DARK MATTER by BLAKE CROUCH
Published July 26th 2016 by Crown

 

Synopsis:

“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.

 

My Review:

Mind-bending and completely unique, take a chance and read this book!! This fast-paced, twisty science-fiction thriller was just what I needed to get out of a reading slump! Even if you don’t usually read this genre, DON’T MISS DARK MATTER! It is a brilliant romantic suspense story that had me guessing until the very end.

There IS a romance at the heart of this story of scientist/professor Jason Dessen, because to me, the struggle to get back to his beloved wife is what drives most of the action in this book. I went back and re-read the first chapter of this book after I finished to get a better picture of the sudden and violent kidnapping that occurs at the very beginning of this book.

“My life is great. It’s just not exceptional. And there was a time when it could have been.”
“You killed your ambition, didn’t you?”
“It died of natural causes. Of neglect.”

Jason is literally snatched from his current life and ends up in a place that might be a dream. He can’t tell the difference between real-life and fantasy, until it slowly starts to dawn on him what is really happening to him. The author made me feel sad, nostalgic and thrilled all at once. Plus there is an ethical dilemma at the heart of this story.

“I feel insanity stalking me again, threatening to curl me up fetal and shatter me into a million pieces.”

Dark Matter is best read without knowing any spoilers. AND I was thrilled to learn that it is going to be made into a movie!! YES!! Paging Viggo Mortensen or Michael Fassbender! This story literally had me on the edge of seat the entire time I was reading. Just when I thought I had things figured out, I was surprised and thrilled by the next turn of events. Part philosophy about what might have been, part romance, and all suspense, Dark Matter is a book I won’t soon forget.

“It’s the beautiful thing about youth.

There’s a weightlessness that permeates everything because no damning choices have been made, no paths committed to, and the road forking out ahead is pure, unlimited potential.”

(With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy.)