Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Dark Matter was absolutely captivating. From the very beginning I was obsessed and I could not put this book down, I took one break for dinner and immediately finished it. Jason is a charming character who deals with the regrets we all have and the mistakes we all have to live through. This science fiction novel is a masterpiece, provoking introspection and curiosity. What would we do in Jason’s place? One night, while walking home from the local pub, Jason is kidnapped, held at gunpoint, forced to remove all this clothes only to change into new ones, and thus begins his crazy journey. There is little to say in this review in terms of plot, because apart from the back cover, the rest of the novel has to be experienced personally. This journey takes Jason to the very brink of his limits, forcing him to confront his inner fears, his regrets in life, and to live with them.
What makes the story so enthralling is that it deals with the thoughts we all have as we go through life, the daydreams about how our life could have been, and the doubts we have about our choices. The way Jason must come to terms with these feelings, in a larger-than-life way is a testament to the difficulty we have in being happy with the path we have chosen and the challenge coming to terms with what could have been. We never really know when things will end or when our lives have taken routes we can never recover from. Each of our choices takes us on different paths, leads us away from different lives, and they all form us, even the minute choices, into altered people, people who learn from their mistakes, form habits, and develop relationships. The novel examines all the choices we make to pursue dreams we never knew we had: to save families, begin families and end families. Hindsight always has the chance to make us wiser, but confronts us with the forgiveness and the necessity of moving on. Jason’s introspective coming to terms journey brings us all along as we ponder our own lives and selves. The allure of the path not taken is strong and Jason, like us all, must ultimately confront his inner demons and make peace with the path he has taken. It is a lesson to us all to take the moments we have as a blessing and to choose our decisions with our heart knowing both that we will never be the same and accepting our fate.
The book is released tomorrow, July 26th and I would highly recommend everyone to pick this book up, if only to experience a fraction of the journey and introspection that Jason does. You can pick this book up at amazon here!
Disclaimer: I received this book in exchange for a review from Blogging for Books.
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Book cover image from NetGalley.
This sounds like a pretty epic and exciting story, a bit dystopian, perhaps.
Definitely got a bit of dystopia in it!