Book Summary and Reviews of Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Dark Matter

by Blake Crouch

  • Critics' Consensus (2):
  • Readers' Rating (13):
  • Published:
  • Jul 2016, 352 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A brilliantly plotted, relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller from the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy.

"Are you happy with your life?"

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason's never met smiles down at him and says, "Welcome back, my friend."

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 college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that's the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in 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.

Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human - a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we'll go to claim the lives we dream of.

Please be aware that this discussion may contain spoilers!

See what our members are saying about this book in our Community Forum.

Thrillers are very popular, but there are many types of thrillers - legal thrillers, spy thrillers, detective thrillers, etc. If you read thrillers, what's your favorite sub-genre, and who is the best author of that sub-genre, in your opinion?
Are "speculative thrillers" a thing? If yes, my favorites would be the Blake Crouch type, Dark Matter and Recursion . Two more in the same realm are Lexicon (so good!) by Matt Barry and Incredible, Legendary, and Obvious by Orest Stelmach.
-Holly_Batsell

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Excellent characterization and well-crafted tension do much to redeem the outlandish plot of this SF thriller…the rousing and heartfelt ending will leave readers cheering." - Publishers Weekly

"Crouch keeps the pace swift and the twists exciting. Readers who liked his Wayward Pines trilogy will probably devour this speculative thriller in one sitting [as will] those who enjoy roller-coaster reads in the vein of Harlan Coben." - Booklist

"Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant - provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief." - Kirkus

"Brilliant. A book to remember. I think Blake Crouch just invented something new." - Lee Child, New York Times bestselling author of the Jack Reacher series >

"Exceptional. An exciting, ingeniously plotted adventure about love, regret, and quantum superposition. It's been a long time since a novel sucked me in and kept me turning pages the way this one did." - Andy Weir, New York Times bestselling author of The Martian

"Wow. I gulped down Dark Matter in one sitting and put it down awed and amazed by the ride. It's fast, smart, addictive - and the most creative, head-spinning novel I've read in ages. A truly remarkable thriller." - Tess Gerritsen, New York Times bestselling author of the Rizzoli & Isles series

"A mind-bending thriller of the first order, not merely a rollicking entertainment but a provocative investigation into the nature of second chances, all of it wrapped in a genius sci-fi package. I dare you to put it down, because I sure couldn't." - Justin Cronin, New York Times bestselling author of the Passage Trilogy.

"The kind of book the word "thriller" was coined for - a shooting star through multiple genres, posing fundamental questions about identity and reality before revealing itself as, at its core, a love story.  Smart, fast, powerful, and ultimately touching." - Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of Guilty Minds and Suspicion

This information about Dark Matter was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Blake Crouch

Blake Crouch is best known for the Wayward Pines trilogy, which has sold more than a million copies and was adapted into a prime-time event series on FOX. He lives in Colorado.

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Read-Alikes

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