My sweetheart Daniel gifted Dark Matter to me this Christmas, and I absolutely adore this book. It’s the epitome of life, love, family, and existence.
Five chapters in, and here I was sitting on my bed, book in hand, weeping at a scene filled with emotion, love, and connectedness. Right from the start, you’re introduced to a believable guy—husband and father. A life that is normal, boring, but built with a love that trumps all. It’s wholly relatable, at least to me, and I immediately became invested in the main character Jason.
On Love:
Dark Matter is romantic. It makes you appreciate a love that you have, one that you desire, one that you don’t just want, but you need.
A nerdy and quite cheesy quote on love:
I’ve always known, on a purely intellectual level, that our separateness and isolation are an illusion. We’re all made of the same thing—the blown-out pieces of matter formed in the fires of dead stars. I’ve just never felt that knowledge in my bones until that moment, there, with you. And it’s because of you.”
And a sentiment that Daniel and I, over six years together still find ourselves coming back to time and time again:
I keep thinking about how we met. At that point in our lives, we could’ve crashed into anyone… I know part of our story is the electricity of our connection, but the other part is equally miraculous. It’s the simple fact that you walked into my life at the exact moment you did. You instead of someone else. In some ways, isn’t that even more incredible than the connection itself? That we found each other at all?”
My heart became increasingly invested in the romance unfolding through the pages of Dark Matter. It’s so strangely relatable to my own, and I couldn’t help my heart from being affixed to this love story.
On sci-fi:
I’ve always been fascinated with fractals and high-level explanations of quantum mechanics and consciousness. These theories have always teetered on philosophical for me (likely philosophical since the math is way over my head); They leave you in awe of life and the universe, make you feel so small and insignificant but make the moments in your life seem, well, significant. Paradoxical, I know.
There are lots of high-level physics intertwined into the story. From quantum mechanics, string theory, Schrodinger’s cat makes an appearance, multiverse, infinite realities; Dark Matter has it all, and Blake Crouch delivers these concepts effortlessly so anyone can have a high-level understanding and not get bored. Some direct quotes:
This is best illustrated by looking up into the night sky at stars whose brilliance took fifty light-years to reach our eyes. Or five hundred. Or five billion. We’re not just looking into space, we’re looking back through time.”
And a quote to make you feel tiny out here in the vastness of our universe.
Imagine you’re a fish, swimming in a pond. You can move forward and back, side to side, but never up out of the water. If someone were standing beside the pond, watching you, you’d have no idea they were there. To you, that little pond is an entire universe. Now imagine that someone reaches down and lifts you out of the pond. You see that what you thought was the entire world is only a small pool. You see other ponds. Trees. The sky above. You realize you’re a part of a much larger and more mysterious reality than you had ever dreamed of.”
On existence:
The story makes you pause and take a look at your life, appreciate all the small things that you may have forgotten about because, well, days become routine, and we get comfortable in our lives.
We long for purpose & have thoughts of what could have been. While we’re focused on the future or the past, we forget to appreciate what we have right in front of us. If you could go back and alter one instance of your past, your life could have branched off and built an infinite amount of entirely different lives while this reality that you cling to, what you have and what you love now, this life you built, would not exist—everything you love about it, gone.
To me, Dark Matter is a story about trying to find your way back to the now, this very second in time and space of your being as you observe it. It will make you wonder who you could have been, who you might be, but ground you in the present day with the very essence of you are. It makes you content in this fleeting moment of your life.
Overall:
The concept and philosophy. The theory of the multiverse has always intrigued me and made me wonder. This book sparked curiosity. Blake Crouch wrapped those ideas in an extraordinary, love-filled journey through time and space.
The plot. Dark Matter reads kind of like a psychological thriller but is grounded in a sci-fi reality.
The world-building. I adore the author’s imagery. The entire book was like a movie playing in my head.
The prose. Blake Crouch cuts straight to the chase. I absolutely love the short detailed bursts of the environment and thoughts. Like lists, they quickly get you to the point.
The pace. You know how some books have slower chapters, and you’re thinking to yourself, why bother? But then you get to a good part and can’t wait to turn the next page? Well, Dark Matter makes you want to turn the page from 1 to 339.
Dark Matter is philosophical as fuck. At least to me? I loved everything about it and will recommend it to everyone!
I hope you enjoyed this review and didn’t think I’m too strange with my philosophical ideologies that I took away from this book’s pages. Thanks for staying with me to the end!
If you’ve read Dark Matter or another book that made you feel similar, I’d love to hear from you. Drop a comment!
