Dark Matter Book Review
Dark Matter, by Blake Crouch, is a science fiction novel that follows the emotional and terrifying journey of Jason Dessen to get his family back. Jason is a science teacher at Lakemont College, with a son and wife named Charlie and Daniela. One night when returning home from a party, the life Jason knows and loves is taken from him. He awakens at Velocity Laboratories with a group of scientists greeting him and asking him how his journey was. Jason is very confused and escapes from the lab to find his wife but comes to a startling discovery, that he has been brought to a new world. Using help from another Velocity Labs employee to escape, Jason travels from dimension to dimension facing danger, heartbreak, and revenge in hopes to find his beloved family. As he gets closer and closer, he learns that he is not the only Jason coming for his loved ones. Will Jason be able to overcome himself to bring back and secure his family from the danger that awaits?
A huge part of this novel is the character Jason 1. Jason 1 is a family man with a normal job and normal life. After a rough night at a party Jason is taken hostage by Jason 2, which is another Jason from a separate world but is almost exactly identical. Jason 2 takes Jason 1 to a power plant and injects him with a drug that sends him to his old world. Here, Jason 1 is unsure what is going on and tries to find his family but is stopped by the company he works for. With help from Amanda Lucas, Jason 2’s therapist, Jason 1 escapes via the box. Amanda and Jason 1 travel in the box to a variety of worlds to find the right Daniela and Charlie, but arrive to only find altered versions of his family. When Jason 1 finally reaches the correct world, he realizes that there are hundreds of other Jason’s with him that want what he wants, and are willing to kill for it. He is forced to defend his family from the Jason’s lurking to make a move and bring his family to safety. The reason why Jason 1 is such a big deal in this book is because in all of the instances above, he never gives up on his family. In the worlds that he has been to, Jason 1 killed his wife Daniela so that she wouldn’t suffer, Charlie and Daniela with different Jasons, a dead family that had starved, and an abundance of horrific things. Despite seeing all of this, Jason still fights for his family and makes sure he will find them at all costs. He says, “I am not a violent person. But if I want my family back, there's simply no way around it. I have to do a terrible thing.”(Crouch 273). Every time that something comes his way good or bad, Jason is ready to do whatever he has to do to make sure he gets to his family. He could have given up while being in the box or in a different world, but he doesn’t and this is what makes him such an inspirational character. This makes the novel such a great read, because the whole mission of finding and fighting for his family distill to the reader the importance of family and reminds the reader that family is something that can be taken advantage of, but without them we would be lost just like Jason.
One aspect of the book that will make a reader want to take a look at this novel, is the setting. When Jason and Amanda first enter the box and begin traveling to different dimensions, they do not know how to control it or what to do to make the box go where they want it to. After a couple failed tries Amanda realizes that they should write down what they want to see and where they want to go. As the story goes on the number of ampules shrink, and Amanda decides that it is time to leave Jason to give him the best chance to find his family. Before leaving she writes Jason a note, saying to focus on what he is feeling instead of what he wants while in the box. Jason chooses to think about the first time that he met Daniela and focuses on what he felt when that occurred and he transfers it all onto the notebook and succeeds in making it back to the real world. Before Jason’s return to the world he originated in, he visits a variety of worlds. These worlds include, an apocalyptic version of Chicago where the city is full of ash and destruction, a futuristic Chicago, a quarantined Chicago that forces Jason to mercy kill Daniela, a Chicago that is almost exact to the one he is from, and two other worlds that have no correlation to Chicago. These two worlds being a cabin in the middle of a snow storm with a deceased family from starvation, and a world where a wolf jumped at Jason when the door was opened. The reason why the setting is so important in the novel is not because of what it looks like or what Jason does in these worlds, but because it shows the progression of Jason’s feelings and what matter most to him throughout the novel. When entering the apocalyptic Chicago Jason was full of anger and rage and it correlated to the world that he was in. The same thing happened in the Chicago where everybody was sick. Jason feared losing his family and it came true. Having to reach in and find his inner feelings to make it back to his world, made Jason stop and think about what he really cared about and why his family means so much to him. He had to put aside his emotions and reflect on the memories he has made and think not only about where he wants to go but truly why he wants to go there. Because of this, the setting can also turn into a theme and become a lot more important that one may think and that is what a reader will have to figure out when reading the book.
After reading this book, I would put it into my top 5 books ever read. As we continue reading books in Contemporary Literature, they just keep getting better and better. While reading this novel I was unable to put it down. I always had to read more than what was assigned because the novel was so exciting and it put me into a completely different state of mind and world. I would recommend this book not only to those that like science fiction, but to any type of book lover. The novel never disappoints, except maybe a little for the ending, but that is just my opinion. You will not be able to close the book until it is finished and I hope that this novel gains more and more popularity because it is truly a great work.
A huge part of this novel is the character Jason 1. Jason 1 is a family man with a normal job and normal life. After a rough night at a party Jason is taken hostage by Jason 2, which is another Jason from a separate world but is almost exactly identical. Jason 2 takes Jason 1 to a power plant and injects him with a drug that sends him to his old world. Here, Jason 1 is unsure what is going on and tries to find his family but is stopped by the company he works for. With help from Amanda Lucas, Jason 2’s therapist, Jason 1 escapes via the box. Amanda and Jason 1 travel in the box to a variety of worlds to find the right Daniela and Charlie, but arrive to only find altered versions of his family. When Jason 1 finally reaches the correct world, he realizes that there are hundreds of other Jason’s with him that want what he wants, and are willing to kill for it. He is forced to defend his family from the Jason’s lurking to make a move and bring his family to safety. The reason why Jason 1 is such a big deal in this book is because in all of the instances above, he never gives up on his family. In the worlds that he has been to, Jason 1 killed his wife Daniela so that she wouldn’t suffer, Charlie and Daniela with different Jasons, a dead family that had starved, and an abundance of horrific things. Despite seeing all of this, Jason still fights for his family and makes sure he will find them at all costs. He says, “I am not a violent person. But if I want my family back, there's simply no way around it. I have to do a terrible thing.”(Crouch 273). Every time that something comes his way good or bad, Jason is ready to do whatever he has to do to make sure he gets to his family. He could have given up while being in the box or in a different world, but he doesn’t and this is what makes him such an inspirational character. This makes the novel such a great read, because the whole mission of finding and fighting for his family distill to the reader the importance of family and reminds the reader that family is something that can be taken advantage of, but without them we would be lost just like Jason.
One aspect of the book that will make a reader want to take a look at this novel, is the setting. When Jason and Amanda first enter the box and begin traveling to different dimensions, they do not know how to control it or what to do to make the box go where they want it to. After a couple failed tries Amanda realizes that they should write down what they want to see and where they want to go. As the story goes on the number of ampules shrink, and Amanda decides that it is time to leave Jason to give him the best chance to find his family. Before leaving she writes Jason a note, saying to focus on what he is feeling instead of what he wants while in the box. Jason chooses to think about the first time that he met Daniela and focuses on what he felt when that occurred and he transfers it all onto the notebook and succeeds in making it back to the real world. Before Jason’s return to the world he originated in, he visits a variety of worlds. These worlds include, an apocalyptic version of Chicago where the city is full of ash and destruction, a futuristic Chicago, a quarantined Chicago that forces Jason to mercy kill Daniela, a Chicago that is almost exact to the one he is from, and two other worlds that have no correlation to Chicago. These two worlds being a cabin in the middle of a snow storm with a deceased family from starvation, and a world where a wolf jumped at Jason when the door was opened. The reason why the setting is so important in the novel is not because of what it looks like or what Jason does in these worlds, but because it shows the progression of Jason’s feelings and what matter most to him throughout the novel. When entering the apocalyptic Chicago Jason was full of anger and rage and it correlated to the world that he was in. The same thing happened in the Chicago where everybody was sick. Jason feared losing his family and it came true. Having to reach in and find his inner feelings to make it back to his world, made Jason stop and think about what he really cared about and why his family means so much to him. He had to put aside his emotions and reflect on the memories he has made and think not only about where he wants to go but truly why he wants to go there. Because of this, the setting can also turn into a theme and become a lot more important that one may think and that is what a reader will have to figure out when reading the book.
After reading this book, I would put it into my top 5 books ever read. As we continue reading books in Contemporary Literature, they just keep getting better and better. While reading this novel I was unable to put it down. I always had to read more than what was assigned because the novel was so exciting and it put me into a completely different state of mind and world. I would recommend this book not only to those that like science fiction, but to any type of book lover. The novel never disappoints, except maybe a little for the ending, but that is just my opinion. You will not be able to close the book until it is finished and I hope that this novel gains more and more popularity because it is truly a great work.
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