Review: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch [Pan Macmillan]

“We all live day to day completely oblivious to the fact that we’re a part of a much larger and stranger reality that we can possibly imagine.”

This is undoubtedly one of the most popular books of 2016! If you’ve spent even just 5 minutes on Instagram bookstagram you’d have seen this book being shown off in as many ways as possible.

Jason Dessen, a university physics professor, gets abducted after having a drink with his trusted friend at his favourite local bar. He then finds himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary university physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Dessen has to battle with trying to understand if this new world or the one he remembers was the real world. He tries his utmost best to make it back to his family but just getting back is not enough. Dessen goes on a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined – one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

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I rarely follow the trends when it comes to books because more often than not it leads to utter disappointment. Books by popular authors often get labelled as masterpieces and those with good storylines almost always get slapped with the “best thriller of the year” sticker. But does Dark Matter live up to the hype?

I enjoyed reading Dark Matter. The storyline is one filled with thrills and moments that leave the reader amazed at the depth of the world Dessen found himself trapped in. Most science-fiction novels seem to stretch your imagination so far that it forces you to let loose of reality and know you’re just reading a book where an author ran wild with his writing. Dark Matter avoids doing just that. Blake Crouch manages to link the story of Jason Dessen to known physics principles and theories. This left me in awe and often made me think whether the technology Crouch writes about actually exists.

You need not be a huge fan of science-fiction novels to enjoy Dark Matter. It’s a novel that’s genre-specific readers as it does worlds in its story.

Dark Matter is one of the best thrillers I’ve read in 2016!  

Recommended Reading:

• Blake Crouch – Wayward (The Wayward Pines trilogy)
• Rick Yancy – The 5th Wave
•  Shari Lapena – The Couple Next Door

Praise:

“An addictive read! You’re in for an intelligent, breath’-taking ride!” – John Lescroart

“Its fast, smart, addictive – and the most creative, head-spinning novel I’ve read in ages” – Tess Gerritsen