Challenge Corner discussion
This topic is about
Dark Matter
Let's Buddy! - Sci-Fi/Dystopia
>
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch --> Restarting November 15th, 2025
date
newest »
newest »
Just finished chapter 1! That was quite a long chapter but loved every minute! What a page turner! Already have some thoughts about what might be happening. It certainly has got off to a fast start though and even within this first chapter (30 or so pages) I already feel a connection to the main character, Jason, and want him to be ok. The description of his emotions and fear and desperation are so well caught within the writing of this book and make you feel totally drawn into his story. Excited to keep reading!
Page 76: Loving this book so far. One of the best written and most fast paced thrillers I’ve ever read. I can’t help but feel that the pacing is this book is almost too fast paced sometimes. (view spoiler) Don’t get me wrong, I love fast paced page turners, but sometimes I feel like we’d appreciate the intense fast paced moments more if we were more often given slowly more lulled passages to contrast them against.
Ok so just got to chapter 5, page 69. I am still loving it don’t get me wrong, but I managed to predict pretty precisely exactly what has ended up happening (if still my assumptions prove to be correct) within the first chapter of the book. For a thriller I normally enjoy books that keep me guessing a bit more than this but I am still totally sold on this book and finishing it out to its conclusion. I might know what has most probably happened and most likely why; however the end result and what happens next for the situation to resolve is now my main concern. This book’s major selling point for me is the incredible character development and emotional portrayal even within the first chapter of the book that made me so invested in Jason’s story even while some of the mystery disappeared for me. Despite this fact, I still care what happens to him and his family because of the quality of the writing of the book and therefore the overall feeling I have towards the book is still overwhelmingly positive. Here’s to the next chapters!
Page 243: the only thing I can say right now is I can’t stop reading this book tonight. It is 00:43 and I WILL finish this book tonight no matter what time it is. It is way too good to stop.
I have always loved thrillers and mysteries but have a soft spot for the lighter romance tales as well as sci-fi. This book is a beautifully written intertwining of all of the above. At its heart it is a romance of how Jason fights all odds to find his wife and child through time and space. What makes it so special though is the definition of love that this book takes. Not a selfish or lust based love. But one that explores what life would look like with all the possibilities it brings to us. One where every choice we have had a different crossroad junction to create another reality. One of the most poignant scenes for me was in the last pages of the book where the “other” Jasons move aside to let Daniela have what she wants and needs even at massive cost to themselves, knowing they would never have their own happy ending. That is love. The complete level of self sacrifice to know someone else’s desires come before your own, no matter what you have done for them to get to the point you are at. At the same time as being a romance this book is fascinating from a science fiction and thriller perspective. In my “buddy read” thread with my husband on the challenge corner group we belong to, we both managed to pretty precisely predict the premise of the book within the first chapters. This would normally turn me right off a book. However I could never have guessed the journey the book would take the reader on and how the twists would evolve. Yes, the general idea was obvious, but the rest of how it unfolded was far far far from obvious and left me shocked and unable to put the book down. By the end of the read I was dedicated to finishing it even though it meant staying up until 2am.
Honestly I can’t think of a single group of people that wouldn’t enjoy this book. It is not a “jack of all trades, master of none” but one of the rare masterpieces that manages to be a master of multiple genres.
Mod
***************************************************************
RESTARTING NOVEMBER 15TH, 2025
*******************************************************************
*******************************************************************
It starts with a man in a mask kidnapping him at gunpoint, for reasons Jason can’t begin to fathom—what would anyone want with an ordinary physics professor?—and grows even more terrifying from there, as Jason’s abductor injects him with some unknown drug and watches while he loses consciousness.
When Jason awakes, he’s in a lab, strapped to a gurney—and a man he’s never seen before is cheerily telling him “welcome back!”
Jason soon learns that in this world he’s woken up to, his house is not his house. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born.
And someone is hunting him.