Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

From Goodreads:
“Are you happy with your life?” 

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. 

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. 

Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.” 

In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

Why did I wait so long to read this book? I bought this book in September of 2016, and only just read it. There was so much hype surrounding this book, and usually I try not to listen to hype. But in this case, I should have listened to the hype. This book is AMAZING. I brought it in the car for a two hour journey and was nearly finished within an hour and a half. I had to force myself to put the book down so I would have something to read on the return journey. 

This book starts out so normally, almost mundanely, but it very quickly throws you for a loop and gives you science fiction mixed with thriller, a bit of romance, and a lot of philosophical questions about our lives, reality and the possibility of multiverses. And I was hooked. Right away when the first loop is given, it's as if you're pushed into the deep end of a swimming pool without knowing the basics of how to adequately swim. While The Circle made me paranoid about who or what may be watching me, Dark Matter made me paranoid about there being more than one universe and that there are multiple copies of me.

I don't know how scientifically accurate the science is, since I'm not a science person, but the writing style that Crouch selected for this book really fits. It adds to the chaos and confusion of the novel, and creates a well-rounded tension that weaves throughout the story. There were many times while I was reading this where I thought "what the hell am I reading?" but in the best possible way. He creates a very realistic portrayal of what the possible ramifications or implications of a multiverse would be like. As a result, it makes you feel very small and insignificant. This book makes you question reality. It's very similar to the movie Inception in that respect, and it's wonderful in the way that it is executed.

Dark Matter really makes you question your own life, your own reality, and the existence of just one singular universe, or if there is more than just one. It asks the big questions, leaves most of them mostly unanswered in favour of postulating theories. I absolutely adored this book and I'm going to give it 5/5. We need more books like this.