Blake Crouch

A science-fiction thriller in which an ordinary man is kidnapped, knocked unconscious, and awakens in a world inexplicably different from the reality he thought he knew.

A Novel

Dark Matter

As long as I'm with you, I know exactly who I am

Ashlyn Barrett

I am not just me. My understanding of identity has been shattered. I am one facet of an infinitely faceted being who has made every possible choice and lived every life imaginable. I can't help thinking that we're more than the sum total of our choices, that all the paths we might have taken factor somehow into the math of our identity.

Every moment, every breath, contains a choice. But life is imperfect. We make the wrong choices. So we end up living in a state of perpetual regret, and is there anything worse?

I know part of our story is the electricity of our connection, but the other part is equally miraculous. It's the simple fact that you walked into my life at the exact moment you did. You instead of someone else. In some ways, isn't that even more in- credible than the connection itself? That we found each other at all?

What a miracle it is to have people to come home to every day. To be loved. To be expected.

There's something horribly lonely about a place that's almost home.

If he did this to you, he would have rationalized it somehow. That's how decent people justify bad behavior.

So if the world really splits whenever something is observed, that means there's an unimaginably massive, infinite number of universesa multiversewhere everything that can happen will happen.

even though it cannot be seen, we know dark matter exists bc of its’ effects on objects we CAN observe 

Most astrophysicists believe that the force holding stars and galaxies together - the thing that makes our whole universe work - comes from a theoretical substance we can't measure or observe directly. Something they call dark matter. And this dark matter makes up most of the known universe.

It's terrifying when you consider that every thought we have, every choice we could possibly make, branches into a new world. 

even when choices are changed, do the people affected by remain the same cognitively? 

Here and now, wherever this is, it's the same arrangement of matter. 

We all live day to day completely oblivious to the fact that were a part of a much larger and stranger reality than we can possibly imagine.

nothing exists. all is a dream. you are but a thought. (mark twain)

A realization and the terror that follows it - terror of the limitless indifference surrounding us. We’re all just wandering through the tundra of our existence, assigning value to worthlessness, when all that we love and hate, all we believe in, fight for, kill for, and die for is meaningless. 

I am not allowed to think I'm crazy. I am only allowed to solve this problem.

Will I keep fighting to be the man I think I am? Or will I disown him and everything he loves, and step into the skin of the person this world would like for me to be?

At this point, I'm not even sure what to be afraid of this reality that might actually be true, or the possibility that everything is going to pieces inside my head.

I touch the indentation, acknowledging both the horror and the comfort of what it represents - the last vestige of my reality.

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.

Now, if the people around me are sharp enough to absorb knowledge by sheer proximity to me... great. But the passing on of knowledge, as it were, doesn't interest me. All that matters is the science. The research. 

importance of always saying “i love you”

I don't look back. I don't say goodbye. And this moment slips past unnoticed. The end of everything I know, everything I love.

No one tells you it’s all about to change and maybe that's what makes tragedy so tragic. Not just what happens, but how it happens: a sucker punch that comes at you out of nowhere, when you're least expecting it. No time to flinch or brace.

For anyone who has wondered what their life might look like at the end of the road not taken.

IM OBSESSED WITH THEIR RELATIONSHIP. im so used to literary works when if the characters had the chance to cheat, they would. but his words beforehand, >But it won't be me<, rings so clearly here. both of them have their principles, and it does waver - how can it not, when you're both the only person you know in this situation rn? - but they are principled enough to not do it. to let it go. you choose to act on it. but they didn't. & she did help him over that final hurdle, my god.

madina

Jason, I wish you nothing but happiness. Be safe. Amanda

Holy crap what an amazing book! I feel like this book had it all, it was incredibly fast paced and had me guessing. Such a unique and really REALLY cool concept. Also very touching at some parts. I would recommend this book to everyone!! Can’t wait to watch the tv show

Kass

A little slow at times but had some twists i didnt expect! More relationship focused than scifi or thriller but definitely a lot of suspense. It was a page turner but didn't shake my world as much as I had expected it to considering it focusing on relationships and the multiverse.

Gloria

This was a fun read! It was entertaining to see all the alternate lives Jason, the main character, might have lived.

Mima

i haven't been this invested in a story in a long fucking time

'Brilliant. . . I think Blake Crouch just invented something new.' - Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher series. From Blake Crouch, the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy, Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human – a relentlessly surprising thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we'll go to claim the lives we dream of, perfect for fans of Stranger Things and Ready Player One. 'Are you happy in your life?' Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. Before he awakes to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before the man he's never met smiles down at him and says, 'Welcome back.' 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.

A Mind-Blowing Twisted Thriller

Gelaine Trinidad

A fun sci-fi thriller that uses the concept of quantum mechanics as an imperfect solution to big life questions: "Did I choose the right path for me? What would my life be like if I made different choices?" This existential question lingers in everyone's mind once in awhile. The author brings soul and life to this novel amidst all the scientific parts. It's a great balance of both. I can now see how this book was a precursor to his much more complex novel, Recursion. One can tell how much he's progressed and grown with his research on quantum mechanics by reading Recursion. Highly recommend both novels by Blake Crouch.

Ryan Mateyk

Wow I haven’t been this captivated by a book in a hot minute. The concept is terrifying: you wake up in a reality that is not your own and you need to try to find your way back to what you know, through infinite possible realities. Obviously it’s very speculative but the way Crouch explains the quantum mechanics behind his story makes everything make sense. It was thrilling, intense, the definition of a page turner. I loved this a lot.

Sohini Roy

** spoiler alert **
           really enjoyed the fast pacing of the story and the sequence of events and plot twists. my only things were:

1.) in the final world that charlie picks, are they still in chicago? do they change identities? versions of them must still be walking around so i wish i had some clarity on how that worked, even if it’s meant to be ambiguous

2.) this isn’t as important but somehow i felt like jason telling daniela and charlie about him literally being abducted into the multiverse went over too smoothly LOL like i get that they love each other but i expected there to be more conflict

still a really good read though, and leaves a lot of space for you to do your own thinking about the multiverse

Really interesting story, not like anything I’ve read in awhile. The ending is a bit abrupt and the multi-dimensional stuff confuses me but otherwise, excellent read! 

Alicia Evans

Terrible prose, bland characters, excruciatingly bad, and highly overrated. Could have been good.

As a teenager I would’ve enjoyed it, but sadly I basically saw it coming from the very beginning. Few really good points though. 

Ryan Lane

lala

This book was recommended by a mutual. I actually like the premise of the book, and I think Crouch navigate the sci-fi genre very well. It's not too hard sci-fi but it doesn't discount the science behind the story. He doesn't dwell to too much technical terms, but graze it gracefully and successfully hooked the reader to the premise. (Or it may be because I have a physics background lol). He plays with our emotions, and the progression of the story captures the characters very well and not just about science. Although my protest would be, why is the title Dark Matter when involving dark matter to the premise of the story makes it scientifically inconsistent????

this was insane omg.so fun and definitely a must-read.

A. D. Knapp

Elisavet Rozaki 

Hanna Rybchynska

"E se a pessoa que estivesse a viver a tua vida não fosses tu?"

Este livro surpreendeu-me bastante. Apesar dos temas de ficção científica serem relativamente pesados e confusos, este não foi muito pesado (um pouco confuso, mas no final até fez o seu sentido), no entanto foi muito fácil de ler. O tema principal do livro é - "o que seria de nós, se tivessemos optado de outra forma na vida? E se somos realmente felizes com as nossas decisões? Como é sofrer a vida toda com arrependimento e como aceitar as nossas decisões?". São mais perguntas filosóficas do que propriamente científicas.
O que mais gostei no livro é o tipo de suspanse, parece daqueles livros que quando lemos 3/4 capítulos já sabemos como vai acabar. CONTUDO, a nossa previsão é concretizada poucos capítulos depois, deixando-nos em dúvida sobre os próximos eventos.
Todo o livro está cheio de ação e chega a um momento que já não sabemos o que está a acontecer e de repente já é final e continua-se sem perceber muito bem o que está a acontecer. 
No geral é uma leitura muito interessante e dá que pensar.

Ankit Panchal

This is the kind of book that once you start reading you will not put it down until it ends. A real page turner.

Amna A.

Was so much fun to read. As someone who enjoys thrillers but finds them too intense to consume on screen, this book was perfect. Could not stop reading. There's a lot of science fiction, so if you enjoy Andy Weird or Michael Crichton, I would recommend this. The first half introduces a lot of quantum, philosophical, and psychological theories but is very good at explaining them. And all these big ideas are used to explore intricate feelings, questions of morality, and the underlying theme of career vs. family. The quote on the dedication page reads, "This book is for anyone who has wondered what their life might look like at the end of the road not taken." My only criticism of the book is that the main characters are kind of bland.

Michael Knepprath

One of those books where if I’d read it when it came out it would’ve blown my mind, but popular media has caught up with it so it doesn’t feel quite as groundbreaking anymore. Still a fun ride, though!

Mariana Lage

One of the best fricking books I've ever read, amazingly written.

Jason Lo

Sasha

Isabella 

This book is interesting, but I find the execution lacking. The characters are boring, and some of them weren't fully fleshed out; seems like they were only used for a plot device. I couldn't find anything to make me feel connected with the whole story. It was very underwhelming. It looks like a book made just so it could be a movie. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed it somehow. It's philosophical; it made us think about the possibility of infinite realities. It's an average book for me.

Dani

The concept in itself had a lot of potential, but I found myself growing more and more frustrated with every chapter, discovering it was more of a love story than anything else. Maybe I went in with the wrong idea, and that’s on me. Nevertheless an entertaining read, albeit overtly (unnecessarily?) sexual at times.

I’ve read/watched quite a bit about unlocking the secrets to the multiverse but this one had its own spin on it. It’s not just some versions of you being similar and others wildly different. 

In Dark Matter hundreds of Jasons are trying to get home to their Daniela and Charlie. They all believe they are the original and some will do anything to stop the others from taking what they believe to be theirs. Of limitless doors to open (like finding a specific grain of sand in a desert) somehow hundreds of Jasons make it to this world. More still arriving. They all have the same style of thinking developing the same master plan. 

The ending wasn’t what I was expecting or hoping for given that Daniela and Charlie seem to recognize the small differences in Jasons claiming to be the original. Part of me wishes that they all would have agreed to meet up at the same location and Daniela and Charlie would ask them questions that only the original would know but this process of elimination would undoubtedly be exhausting and time consuming and in no way would break it down while more keep arriving. 

Christa Bell

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🌟 4.5/5

I’ve read/watched quite a bit about unlocking the secrets to the multiverse but this one had its own spin on it. It’s not just some versions of you being similar and others wildly different. 

In Dark Matter hundreds of Jasons are trying to get home to their Daniela and Charlie. They all believe they are the original and some will do anything to stop the others from taking what they believe to be theirs. Of limitless doors to open (like finding a specific grain of sand in a desert) somehow hundreds of Jasons make it to this world. More still arriving. They all have the same style of thinking developing the same master plan. 

The ending wasn’t what I was expecting or hoping for given that Daniela and Charlie seem to recognize the small differences in Jasons claiming to be the original. Part of me wishes that they all would have agreed to meet up at the same location and Daniela and Charlie would ask them questions that only the original would know but this process of elimination would undoubtedly be exhausting and time consuming and in no way would break it down while more keep arriving. 

Dark Matter A Novel

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