Dark Matter by Blake CrouchMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
"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 and fight for and kill for and die for is as meaningless as images projected onto plexiglass."
This book was an absolute masterpiece and an absolute mindfuck of a sci-fi world.
"Are you happy with your life?" are the last six words that Jason hears before becoming unconscious and waking up in an unfamiliar, different world. At first, he doesn't even know if he's experiencing a dream/hallucination or which reality is the one that's real. The biggest question that he is trying to answer is: how does he get back to the people that he loves, the family that he left behind.
"I thought I appreciated every moment, but sitting here in the cold I took it all for granted. And how could I not? Until everything topples, we have no idea what we actually have, how precariously and perfectly it all hangs together."
Throughout this novel, we then go through a series of these types of introspective thought about: appreciating the things that we already have, finding our identity, how we perceive what reality is, the choices that we make or that we don't make. Because of our first POV, and the psychologist who appears in a good chunk of the book, this proved to be an interesting psychological study.
"The other (view spoiler) want the thing in the world that is the most precious in the world that is the most precious to me--my family."
This can classified as a love story, between a husband and wife and their son, between what their family means and how it grounds them in whatever life they choose to live through. That's what makes it so emotional, so gripping and soul-searching for both the narrator and so that the reader can relate. In my opinion this was the most important element of the book because it erased the indifferent and made us empathize with the struggles of our MC.
"It's a mystery. But there are clues. Most astrophysicist 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."
The scientific explanations blew my mind and probably went way over my head, but nevertheless could still captivate my attention completely. The way that the author writes it provides so much intricacy, and why this novel is titled is (the title sentence, if you will) captures the meaning and themes even more clearly.
I have to admit at first I had to adjust to Crouch's writing style. It could be described as short and choppy, but I thought that the voice of a screenwriter was shining through the pages. From page one, I just knew that this was meant to be adapted onto the big screen. There are repetitive phrases that are like lists, and lots of short phrases that just get dropped to the next line-in the middle of a thought. In a way though this fits right along with the fast paced tempo that Crouch is aiming for, so I grew to really appreciate . The result of his writing was making this an extremely quick read that was unputdownable, the kind that's so excellent that you can't help but read it in one sitting.
**Thanks to bloggingforbooks and the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinion are my own.**
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