Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch



                Have you ever wondered what your life could have been if you changed one simple thing? If you hadn’t taken that class, went to that bar, introduced yourself to the person who would be the love of your life? Jason Dessen has had those thoughts and wondered about how different life may have been. But he lives a good life now with his wife, Daniela and his son Charlie. But all that is taken away from him. He had simply went to meet an old friend of his and on the way home was forced into a car at gunpoint and made to drive to a location he didn’t even know existed. He awakes to find himself in a warehouse where everyone has been anxiously awaiting him. No one had seen him in 14 months and there are so many questions? But he doesn’t know any of these people. He has never met any of them in his life. His home is completely different than the way he left it and it’s obvious that whoever lives here, lives alone. There is no Daniela or Charlie or even proof of their existence. The answer is simple and yet extremely complicated. This isn’t the world where he married Daniela and had a son. This world is not his own.
                Yep. Let that marinate for a second before I move on. Jason woke up in an alternate reality where things are similar to the world he knows but his situation is completely different. That is the basis of the story but it becomes extremely complicated and I won’t even try to explain it in this review. Crouch does explain it and he does an excellent job explaining it. And that is my first major compliment of this novel. There are some highly scientific topics discussed in this book (I’m a bit of a science geek so I loved it) and he did a great job making those topics easy to understand and comprehend. Crouch also did a great job in creating these characters and filling them with a lot of depth and emotion. Most of this novel is narrated by Jason and the lengths he was willing to go to get back to his wife and child were heart wrenching and emotional. Crouch also made a highly improbable situation seem extremely plausible and ultimately terrifying.
                This novel wasn’t perfect though. It is full of suspense and a lot of high powered action which kept the story moving. But there were moments when the pace was almost too fast, too extreme. Situations occurred where I would have loved to have seen more development and instead Crouch just kept moving right along. I hate to say it but parts of the novel just felt rushed. It made me question some of the circumstances and the decisions that were being made. This ending though was really well done and unexpected. I have to applaud Crouch for how he handled and executed the ending.

                Dark Matter deserves all the praise it’s receiving. This was a completely different type of reading experience and I found it highly enjoyable. It opens the door to so many possibilities literally and figuratively. It is extremely well imagined and well executed. If you are in the mood for a suspenseful, science fiction novel with a dash of danger and alternate realities than this is for you. I could honestly recommend this for anyone just in the mood for a quick, joyride of a novel. I give this novel 4 out of 5 stars. 

Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

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