Helene's Reviews > Dark Matter

I will start by saying Blake Crouch is a good writer for the most part. Perhaps I've read enough genres that nothing in this book swept me off my feet, or took me by surprise. There are some other reviews here that do a very good job parsing out why this is not really your hard science fiction, more of a suspended disbelief from which the main story flows. 3 stars for being generally a good read or listen, but I wanted to give it 2 because the story ended up somewhat tedious and ridiculous.

I had some serious issues with the book though, and while this does not intentionally give away any plot, I'll put it in spoiler jail. (view spoiler)[ I honestly wondered at some point if the author was aware of the awkward thing he created - how gross and disgusting his main character was, how sad and cringe inducing all of it was. I still don't know. So we venture into the shallow waters of multiverse, where all versions of the MC are obsessed about the two dimensional wife, SO much so that every time he ventures into a new "version" of the universe where it is OBVIOUSLY not his home, he must risk everything to go stalk his non-wife and whine about it. I don't know where the book would have been if he didn't, action wise, because it was light on any other plot. But, here's what's worse, and where I wondered if it was conscious on the part of the author or not: Remember the Michael Keaton movie Multiplicity? Where the more times he cloned himself, the dumber he got? Well... that starts to look familiar here as the other branched off versions of Jason start showing up, all blubbering about how much they love their wife, frothing at the mouth to BE WITH YOU like a bunch of teenage boys with their first crush. Their resemblance to a brainless mob of zombies puts a sharper microscope on just how awful the main character is, on this nauseating circular repetition of being desperate for his wife, and valuing his family over achievement - because there's definitely a moralistic judgment being made here - rather than just a man desperate to get back to his life, what's familiar, to those he cares about. The attempts at some loftier statement about the richness of life having a family get lost in the constant repetition of horrible lives where they didn't marry.

Another review pointed out that the only other female character that was vaguely interesting - ditches him when she realizes he's an awful, repetitive, annoying loser. HER story would have been interesting, he could have worked to help her find a good world and then found his way home... but noooooo. That's not where this branching decision making tree is taking us. An introspective look at trying to find a new world to dive into would have been an interesting thought exercise, but instead we're stuck with a whiner that needs his life yet kept wandering off in ones that weren't his. Consistently, at least, all the other Jasons are equally as whiny so even worse once in a group. (hide spoiler)]

Ultimately I didn't find this a compelling story. As far as science fiction, it is mostly a slightly cringe-inducing romance where a man's obsession with his wife becomes problematic for him as events unfold. It avoids any real enjoyment of 'the road less traveled' thought experiments and boils down to a time clock thriller with people chasing people and making bad split decisions, all while trying to convince themselves they're making good choices. All while having a very heavy handed message about 'having a family' being way more rewarding than achievement, in an almost comically weighted fashion with no nuance.

Also... (view spoiler)[ Does this now mean if his family has to go to a few different worlds to choose the right one there will be a bunch of them on the loose too? (hide spoiler)]