Are You Happy with your Life? My review of Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

“Are you happy with your life?” What a sinister question that can be…depending on whose asking. But what if you are asking yourself this question. But what If that you is not really you as you know yourself but a person from an alternative universe. This is what happens to Jason. In his normal life he is a community college Physics professor. He is married to the woman of his dreams, has a beautiful son. And a easy going, beautiful life. He is happy. He believes his wife is happy. But as his alternative self asks: Is he really happy with this life? Well his alternative self gives him a chance to find out when he decides that he wants to swap lives. In the alternatives life, Jason is a well known, well accomplished scientist. He never married, never had children and he is cold to everyone in his life. What happens is a wild ride through alternative lives in order to get back to his family. Jason must see his wife, and son again and most of all he needs to find a way to get his alternative self out of their lives.
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch was one hell of a read and it was a very thought provoking book. As I read it I begin to think what would like to be in Jason’s shoes? Could I be happy in that life? What would that life be like? Do I really want to know? Well, let me tell you this….If I had to deal with he same obstacles Jason did in his book then let’s just say I am better off not knowing.
What I loved about this book was that it was believable; what if science was advanced enough to allow us to see alternate universes. And what If when we stepped into those universes they were tailored directly to who we are as a person? The prospect is down right frightening; especially when you find out in the book that Jason can change each universe he enters simply by thought. If he thought he was going to witness his worse nightmare when he opened a door into the next universe than he did. Another thing that I loved about this book was the prose. It was easy and free and flowed quickly. Crouch did not bog you down with to much scientific jargon- which could have been easy to do. Dark Matter is a book that I would definitely recommend to those in love of sci fi that is in need of something different. And a book that will keep them guessing. I have Dark Matter 4/5 stars on Goodreads.