Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Dark Matter 

by Blake Crouch
Published: Random House, 2016
Pages: 342
Genre: Science Fiction
Amazon, Goodreads

But it’s all, in the end, just life. We see it macro, like one big story, but when you’re in it, it’s all just day-to-day, right? And isn’t that what you have to make your peace with?

About the book

"Are you happy with your life" Those are the last words Jason Dressen 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.

Review

I started Dark Matter thinking it was going to be a weird sci-fi novel but it ended up being so much more than that.

Jason Dessen is a physics professor at a community college who faced a promising career as a budding scientist at 20 but, when his girlfriend got pregnant, choose to focus on his family. Fifteen years later, he wonders what if?

During a night out celebrating a friend’s success, Jason is held at gunpoint then transported into a world where, on that fateful time where he needed to choose between his career and family, he chooses his career. Not everything is as it seems and all Jason wants to do is get back to his family, but the path is dangerous and virtually impossible.

Dark Matter is suspenseful and mind-bending! To me, the book highlights the importance of living without regrets and in the moment; you can’t live life being miserable about every potential mistake you made because that will come back to haunt you.

I feel like I can’t say that much without giving away parts of the plot so, suffice to say, just go read it because it’s a great book!

RATING (out of five puppies)