Recursion by Blake Crouch / 5 stars

[Meli]

"People fail us. Our bodies fail us. We fail ourselves. He's experienced all of that. But what do you cling to, moment to moment, if memories can simply change. What, then, is real? And if the answer is nothing, where does that leave us?"

Essentially this is a story about time travel, but even if you consider yourself a reader who isn't into time travel I still recommend this book, and recommend it to literally ANY reader out there who will listen. It is gripping and propulsive from page one. It's thought-provoking, makes you consider what is time. Crouch makes you think it is impossible that the past present and future are this linear thing of events happening in sequence, could time really be a flat circle? What is life? What is memory? I don't know if Crouch got the physics and science right, but it was certainly convincing.

There are also beautiful passages that get you thinking about the complexities of life.

"He has wondered lately if that's all living really is - one long goodbye to those we love."

"People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."

It kept me awake at night, it took my breath away.
And for the last 100 pages or so I could not stop reading.

Stop whatever you are doing and read this!

[Teodora]

This book is on my list. Hopefully, I'll get to it soon. I've read Dark Matter by the same author, and I loved it, gave it five stars (even if after some time to think I discovered there were things that didn't totally make sense). Since then, I'm trying to get my hands on anything Blake Crouch has written.

[Meli]

I'll definitely read Dark Matter at some point.

[Charlotte]

I LOVED Recursion as well! My only complaint was the number of loops were starting to get a bit tedious. The end was also a bit predictable but overall I just loved it!!

I plan on reading Dark Matter soon especially since the Kindle version is on sale for $2.99 right now. I love physical books, but can't pass up a good deal!

[Karin]

I gave Recursion one more star than Dark Matter because I liked it considerably better. The loops in Dark Matter were tedious and also that concept is old for me (different times or universes, etc, etc, etc) plus a few other complaints. I think Recursion was 4 stars and Dark Matter 3, but I have to do a Zoom meeting in a few minutes so can't look it up ;)

PS if you ever want to have stars showing by people's names in comments, just fill in that little box that is in between the title and the review :). As you start typing in the title links will show up underneath, so it's quick.

[Meli]

Normally I fill in that box, but looks like I missed it this time.

Some of the loops were a little tedious, but I thought necessary to drive home how exhausting and defeating the process could be for them. I thought the book was just the perfect length.

[Michael]

Great review. Quite the mind bender. As always he makes the excursion into twisted realities so much fun.