DARK MATTER by Blake Crouch ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

4/11/2018

Woof, that was good. Makes you feel so many emotions along the ride.

Edit 11/29/18: I still think about how amazing this book was all the time. It rocked my world. Might be my favorite book of the year.

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Reread 1/6/24:

I first read this in 2018 and since then it’s been my go-to answer when asked, “What’s your favorite book?” It rocked my freaking world. It found me at just the right time in life and jump-started so much of my personal creativity; My book reviews. My own writing. My analysis of other stories, real and fictional. It was my first review for anything — outside of a few big fantasy series — and I’ve thought about it frequently since then.

So, for some reason, I felt like starting off 2024 by revisiting my favorite book (and my first reread of any book I think ever, not counting old YA stuff) to see if it still stacks up. While it didn’t leave me with some new skill or passion this time around, it did show me how much I’ve grown since the last time I read it.

Now, the prose isn’t as shiny as I remember. Some writing has a certain poetry to it, but this chooses to be much more accessible and blunt.

Short sentences with their own lines.

Quick reveals.

Moving us right along.

Not necessarily in a bad way. I’ve just experienced more eloquent books since 2018 that employ rhythm with every word. I didn’t have that understanding before coming to this originally, and now I feel a little let down.

The plotting isn’t as clean as I recall either. The ideas are so profound that there’s little wiggle room between reality and science fiction, and in the moments where you enter that gray area and realize it’s not all adding up, you have to just push past it so you don’t lose the fun of the ride. Maybe it’s just the perfectionist in me though. I understand now that a writer can only take you so far when trying to create a speculative future that lives mostly within the real world’s parameters. They deserve the courtesy to let them stretch that boundary a bit here and there.

Besides those two points…GOD, this is still a great book. It absolutely takes you on an emotional ride. It’s extremely readable too. Those short sentences really do keep the pages turning, and so do the stakes. It drills into our innate need for closeness and familiarity and what really makes you you. Then just when you get grounded and comfortable, it flips you on your head. It’s a rush.

This could be a book for anyone. There’s no big leap for entry here. No big crazy words, just big ideas. I couldn’t help but think about my own family towards the end and what I’d do to be with them if separated. It makes you want to hold someone close, to not take anything for granted. And that’s exactly the kind of stories I like.

I’m not sure it’s still my favorite book, but I’m not sure I can say what would dethrone it. So I’ll live in that limbo for now. Superimposed between a decision, letting both timelines live for a little while longer.