Dark Matter

There are those books where the concept is so stimulating, interesting, and original that you want to read it for that reason alone. The fact that the story and characters are mediocre is something you accept.

While reading the book, I wasn't so much focused on the main characters or plot, but I found myself increasingly wondering how the author would navigate through an increasingly complex plot. You know how it goes, someone gives a speech or presentation and makes it so convoluted that an entire audience becomes more interested in how that person will get themselves out of it rather than what they have to say...

Then it hit me, it doesn't really matter how Blake Crouch will end his story because in the theory of multiverses, every possibility inherently exists. There's no grandfather paradox, just like with time travel, it's just a door earlier or later... and if the protagonist takes a door later, it doesn't mean the earlier door doesn't exist, it's just not described. But then I wonder whether the book would have become more interesting if the author had described a different set of doors.

At that moment, it became difficult for me to feel any connection with the main characters, especially since one of those characters is abandoned by the author in a universe, without it becoming clear what became of him.

If this had been a typical thriller, I wouldn't have found it interesting at all; the strength of this book lies in its concept, not the story. A better storyteller could have turned this idea into a classic, but perhaps this classic exists in a different universe, and we're just unlucky to live in this one.

I would rate the thriller element as two stars and the concept as five stars. That adds up to 3.5 stars.