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A review by tellsbooks
Recursion by Blake Crouch
4.0
Review to come. /// Dec 4, 2020 update ——
So this book was a mind fuck. Honestly, it was a trip. I REALLY REALLY liked it. It felt like the right thing to read in this pandemic as weird as that sounds. The bleak, reality-shifting, landscape gave stark contrast to what we’re dealing with globally at the moment and it made me feel like: yeah, things could be worse.
This was incredible world-crafting. I could see it all play out before my very eyes.
Helena is a strange yet complex character. It felt at points like the author, Blake Crouch, had reworked her, rethought her and maybe repositioned who she would be numerous times throughout the story. Using her he created moments of empathy, confusion, frustration. She felt very much like NEO in the Matrix. I liked her.
My problem with her character was: juxtaposed against Barry’s character, she seemed kind of flighty. I hate how that trope plays out for female characters in this type of high-tech, fast-paced, stop-the-bad-guy, sci-fi espionage type of book. Barry, as a character, felt solid and more developed. I almost wish their characters were reversed because I wonder how that would have shifted the dynamic.
As a reader, our attitudes and empathy for both Helena and the reason “the chair” was created in the first place are used against us. Brilliant female scientist, soft-hearted, good-intentioned.. blah blah blah.. like why can’t she be a cold bitch and be the one to put a bullet in Slade? That’s what I loved about the matrix, Trinity was the baddest bitch. She was badder than NEO! If the characters of Barry and Helena were reversed would we have automatically thought that Barry would have been corruptible, going along with things like Helena did for segments of the book.
This book really almost lost me around the entire fight-through-time/elevator sequence. I almost DNF’d this book at like 48% until about 64%, that whole sequence of events was incredibly painful to read. It dragged and was just cliche in some moments, eye-rolling in others. I hate love stories sometimes in books like these because there’s going to be tragedy and I’m so sick of situations where women aren’t allowed to have the things they want in love without punishment. You’ll get what I mean when you see how they had to live in the existential dread of knowing their lives can and would be fucked at a moment’s notice.
Anyway, the turn around after 64% was proper. Recursion did get a little repetitive towards the end. However, I did enjoy it immensely and I’d read some more Blake Crouch in the future. This book was escapism at its finest and I could see it as a big budget film. Recursion, the Tenet of 2023.
So this book was a mind fuck. Honestly, it was a trip. I REALLY REALLY liked it. It felt like the right thing to read in this pandemic as weird as that sounds. The bleak, reality-shifting, landscape gave stark contrast to what we’re dealing with globally at the moment and it made me feel like: yeah, things could be worse.
This was incredible world-crafting. I could see it all play out before my very eyes.
Helena is a strange yet complex character. It felt at points like the author, Blake Crouch, had reworked her, rethought her and maybe repositioned who she would be numerous times throughout the story. Using her he created moments of empathy, confusion, frustration. She felt very much like NEO in the Matrix. I liked her.
My problem with her character was: juxtaposed against Barry’s character, she seemed kind of flighty. I hate how that trope plays out for female characters in this type of high-tech, fast-paced, stop-the-bad-guy, sci-fi espionage type of book. Barry, as a character, felt solid and more developed. I almost wish their characters were reversed because I wonder how that would have shifted the dynamic.
As a reader, our attitudes and empathy for both Helena and the reason “the chair” was created in the first place are used against us. Brilliant female scientist, soft-hearted, good-intentioned.. blah blah blah.. like why can’t she be a cold bitch and be the one to put a bullet in Slade? That’s what I loved about the matrix, Trinity was the baddest bitch. She was badder than NEO! If the characters of Barry and Helena were reversed would we have automatically thought that Barry would have been corruptible, going along with things like Helena did for segments of the book.
This book really almost lost me around the entire fight-through-time/elevator sequence. I almost DNF’d this book at like 48% until about 64%, that whole sequence of events was incredibly painful to read. It dragged and was just cliche in some moments, eye-rolling in others. I hate love stories sometimes in books like these because there’s going to be tragedy and I’m so sick of situations where women aren’t allowed to have the things they want in love without punishment. You’ll get what I mean when you see how they had to live in the existential dread of knowing their lives can and would be fucked at a moment’s notice.
Anyway, the turn around after 64% was proper. Recursion did get a little repetitive towards the end. However, I did enjoy it immensely and I’d read some more Blake Crouch in the future. This book was escapism at its finest and I could see it as a big budget film. Recursion, the Tenet of 2023.