Dark Matter by Blake Crouch -- Restarting August 5th 2024

[Maria]

(view spoiler)[ That's why all the Daniela's were different than the one he knew, when he travelled to those universes. It wasn't exactly about what choices she made that influenced her life, it could just be one of infinite possibilities of how her life would turn out.
Ok, so what bothers me is this: all the universes represent each possibility right? And there are infinite. So why was Jason9 almost the same in each of them? Like all the Jasons that popped into his world were the same up to that point a month ago. Why are people constant in universes of different possibilities? What makes us us ? Is it out personality? But Jason2 was different than Jason9 right? They kinda had different traits. At least their priorities were. And it couldn't be how we look, couldn't it? (hide spoiler)]

[Maria]

I hope I don't sound stupid >< Just wanted to get it all off my chest.

[Twila]

That's the thing about this book. It makes you think hard, haha.

(view spoiler)[I believe all the Jasons he found were similar because he was looking for his world. A world where he had been a professor, he lived in Logan Square, took the train every day etc. So he always ended up in universes where the Jason there had made somewhat similar choices to his own, therefore finding a similar Jason who chose the same paths he did, just in slightly different ways. There are probably millions of universes where he could have found Jasons completely unlike himself, like Jason2. He just weren't looking for those.

Hypothetically, there are many universes of Twilas out there. Let's say one of them went to a different college. We would pretty much be the same, wouldn't we? Our lives would just be a little different, but to the core, we would have the same personality and values.
But what if in another universe, I decided to drop out of school ten years ago? Now then, I could imagine myself being completely different.

I think I remember reading Jason9 saying how it didn't come down to personality or lifestyle. I think that what makes him him is that he decided to devote his life to his family while Jason2 devoted his life to his work. Their lives are driven by two completely different things.

So I don't think it comes down to only what we choose, but also what we don't choose. (hide spoiler)]

What makes us us is a really hard question. Maybe I'll have an answer in 20 years O_O

[Maria]

Exactly! (view spoiler)[ That's probably what he meant when he said they were travelling to worlds most similar to his own (hide spoiler)]

[Sarah Elizabeth]

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Date Changed. Restarting August 9th 2017. Happy Reading ☺

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[Irene]

I'm gonna join you :) So excited!!!

[Irene]

Chapter 1 (view spoiler)[Wow! What a start. I really like the writing style. And I'm so intrigued as to who the kidnapper is and what he wants with Jason. And what's that about all these science projects? (hide spoiler)]

[✨Skye✨]

Going to have to start this a few days late but definitely still reading it!

[Sierra]

Chapter 3 (view spoiler)[ I feel like there is a second Jason. With the certificate saying he wont the Pavia Prize it just seems there is another. (hide spoiler)]

[Ashley]

Chapter 5: (view spoiler)[ This is so strange, especially after reading the part where another Jason goes home to Daniela in our Jason's actual life - does this sentence make any sense? Anyway, maybe the two Jasons have switched places? (hide spoiler)]

[Sierra]

End thoughts : (view spoiler)[ It was very interesting to see where the story lead after there was more Jasons involve. I'm so happy that they end up all together. I was worried there for awhile when there was over 100 Jasons. (hide spoiler)]

[Ashley]

Chapter 8: (view spoiler)[ I'm really liking it. I'm a sucker for these physics theories, and it's like an epiphany when I understand what he's talking about. (hide spoiler)]

[Irene]

Ashley wrote: "Chapter 5: [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[What a strange sentence 😂 Buy you have a point! Would be interesting if they had switched places and in the other life the other Jason doesn't remember being married and having a son. Imagine the fights they would be having! (hide spoiler)]

[Ashley]

Chapter 13: (view spoiler)[ This is getting so wild. It's mind boggling thinking about how many versions of Jason there really are. Couldn't this mean that there are possibly infinite Jasons returning to "original Jason's" home world? (hide spoiler)]

[Ashley]

Done: (view spoiler)[ This book was a roller coaster ride. It's insane to think about. What I can't stop wondering is how Daniela accepted our Jason as hers. But in reality, aren't all the other Jasons also hers? They branched off, but only after he was abducted. We only support our Jason's claim because the book is written in his perspective. But they basically all have equal claim to that life because that life belongs to all of them - our Jason is just the one that got there first and won Daniela's trust. It could have been any of them and she would still believe it was her Jason because it really would be her Jason - just not our Jason. The only one that didn't belong was Jason2, but everyone else was pretty much the same Jason.

I can't even say that our Jason ended up winning in the end because of his intellect. I mean, they all have the same brain, and they all think the same, since they only split less than a month ago. Our Jason was only the most resourceful at the time, and both Daniela and us as the reader see our Jason as being the "right" Jason, but he's just the same as all the others. The others were all taken from that exact life too. (hide spoiler)]

[Irene]

Ashley wrote: "Done:

(view spoiler)[I was actually wondering whether we were following the same Jason all the time. I was on the lookout if they made a switch in the end, but if they did, I didn't catch it.

I think it was a little too easy to get Daniela to trust him, but I guess they needed an easy way out.

I loved this book. Not sure about the ending...

I'm also still wondering about Amanda. I'm glad they didn't get together, but I kind of missed her. I hope she made it somewhere nice. (hide spoiler)]

[✨Skye✨]

Finally about to start this! Glad to see you guys enjoying it :)

[Irene]

Thought about endings
(view spoiler)[Did anyone else think he would get shot in the box somehow? And things would kind of go back to "normal"? No? Just me? :D (hide spoiler)]

[✨Skye✨]

Chapter 2 (view spoiler)[ WHAT A FIRST CHAPTER. So intriguing, I mean who is this guy and what does he want? I have an odd feeling he may be associated with Ryan. I found it amazing how attached I got to Daniela and Charlie so quickly and knowing the basic premise of this book, I can only hope he gets back to them. (hide spoiler)]

[✨Skye✨]

Chapter 7 (view spoiler)[ What the hell is going on? This is messing with my mind. The lab is crazy and doing some weird, dodgy experiments and the real Daniela still has Jason but not our Jason? So did two get switched and it's just our Jason that doesn't fit into his. And the fake Daniela is now dead? This is one crazy sci-fi. (hide spoiler)]

[Irene]

Skye, yes, it's crazy like for real! :D

[✨Skye✨]

Chapter 11 (view spoiler)[ So Amanda is good and all but has like no personality and definitely has a thing for Jason. The word where the plague was was so sad seeing Daniela die after she'd seen her family go. It's so intriguing seeing the other worlds and scary that some of them could happen, like the nuclear one. It's also so horrible how Jason is sleeping with Daniela (the real one)She's unaware it's not him so that is sexual assault to me. (hide spoiler)]

[✨Skye✨]

Chapter 14 (view spoiler)[The Jasons have a group chat? The fuck? This is raising some weird moral questions-if a lot of the Jasons share most of their history, why are they less deserving of Daniela and Charlie? This is nuts! (hide spoiler)]

[✨Skye✨]

Done! Really liked the ending. (view spoiler)[ Especially when the other Jasons put Daniela and Charlie first and let them go. (hide spoiler)]

[T.J.]

Chapter 4 (21%)
(view spoiler)[
I’m beginning to think that the narrator’s perspective may not be the “real” – or at least original – perspective. The scientist Jason has been in a box for 14 months. The man that kidnapped the physics professor Jason has been watching him for quite some time. I suspect that the successful scientist Jason wants happily married Jason’s life. Scientist Jason may be able to pull it off somehow – discovering a parallel universe – while physics professor Jason doesn’t have the funding or resources to do so.
(hide spoiler)]

[T.J.]

Chapter 5 (33%)
(view spoiler)[
Well, shit. I didn't see that coming.

Jason’s secret research project. His saying goodbye to Daniela. This supports my hypothesis that scientist Jason is behind this switcheroo.
(hide spoiler)]

[T.J.]

Irene wrote: "Chapter 1 [spoilers removed]"
(view spoiler)[
I love the writing style too! Suspenseful! Interesting. Contemplative.
(hide spoiler)]

[T.J.]

Sierra wrote: "Chapter 3 [spoilers removed]"
(view spoiler)[
I think so too. Some parallel universe thing going on here...
(hide spoiler)]

[T.J.]

Ashley wrote: "Chapter 5: [spoilers removed]"
(view spoiler)[
I suspect that a Jason from a parallel universe wants to switch lives with our happily married, but regretfully unsuccessful career-wise Jason.
(hide spoiler)]

[T.J.]

Skye wrote: "Chapter 2 [spoilers removed]"
(view spoiler)[
Same here! I totally got attached to Jason and his happy family right away. I made the same choice -- family over ambitious career -- and like Jason, I wouldn't trade my family for whatever career success might have been out there for me.
(hide spoiler)]

[T.J.]

90%
(view spoiler)[
“How do we fix this, Jason?”
“I’m working on it.”
…
“I need to fix this.”

My suggestion? Jason (our Jason, whom I am still rooting for) still has one ampoule left in his old hotel room. Get that. Get Ryan to concoct another two. Take Daniela and Charlie back to Jason the scientist’s world. There’s no Daniela or Charlie there.
(hide spoiler)]

[T.J.]

91%
(view spoiler)[
Noooo! A peaceful lottery wouldn’t work. We already know that some of the Jasons are brutal murderers! Although, they all started out a month ago as the same Jason, we are defined by our choices, and some of the Jasons made life-altering decisions which changed their character. True, our Jason (Jason9) considered killing Jason2, but he didn’t do it. Moreover, he never considered killing one of the other Jasons, who were also originally innocent victims, and who had never abducted him and stolen his life. That sets him aside from some of the Jasons.

In addition, what then would happen with the other Jasons? And who is to tell whether the aggressive, murdering Jasons would accept the outcome of a peaceful lottery?

No. Jason, you need another plan.
(hide spoiler)]

[Abi]

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Reading from the 24th of October 2017

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[Dr. Andy]

Had to start early since my book is due back soon.

Ch. 4 (view spoiler)[ Well this is interesting so far. Not sure how I feel about it overall and I'm little confused as to how Jason is with Daniella since the weird mysterious dude sent him to a different world? Did they like change places?? Was Jason kidnapped by himself!?? Oh geez I wonder. (hide spoiler)]

[Dr. Andy]

Ch. 7 (view spoiler)[ God this Velocity lab place is fucked up! They killed Daniella and they're torturing Ryan. I get why the other Jason ran away. But this is crazy like holy shit. At least Amanda is nice. (hide spoiler)]

[Dr. Andy]

Ch. 10 (view spoiler)[ God I can't believe they're just traveling around these alternate realities!? THIS IS CRAZY. This sickness reality is horrible, I can't believe he had to kill Daniella. (hide spoiler)]

Ch. 13 (view spoiler)[ Holy shit he actually found the right world and now there's like 4000000 copies of himself! That part doesn't make much sense to me, but this is scary cool. I have no idea how this is going to end and I'm scared "real" Jason #1 is going to die... (hide spoiler)]

Finished (view spoiler)[ Wow damn. They left!! I hope they ended up in a good world. But what will they do? How will they get their lives back in this new place??? I have so many questions left. (hide spoiler)]

[Rae]

Starting now! :-)

[Rae]

Chapter 1-3 (view spoiler)[ I am a bit confused... is he hallucinating? Why is his house completely different?? Oh jeez. Yea, he does sounds insane as all hell (hide spoiler)]

[Rae]

Wait what??? I am so confused.

[Rae]

[Dr. Andy]

Hahaha the book is definitely confusing at points.

[Rae]

Chapter 4-6 (view spoiler)[ I am still majorly confused... is he crazy? is it a tumor? is he jumping into ALTERNATE DIMENSION????... Did they really kill daniella or are they have sex??? (hide spoiler)]

[Rae]

My man... Really... I seen this on Family guy once, is your device stuck on shuffle??
Is the box tossing you from place to place???

[Rae]

Chapter 7- 12 (view spoiler)[ Ok I feel from him, seriously, I can't imaging walking by my husband with another woman, or watching him die. I am not an emotional person but this broke my heart for real. (hide spoiler)]

[Rae]

Here we go again!!!



My mind can't take anymore

[Rae]

Chapter 13- Fin (view spoiler)[ This was crazy!!! That was actually a good plan to have her pick him up at the police station... nice idea. I want to know what dimension they went into.I think Daniella and their son accepted it all way too quickly. Also!!! How the hell can she be mad that he slept with her in a different dimension when she slept with James 2 for a whole month!!!! (hide spoiler)]

[Sarah Elizabeth]

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Date changed. Restarting February 27th 2019. Happy Reading ☺

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[Maddie]

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Date changed. Restarting October 5th 2022. Happy Reading ☺

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[Kikijanika]

Hi, I'd love to join this one if I can get the book from the library :)

[Maddie]

Yeah!