Man, this book was not good. Maybe not terrible (although, maybe terrible), but really not good. The premise was okay, but the writing was almost painfully bad. No, it wasn’t as bad as the dumpster fire that is Lola Montez Conquers the Spaniards (I’m linking to it not so you’ll read it, but so you can see the cover & know to never, ever pick it up). And it was marginally better than the very poorly written America Pacifica (again, please don’t read, just be aware that it’s out there), but only marginally.
In Dark Matter, Jason Dessen is a scientist, who, in another world within the multiverse, learns to travel through different worlds of the multiverse. How? I have no idea. I’m pretty good with science fiction, but I was in no way buying whatever nonsense the author was trying to sell me here. And that is, in part, because the author doesn’t make sense. I’m not sure he knows how non-science things work much less how the multiverse works.
For example, Jason is walking past a playground and he sees a slide, which the author refers to as “the metal sliding board.” Dude! It’s a slide! And that was on page nine. The book does not get any better from page 10 on. It’s full of the author not knowing what things are called or how they work.
And for a book marketed as suspense novel, it’s remarkably lacking in suspense. I knew exactly who the kidnapper was by page 30 and none of the “mind-blowing” twists and turns blew my mind. The author is just not a good enough writer to maintain that edge.
And then there is the writing style. It’s entirely on the surface. Crouch writes as though he’s writing a screenplay; there is very little description provided. This lack of world-building made this a very hard read for me, especially as I’m not remotely versed in the idea of alternate realities. In addition to the non-descriptive writing, there is also the fact that the author loves to write in short, staccato bursts, using short, incomplete sentences instead of actual paragraphs. I guess that maybe this was to increase the feeling of suspense, but, for me, it just increased my feelings of irritation.
So, to recap, do not read this book. The subject matter may be interesting but the book itself is not. Also, not a love story.