Snowstorms, and zombies, and time travel, oh my!
I requested Dark Matter from my local library shortly after reading Recursion. Once again, Blake Crouch did not disappoint. Crouch turned It’s a Wonderful Life into a science fiction thriller. The action and suspense felt so real, it left me sweaty. Every time I thought I had it figured out, a new twist would appear. Dark Matter is one of those books you do not want to read before bed, because you may not be able to put it down.
While walking home one night, Jason Dessen is abducted by a masked figure. “Are you happy in your life?” he hears before losing consciousness. When Jason comes to, he is strapped to a gurney and surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. He quickly discovers that he is not in his metaphorical Kansas anymore. Jason must now figure out how to make it back to the home and family he loves, and his captor is not going to make that a simple quest… by any stretch of the imagination.
I’m fairly confident Blake Crouch is a mad genius. I mean, how do you come up with this stuff? My brain was bent and warped in the best way possible while reading Dark Matter. I’m reminded of R.L. Stein’s Goosebumps tagline, “Reader beware, you’re in for a scare.” While not a horror, Dark Matter deposits eerie existential questions into the reader’s very being. However, like It’s a Wonderful Life, the overarching theme is a reminder to appreciate the life you live.