Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

11 reviews

eatingbrains's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

1.75

The good:  I enjoyed the UberChat.  I felt that right when that was introduced a different ending could have spawned that turned into a lighthearted rom-com and I like to imagine that.

The bad:  I knew pretty early on that this was not going to be a favorite.  I don't read a lot of thrillers in general but I enjoy sci-fi so I figured I would give it a shot.  I couldn't stand the main character.  And thus, the book was doomed in my eyes.  The pacing was jumpy, and the plot was predictable (as in, I guessed what really happened in the first chapter and the main character didn't figure it out until the ~50% mark).  There was some promise for some thoughtful introspection but the approach was heavy-handed at best.  Some of the descriptions were vivid and others were flat out whacky.

I don't know if I will try another book by the author, but I don't think I was the intended audience for this work so who knows what the future holds.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abandonment, Body horror, Classism, Confinement, Torture, Pandemic/Epidemic, Rape, Self harm, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gore, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexism, Violence, Alcoholism, Cancer, Car accident, Child death, Infidelity, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

ottercorg's review

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Looking for an introduction to the sci-fi genre, an Internet list pointed me to this one. 

I enjoyed the main characters and plot, felt that Crouch told the story well. The reason I've avoided sci-fi for so long is that my brain is not good at comprehending the science part. But this book made it palatable and mostly easy to understand - which made me enjoy it even more! Only a few times did risk going over my head. 

Overall, an interesting tale that kept me invested, and not just because I had nothing better to do. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Violence, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Grief, Infidelity, Murder, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Body horror, Car accident, Death, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Kidnapping, Blood, Gun violence, Death of parent, Gore, and Stalking

kaitieg97's review against another edition

The writing is so good in the beginning, but from page 178 to 246, I'm sooo tired of this book and just want it to be over!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Death, and Medical content

Minor: Abortion

miniwils24's review

adventurous 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Murder, Blood, Violence, Drug use, Medical content, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Gun violence, and Death

kyrstin_p1989's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

4.5

A sci-fi thriller, this book kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. It was interesting and well-written. The story is compelling, unsettling, and fantastical. parts of the science-y description/explanation were outside my realm of comprehension but all in all this book is incredibly accessible to all readers. The chapters are really long but the writing style made the book fly by for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Blood, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Sexual content, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Stalking, Torture, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Abandonment, Animal death, Grief, Gun violence, and Animal cruelty

whatathymeitwas's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

Well that hit like a truck full of bricks. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Stalking, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Drug use, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Child death, Cursing, Death, Grief, Gun violence, and Terminal illness

m_hates_reading's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

Literally incredible I cannot describe how amazing it is the way it combines theoretical physics with thriller

won’t give any spoilers but the last few chapters are VERY intense and I was reading the ending through tears with several people on the bus staring at me 

I forget how much I love books where the MC is actually a GOOD person who you’re attached to- Jason is very lovable and someone you really care about and are rooting for, even in his darkest moments.

A beautiful story about love and family, with a healthy amount of murder and intense action.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Confinement, and Cursing

Minor: Gun violence, Abortion, Child death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicidal thoughts

mateoj's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.5

I have what i call "an English major's obsession with quantum physics", meaning that I absolutely adore narratives about things like time travel (or fucky time in general, like time loops) and, yes, the multiverse/parallel universes, but I am not a hard science person by any stretch of the imagination. Dark Matter is great in that regard—Crouch even says in one of the interviews that was in the back of my ebook copy that the science is accessible to a layperson because he himself is a layperson, and that much is true. the multiverse concept is given due justice here, especially the themes of identity and selfhood, but... the book in itself is not that good.
the thing about this story is that it hinges on the narrator/protagonist being just some guy; of course, you could write a multiverse story about someone wildly successful, but that's not the story Dark Matter is telling. unfortunately, he's just a little too much Just Some Guy. you root for him because he is the narrator, but i found his narration/internal monologue deeply irritating (this may have been compounded by the fact that i kept picturing him as my writing professor). the women in the story, even Jason's wife, didn't feel like actual people, just props to hold the story up; Jason's love for his wife and son is the driving force behind his actions, but who ARE they? all we get is how he feels about them, which is emotional but doesn't quite flesh them out enough. there was also

Spoiler

Amanda, who did nothing but save Jason's life a couple times and leave. she didn't have to have a bigger role, but some depth to the role she did serve would have been nice.

add to that some aspects of the plot that were genuinely laughable—

Spoiler

the chatroom? really?-—

and Dark Matter became, to me, some great ideas stitched together with a mediocre cast of characters and a mediocre plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Gun violence, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and Sexual content

Minor: Abortion and Stalking

ggcd1981's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Rating: 4.0 estrelas 

Spoiler

TRIGER WARNING: Gun Violence, Confinement, Dubious Concent, Moderate Sexual Content 

Dark Matter foi bom, não foi ótimo, mas foi bom. Este livro foi indicado por VÁRIOS Booktubers, mesmo assim não tinha as expectativas altas porque o resumo em si foi apenas moderadamente interessante para mim. O que me fez ler esse livro na verdade foi o fato de que Ewerton o escolheu para ler junto comigo, assim para incentiva-lo a leitura adiantei Dark Matter na minha lista. Ler comentando junto com Ewerton foi divertido, porém fora essa experiência não tenho sentimentos fortes pelo livro em si. Isso não significa que achei o livro medíocre ou ruim. Na verdade, o enredo é original e posso dizer que nunca vi um filme/livro sobre dimensões paralelas parecido com Dark Matter. Por mais da metade do livro eu genuinamente não conseguia prever como Jason Dessen, o protagonista, resolveria o problema. Então o principal ponto a favor da obra é sua originalidade. 

Pontos negativos houveram alguns poucos, nenhum realmente grave. O primeiro foi a escrita seca e fragmentada. Crouch escreveu a história em frases diretas e curtas, sem espaço para muita fluidez no texto. O segundo ponto fraco foi o personagem do filho do protagonista, Charlie. Eu não entendo porque sequer ele existia no livro. A todo momento o protagonista nos lembrava de seu amor pela esposa Daniela. Seu desespero em voltar para Daniela foi expresso em diversos momentos. Contudo os sentimentos expressados de Jason por Charlie eram pálidos em comparação do fervor do seu amor por Daniela, ao ponto que Charlie foi relegado a um dispositivo do texto para quando o autor precisava que uma ação fosse realizada por alguém que não Jason ou Daniela (Exemplo: Ligar o celular para que outros Jasons fossem capazes de rastrear o aparelho até a família). Por último, um ponto negativo subjetivo, porém foi um fator, não consegui me conectar a nenhum personagem, logo não estava investida em nenhum deles. 

Apesar dos problemas mencionados a história foi original e manteve meu interesse. Não foi previsível e foi bastante cinematográfica (assistiria uma adaptação do livro para o cinema). No geral foi uma obra sólida de ficção científica que me entreteve e proporcionou boas conversas com Ewerton.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Murder, and Drug use

Moderate: Alcohol, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Rape, Violence, and Stalking

bibliophilemama's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense fast-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Kidnapping

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, and Sexual content