Reviews with content warning for Torture - Mroczna materia

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Mroczna materia by Blake Crouch

25 reviews

lifeofchrstnlvly's review against another edition

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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calliebuczkowski's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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

3.75

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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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lemilysnikda's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.25

I wanted sci-fi but got thriller and… romance? I went into this with no context, which is my fault, because I’m not a fan of thrillers. I think if you enjoy thrillers and want to dabble in some sci-fi elements, you may really enjoy this.

*spoilers from this point on*

Great concepts, dull characters, fine execution. This could also be me being really late to the party here, but I’ve consumed so much media in recent years with the concept of a multiverse that interesting ideas alone can’t do it for me. Here, I think the protagonist was intended to be likable, but I actually found him to be pretty annoying and almost always two steps behind.

I’m also super picky about romance, and the way Jason Desson thinks about his wife is like he loves her as a concept but not as an individual. Exemplified by the fact that he was cool with getting with his wife’s doppelgänger and how he continually fixated on other versions of her knowing they weren’t her. Also why couldn’t he and Amanda be totally platonic?

I would’ve liked to have seen more development of Jason 2 and Amanda. Or maybe his son that he barely thinks about until they’re reunited.

Maybe not my cup of tea, but still a good story and easy quick listen on a long drive.

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_david_'s review against another edition

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dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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

2.0

Oof to me, every part of this book missed its mark. In general I found everything in the book a bit over the top.

First of all, Jason is supposed to be a genius. Yet it takes him ages to even think of the theory which can be figured out as a reader very quickly. If you've figured it out before Jason, there's not much joy in reading the story until he has figured it out too. You're just waiting and turning the pages until he does and you can finally continue. The way he acts is so hard to relate to. It's very hard to imagine the situations he encounters so it's hard to emphasize with his choices. However, at least after it all goes wrong once you'd think he change his behaviour right?

Secondly, I'd like to discuss the science behind it. To me, it's very noticable that what we're reading has been written by an author who wanted to tell a story and then looked up the physic theories which would fit it best. The logic is not consistent and some of it almost works like magic. Yet the characters in the book use big words and existing theories to clarify the science behind it all. This is a very personal ick, I've barely ever encountered a piece of media that manages to do this well. The only ways I have seen this be pulled off, is to make up your own very clear very consitent rules or just pretend it's magic and do not explain it beyond what is necessary.

My favourite part of the book beyond the very first chapter, in which Jason only talks about his family night and life choices, are the final few chapters. Yet I wish they pushed a little further. Let Jason be a little more selfish or a little more existential. I've read another review which points out a major flaw related to the inconsistent physics which did ruin these last chapters for me as well.

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melaschnie's review against another edition

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4.0

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michaelion's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Something must've been in the book publishing water in the 2010s because this is the second book I've read dealing with the multiverse. Now there's so many multiverse movies! Or maybe this is nothing because I don't have enough evidence but still !!!

At first I thought this was just like that episode of Rick and Morty, then I realized it was like a different episode of Rick and Morty, kinda, then I realized none of these other medias will ever be EEAAO. So.

Negative points for being written by a man. When he said "Spanish eyes" I went oh lord here we go but also the action scenes made me think aww boys having fun playing with their toys so he kinda got the points back there. I really liked the ending.

I like when things can't go back to how they were. Even though, after we learn there's multiple other Jasons, that means there are universes with no Jasons at all and he could've just went to one of those... But also loving your wife so much you'd kill multiverse versions of yourself? That's so real. This one's for the yearners.

Last note, nothing to do with the book, it must be really acclaimed because when I placed the audiobook hold I started off in 57th place. Had it on hold almost 3 months.

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maddie_can_read's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I really liked the premise of the book, some in interesting ideas, but didn't love the execution.

I didn't think the characterization was great

Wished Jason felt more developed/ more science-y. He felt very dude-bro to me. Didn't like that he didn't feel guilty about Jason 2's Daniella dying. Wished Daniella was more developed, I didn't feel like I knew her at all. Really didn't appreciate that the only other female character, Amanda, was seemingly just chucked in with Jason so that he'd have someone to freak out with/ talk to during his adventure and was not fleshed out as a real character. Like she just gave up her entire world for a colleague?

.
The main character felt like he was making really stupid decisions a lot of the time which took me out of the book a bit because it made me think about why tf he wasn't doing something else

like him continuing to go into a quarantined world, him and Amanda not trying to find more ampoules - like they can go into any world, so they could've definitely found some more go bags with more ampoules ? Why didn't they ever try to find the friend that made the secret ingredient?

The writing felt a bit clunky sometimes, felt like it was written more to be a screenplay for tv show or movie

like when Jason goes into his other self's house and it just goes on and on repeatedly "like this is different in my house"

. But this did make the novel easy to visualize.

Pacing was a bit inconsistent, felt like it wrapped up too quickly given how much build up there was.
A bit too predictable.

I was hoping the romance plotline was going to be more engaging/ interesting and felt disappointed.

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ababytapir's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Like Recursion, Dark Matter is fantastically mind-bending and all too easy to read in a day. It's incredibly violent and thought provoking. If you like your sci fi thrillers tinged with horror, existential dread and romance, this is the book for you.

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