throughout the story. And while Recursion was an action packed adventure beat after beat, I felt that some of that energy was missing in Dark Matter. That’s not to say I didn’t like it. Each reveal had me wondering what would happen next and kept me engaged. I liked the overall idea of the story which reminded me of Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library, and its underlying theme about love and family and what you are willing to do for it - or in this case, get it all back.
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