My understanding of identity has been shattered—I am one facet of an infinitely faceted being called Jason Dessen who has made every possible choice and lived every life imaginable.
I can’t help thinking that we’re more than the sum total of our choices, that all the paths we might have taken factor somehow into the math of our identity.
But none of the other Jasons matter.
I don’t want their lives.
I want mine.
Oh my quantum mechanics was this good!
First off, I want to say that I had no idea what this novel was supposed to be about when I put a hold on it through OverDrive. I’ve been watching Dark Matter on Netflix, and figured this might be similar, so I placed my hold and waited months, literally, for other people to finish it so I could have it.
Side note: I have realized that borrowing digital books from the library is so great for accessability, but not so great for taking your time to finish a book. I raced through Dark Matter because it was just that good, however, I’ve got my third hold on 1984. If I didn’t have to wait so long for other people to read and return these digital copies I would’ve finished the book by now. That’s about my only gripe with digital library collections—they are not infinite.
Anyway, the scientific haze that envelops the entire storyline is beyond what my mind wanted to process, but there’s just so much to love about this book. The endless corridor, the Danielas, the Jasons (though I didn’t much love them), even Amanda (who I secretly hoped Jason would end up with despite trying to get back to his wife…like, I really hope she found an amazing place). I do feel that Jason2 and Amanda’s relationship needed a bit more development. There was the underlying not that something was between them, but it wasn’t ever fully explained. I mean, she was his thereapist, but it just felt a little more…tense, than that to me.
My goal is always not to ruin a book for you before you get to read it for yourself, so I can’t even get into the meat of Dark Matter without giving too much away. Now, I really would like to go back to Crouch’s older work and actually read Wayward Pines (now that I know who he is…I mean, honestly people, as much as I enjoy reading I can never remember author names or keep their works organized in my head) becuase I thoroughly enjoy the show (it hasn’t been cancelled, right?) Blake Crouch is really good, my friends, like, really good.
Dark Matter happens to be my first full read of 2018. I finished A Garden to Keep (which I’ll write about next…I know, working backwards) exactly one week ago (Jan. 6) and started reading Dark Matter last Sunday. I was actually having a conversation with a friend last Saturday about how long it takes me to read a book, and I told him it depends on the size, content, and writing style. Now, I’ll get into why it took me so long to read A Garden to Keep at a later date, but the speed at which Dark Matter flowed is what determined how quickly I read it. Three hours reading this book goes by quickly, so don’t pick it up if you have something pressing to do. Give yourself some time to get into it. I wasn’t expecting to be this satisfied with it, but it suprised me. I’m definitely looking forward to the movie.
In my next post I’ll tell you about A Garden to Keep. It was interesting, but it would’ve been very easy to lose patience with the narrator. I wanted to turn on her several times in the year it took me to read this novel, but I perservered and made it to the end. I’ll tell you all about it next time. Until then,
Happy Reading, and Happy New year (are we still saying that? When’s the cut off date?)!
Christine
Now I must return my digital copy so someone else can read the book.
Christine Gabriélle 