Dark Matter Book Review

 *spoiler alert* Dark Matter, by Blake Crouch, is a creative, mysterious, and heartfelt scientific fiction novel that tells a great story about regret and the power of true love. We follow Jason Denson a physics professor, his wife Daniella, and his son Charlie. It was Thursday so that meant family night until Jason quickly goes to visit his friend Ryan who won the Pavia Prize for his research on the prefrontal cortex. Ryan asks Jason why he only settled for teaching when apparently he could've been so much more. Feeling  However, the way, he is Kidnapped and forced to drive to a strange location by a person who knows a little too much about Jason. When they arrive Jason gets injected with a mysterious fluid and wakes up in a stretcher in a place he doesn't recognize. Where is he? Who was that guy? Will Charlie and Daniela be okay? All these questions and more will be answered in the critically acclaimed novel: Dark Matter.

Jason's only focus as he is jumping through the multiverse is to make it home to his family.  The bond between family is a strong theme in Dark Matter and I believe it is one of its strongest aspects. As Jason crossed the multiverse, he encountered so many different versions of Daniela where she was with another version of him, with another man, or even single. No matter how many versions of Daniela he saw, he never forgot his Daniela. "Because as f****d as everything is, there is no place I’d rather be than with this Daniela, this Charlie. If one tiny thing were different, they wouldn’t be the people I love" (Crouch). Jason often thought about killing and replacing anther Jason to return to the slightest bit of normalcy, however, he couldn't just abandon the woman and child he loved so much especially in the way they were stolen from him. He never took the easy way out and he never gave up on making it back to his Daniela and Charlie. When the Jason we have been following finally made it home and he was up against an infinite amount of other Jasons who also made it back home, our Jason is one that Daniela and Charlie chose because he was the only Jason random and smart enough to find her. The theme of family works so well in the story of Dark Matter because of Jason's never ending love and dedication to his family and his perseverance in returning to them.  

Another incredibly strong theme in this book is the idea of regret and how the characters come to terms with that regret and the two characters we see tackle this concept the most share he same name. Jason 2 (the Jason that transported and replaced the Jason we follow), built the box to be able to live a life without regret; if he wanted to see his life if he stayed with Daniela, he did not have to sit and wonder, all he had to do was go to a universe where they were the perfect couple. However, Jason 2's actions go against the very laws of this universe as said by Daniela, "“Life doesn’t work that way. You live with your choices and learn. You don’t cheat the system” (Crouch). It's a powerful saying form Daniela because she made just as many sacrifices as Jason did especially since she did have a bright future as an artist. This also shows readers that you cannot dwell on the the regrets of your life because even though things were bad at one point, it doesn't mean that things will be bad later. Our Jason and Daniela are perfect examples of that.

I would easily recommend Dark Matter to anyone who is a fan of science fiction novels but also a heartwarming story of a man beating the impossible odds of getting home. The brilliant themes of family and regret are very thought provoking and the idea of cherishing your family and living despite our regrets are great guides to live by. I think those who are fans of science fiction and those who aren't really should give this book a listen because it is before anything, just a great story.