Dark Matter
Ratings1,364
Average rating4
Overall really enjoyed but I was frustrated with how long it took the narrator to figure things out and felt like there wasn't an actual resolution
this book made me want to study quantum mechanics. and i don't even know what quantum mechanics is.
Very promising premise that, unfortunately, fails to make up for Crouch's cheesy writing.
4/5
This book was such a real page-turner. I honestly couldn't put it down! The story kept racing forward, leaving me interested on what will happen next., and I have to give Crouch major props for taking a complex scientific concept like the multiverse and turning it into a thrilling, easy-to-follow story. It wasn't bogged down by heavy science jargon, making it enjoyable even for people who aren't usually fans of anything sci-fi.
However, there were a few things that kept it from being a perfect read. The character development, particularly for Amanda (my gurl), felt rushed. She was easily my favorite character, and I would have loved to see a more satisfying conclusion to her story after she split from Jason. What happens to her? Ugh. There were also moments that felt a bit too repetitive, and both the beginning and ending just seemed weaker compared to the middle section.
Overall, Dark Matter was a fun, fast-paced read. I just don't know what to feel for that ending. But yeah, I'm really stoked for the Apple TV+ adaptation!
P.S. Petition for Blake Crouch to do a separate story/novella for Amanda! :'(
A good quick read. Story was interesting. I did have some questions like where did he get the injections at the end...All in all a very interesting story that makes you think.
15 years ago, Jason decided to put his illustrious career on the backburner to see through an unexpected pregnancy with his now-wife, Daniela. Daniela's talent as an artist and Jason's cutting-edge physics research were replaced with marriage and raising their son, Charlie.
On his way back from drinks with a friend who put his own career first and has the prestige to prove it, Jason finds himself unexpectedly abducted while carting home ice cream for Daniela and Charlie. Dark Matter follows his desperate effort to be reunited with them.
I thought the beginning of this was interesting, and it did pick up at the end, but I found it dragged in the middle, especially for how wild the events transpiring were. I have read a handful of other speculative fiction authored by men where the premise is excellent but the execution is lacking ([b:The Humans|16130537|The Humans|Matt Haig|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353739654l/16130537.SY75.jpg|21955852], [b:Reincarnation Blues|33571217|Reincarnation Blues|Michael Poore|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1500555996l/33571217.SY75.jpg|54372404], [b:The Perfectly Fine House|52294362|The Perfectly Fine House|Stephen Kozeniewski|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1583945288l/52294362.SY75.jpg|77451566]).
Usually where it falls flat for me is the characters. The women are not dimensional humans insomuch as reductive motivators for the men. The men are plagued with ennui but fundamentally good and strong. This makes exciting plots incredibly boring.
Take Jason. He loves his wife and son. He doesn't regret leaving science behind for his family, unless? He appreciates his life as is, unless? The takeaways are painfully trite. Family will always be the most important thing, no matter how much you achieve financially or professionally. You don't realize what you have until it's gone. The quiet comfort of loved ones is fleeting, not something to take for granted. It's like Blake thinks his audience is a toddler watching a Hallmark movie.
Amanda was a particularly hamfisted addition, with competing roles as “free therapist” and “would-be mistress.” She spells out obvious psychological principles to redirect Jason's entire mindset, tries to sleep with him, then bolts in the night, never to be heard from again. There were so many other and better ways to accomplish the same things. I also pondered whether this book is traditionalist propaganda about the nuclear family, but I think that may just be a bad case of my Too Online Brain.In fairness, I think Ned Fulmer probably knocked this down a star as well. 2024 Becca is definitely leery of Wife Guys, and Jason is definitely a Wife Guy. Which I guess makes sense for how Daniela was written. She and Charlie immediately believe Jason about the multiverse and wander off into another universe. We really needed to have Jason kill zombie Daniela instead of giving him a few more pages with his actual wife for her to ask some follow-up questions?
Anyway, I am still thinking about this a lot days after finishing it, and I am still interested in [b:Recursion|42046112|Recursion|Blake Crouch|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1543687940l/42046112.SY75.jpg|64277987].
TL;DR
I did not like this book, main protagonist is an idiot and the story is boring. The only good things about this book are the ideas, Schrödinger's box and the little time we spend with Amanda. Everything else is not worth the read.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
X - Main Story: I disliked it a lot, creating such a great idea of a machine capable to move between all the infinite realities currently going on and wasting it on just trying to find you wife is so boring it's not even funny. Thankfully the book is short.
✓ - Side Stories (if it applies): The other universes we visit was pretty cool, I liked some of them and they were interesting but mainly because of Amanda if we were just following the main protagonist I'm sure it would be much boring.
X - Characters: Main protagonist is an idiot and his focus on getting back to his wife is not interesting. The only good character is Amanda for the short time she was with us I like it and was sad to see her go away but she made the right decision to abandon our protagonist, which is why I liked her. She's definitely smart for doing that.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Schrödinger's box is the highlight of the book, the rest is just Chicago so nothing interesting there, but the different worlds they travelled to were good and interesting. Which only makes me more sad that we weren't focusing on those intead of the boring one we got.
X - Ending: Terrible ending, but was glad it happen so I can put this book to rest.
Extensive Review
This story is about a guy who invented the posibility to move between all other realities just to be with his wife. It's just as boring as it sounds, with all the cool and interesting things we can do with this and we're just focusing on this insignificant thing when you think about the implications of what can be achieved with such a discovery. The only good part I like is when we meet Amanda and they're both trying to figure things out. I was expecting for him to just get over his wife and go on some cool adventures with Amanda but no he keeps trying to find his universe in a sea of billions of them. When Amanda left the story my interest went with her, hope she found herself a nice good universe to live in. Wish we could have followed her instead of the story we got.
The amount of dumb decision our super smart main protagonist makes is infuriating. When Amanda leaves him just proves my assumptions that she was smart and dodged a bullet by getting as far away from our protagonist as possible. Good for her and hope she went on to go on some nice adventure, she has after all, the ability to visit any world she can imagine out of the infinite possibilites there are. She probably didn't go back to boring ass Chicago to her mundane life trying to get back to her lover. Like out main guy did.
Great idea and the possibilities it could have been just makes me sad when we're just focusing on these mundane things of two peoples love life. You're telling me you have the possibility to switch between realities and go to any number of them from the infinite pool and you just want to get back to your mundane life being a teacher? Just because you love your family so much? Yes that makes sense but it does not make for an interesing story at all.
Loved this book - I couldn't put it down. The only thing that I would've liked to see is a version of this book where the protagonist was a woman. But otherwise, love the metaphor here about coping with the outcomes of your decisions, the sliding doors of life - so beautiful.
This story is really thought provoking; kind of sours my desire to read anything similar.
While reading it, I was like, ‘Oh, why didn't I choose it before? It was crazy.' Are you happy in your life?
I was too late for choosing it from my TBR pile. Well, the story starts with a twist in the very first chapter of the book when Jason gets kidnapped by someone at gunpoint, all naked, and wakes up somewhere where everyone thinks they know him but they don't. What can be more shocking for a person whose whole life changed in just a few hours, whose home is not his home anymore, whose wife and son are not his anymore? His whole existence is different from what he has been living all these years.”
“Blake Crouch has written the story in a way that you will not lose your grip on it till the very end; you will enjoy the story. Quantum physics—I don't understand physics at all, but he's written that in a way that you are not going to lose track of the story but to some extent, I also felt it could be a little shorter but yeah I liked the whole story
3.5 stars. A few fun twists along with a few predictable ones. Although I didn't love every bit of it, and I thought the second act meandered a little bit too much, it was still very solid read overall.
Consider me a Crouch potato now because this was an incredible experience start to finish.
4.75 stars! This is definitely the cure for any reading slump! It reads so fast, the plot is so intense... that it feels like you are forced to read!
I only regret not having enough time to read this in one string. If you can, schedule this read for when you have some hours! You WILL want that time to keep reading and reading.
4.75 stars! This is definitely the cure for any reading slump! It reads so fast, the plot is so intense... that it feels like you are forced to read!
I only regret not having enough time to read this in one string. If you can, schedule this read for when you have some hours! You WILL want that time to keep reading and reading.
for a sci-fi thriller, it sure did make me cry! off to tell everyone in my life that i love them!
I would recommend this book. For anyone who's ever wondered what their life would be like if they had made a different choice at an earlier date or thought about the could-have-been things, this book is a definite page turner. The sci fi thriller I needed.
Overall, this was a really interesting story. I thought the plot was intriguing and kept me hooked.
Not 5 stars because there were several dialogue moments in the book that were a bit confusing and took me out of the story.
That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this and would recommend.
I really enjoyed this one, to my surprise. The pacing was excellent and I enjoyed the characters. I do wish it had been just a hint more science-y to make the plot a bit more compelling.
3,5/5⭐️
Niet helemaal wat ik verwacht had. Toch iets te veel dystopia naar mijn smaak. Wel een mooie boodschap achter dit verhaal
