‘Are you happy in your life?’
Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.
Before he wakes 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, 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.
From Blake Crouch, the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy, Dark Matter is a New York Times bestselling 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.
My Review: I recently published my list of 10 books that made me go WTF (see here) and someone on a Facebook Book Group suggested I read this as it might fit my criteria, so never one to walk away from a challenge I downloaded it and started to read it (without reading the blurb!)
WTF is right! I feel like I have just completed a Masters in Quantum Physics with a side helping of Existentialism and still don’t quite understand the basics. Dark Matter is NOT my usual genre and I didn’t realise it fell under the Sci-Fi category, but this should NOT put anyone off reading it. For obvious reasons I can’t go into much detail in the review as there are far too many areas that might be considered spoilers. What I can say is that my mind is well and truly fried thinking about the infinite possibilities about the Universe and alternative worlds and just for the record in an alternative world I am 5ft 6in with long blonde hair, a size 8 body, chocolate makes me skinny and there is a National Bank Holiday dedicated to Readers EVERY MONTH!
Dark Matter is a thought-provoking, fast-paced and thrilling journey into many different areas, but the overall story is about love and trying to get back to your family. I’m now off to read something far less taxing for my poor frazzled mind like The Adventures of Peppa Pig!
About The Author: Blake Crouch is the author of over a dozen bestselling suspense novels, including the international runaway bestselling series Wayward Pines, which became a hit television series From Executive Producer M. Night Shyamalan, starring Matt Dillon, Melissa Leo, and Terrence Howard.
His short fiction has appeared in numerous short story anthologies, and his longer fiction has been shortlisted for the International Thriller Award.