Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Mroczna materia

Dark Matter explores the what ifs in life. What if I had done this differently, where would I be now?

Jason is happy- he's married, has a teen-aged son, and a job as a physics professor at a lesser known college.

Then, he is kidnapped while walking home from the store. He is taken to an abandoned factory and drugged. When he wakes up, he is in a lab with people who know him but he doesn't know. His return is being celebrated. Where has he been the last 14 months?

Jason needs to figure out what has happened to him. As he tracks down pieces of his life that are very different, he begins to understand what happened to him and who did it.

Dark Matter is fast paced. I found it difficult to put down because I was so invested in Jason and his story.

The premise of the story is rooted very strongly in physics. Not only the concept of a multiverse - where each choice you make creates a branch where the other choice happens- but the Shrodinger's cat problem - how a cat can be both dead and alive at the same moment. The physics is explained in a way that you understand (mostly) without being boring or feeling like it's being dumbed down for a toddler.

I enjoyed reading Dark Matter. When I have the what-ifs, I don't dwell long. I know that the life I have now, the result of so many choices along the way, is one I wouldn't change or give up. It's fun to wonder what happened to those other versions of myself in the multiverse.

I recommend this book and can't wait to discuss it with my book club.

I wish there was another book to tell us what happened to Amanda, though.

Content Warnings

tabea1409's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging informative mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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cloud_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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lifeofchrstnlvly's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

A brilliant physicist named Jason Dessen is living in Chicago with his wife, Daniela, and son, Charlie. He is a true genius, and while there was a point in his late twenties when his research could have made him a star in his field, he instead chose a family-focused life. One night, while walking home, he's abducted by a mysterious masked man and injected with a drug. When he next awakes, his world has completely changed. He's no longer married, doesn't have a son, and has achieved professional success beyond his wildest dreams. This sets him on a thrilling, mysterious, and at times terrifying journey to learn what has happened to him, and to find his way home to the people and the life he loves. -Blake Crouch when asked about the premise of Dark Matter

Dark Matter unexpectedly brought me to tears. It made me reflect on life and the choices we make. It made me stop and reread certain parts because they resonated deeply.

The book explores the concept of "What If?" and emphasizes that what's meant for us will always find its way to us. It also reminded me that we are ultimately responsible for our paths in life, as our past choices shape our present circumstances.

I believe Dark Matter came into my life at exactly the right moment and it really made a significant impression on me.

This was the first book I've read by Blake Crouch, and it impacted me in such a powerful way that I rated it five stars, despite other readers' opinions that his other books are better.

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micaelamariem's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This book was mind-blowing. I’ve always been interested in string theory on a very basic level and that’s what this book plays around with. What if there’s a version of us for every decision we make? What if there is an infinity of universes out there? I loved the thrill of watching the character grapple with this. The characters were multifaceted. And there’s a word limit on here now so I guess that’s it.

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tyras_bookshelf's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I really liked the book, fast paced and entertaining even if the science felt like nonsense at times.

It’s mostly sci-fi but the overall theme of the book is like “choose love” but also “life is full of choices and we have to be okay with ours”.

*spoilers ahead*

The ending was too open ended to be enjoyable to me. Knowing the elements of the box (and the rules that the book set up), I don’t trust that they are just safe at the end. Charlie came back around to be such a central part of the ending when he barely felt like a character throughout the book so that didn’t feel realistic either. I think it would have been more poetic for Daniela to have chosen the world. Ryan should have been a bigger part of the story too.

The book was actually pretty violent and weirdly sexual at times- or like too focused on it. I thought it was interesting that Daniela could only tell Jason1 was the real one by having sex with him.

Crouch kinda wrote himself into a hole with the Jason’s outthinking themselves because if they’re the same then why wouldn’t all the Jason’s have come to that same conclusion? but I’m choosing to believe that jason1 was so fundamentally attached to his world that he was the only one who could think that way to outsmart the others.

Some of the plot points weren’t explained away well enough like letting all the other Jason’s get to v1 world was too easy and I didn’t track how that happened. And the ending was like “and they all lived happily ever after”. Yes, there was a bunch of murder at the end but we don’t get to see the new world they walk into? After all that build up, the payoff didn’t feel as sweet.

I liked it, I recommend but much of the science and prose was quickly skipped over so I could stay with the plot. Overall, pretty good read and very creative.

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michael_richter's review against another edition

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emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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amsswim's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is science fiction I would recommend to everyone. Great read. Makes you reflect on everything you have done in your life as well.

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