Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

I really needed a win after the last book I finished (let's not talk about it), and Blake Crouch really stepped up to the plate. Dark Matter was published in 2016 and is on Amazon's Editor's list of Best Books of the Year 2016. It is a New York Times Bestseller and even has it's own screen adaptation on Apple TV+, although I have not seen it. One of Blake Crouch's standalone novels, he has published two since Dark Matter and also has several series of books. In this book, we will see death and murder, gun violence, medical content, kidnapping, injury detail, and an epidemic.

Jason Dressen and his wife used to have big dreams, but when Daniela got pregnant they both decided to pivot and start a more stable life that would allow them to raise their child comfortably. And they're happy, even if they do sometimes wonder what their lives would look like if they'd made a different choice. Would Daniela be a world famous artist? Would Jason have made breakthroughs in quantum mechanics that changed the way people perceived the world around them? One can never know. One night, between attending a celebration dinner and bringing ice cream home for dessert, Jason is taken hostage and knocked unconscious. The last thing he hears from his abductor is a question: "Are you happy with your life?" Jason wakes up in a completely different world which he soon realizes that is a parallel universe to his own. In this one, he did not choose to marry Daniela and have their son, he chose to continue with his research and has somehow discovered a way to travel between those universes. Now Jason needs to find his way back home, and he needs to do it before the people in this universe realize that he is not the Jason they know.

This book started a bit slow for me but that didn't last long. And once it picked up steam, it really started moving. The plot was really interesting and takes quite a turn going into the last third of the book. I was delightfully surprised and was excited to see what happened next. The setting was great, it manages to stay the same but have major changes with every different universe that Jason makes it to. I would say that the characters were fine, although they were not the most developed characters I've ever seen and there wasn't a ton of development there, this was a plot focused book. I still liked them and rooted for them. The ending was not what I wanted, but it made absolute sense and I can't think of a different ending that would have been better and it did end on an optimistic note.

I'm giving Dark Matter by Blake Crouch 4.25 out of 5 stars. There is a little bit of sex in this book, but I wouldn't really call it spice. We will give it a .5, just to be thorough. I'm excited for more Blake Crouch, I've also had Upgrade recommended to me and will likely start that soon.

For more from the author, check out https://blakecrouch.com/

Pairs well with a bowl of fabada and knowing it's still cheating even if you're married in a different universe.

My favorite quote: "Sure, I flip people off in traffic on occasion, but that's just Chicago!"

Review of Upgrade by Blake Crouch