Dark Matter

Book Reviews

Mar 31

Dark Matter
By: Blake Crouch

[Fulfilled ‘Book with a male main character’ prompt as part of Shelf Reflection’s 2024 Reading Challenge]

“We couldn’t possible contend with simultaneously observing all possible realities at once… but if we could, where would it take us?”

This book lives up to the hype!

This is my first Blake Crouch book and I know it won’t be my last. It was definitely a story that was hard to put down.

I know a lot people aren’t into sci-fi or feel like books about the multiverse hurt their brains, but I think this one is pretty accessible to any reader.

This book seeks to explore the questions— What if my life could have been different? What if I had made different choices? Am I actually living the life I want?

“My life is great. It’s just not exceptional. And there was a time when it could have been.”

Even though I don’t believe the multiverse exists, it’s a compelling concept for a story and a way to think about those questions that a lot of people ask themselves.

Our lives don’t always end up being what we thought they would. We have to make hard choices about where to go, what to do, and who to be with. Sometimes it’s tempting to ask- is this my best life?

“Fighting always against the whispers of what might have been.”

I really liked what Crouch did with these questions. There is a lot to be said of contentment. There is constant cultural pressure to dream big and do what it takes to achieve those dreams— whatever it takes— because we deserve them.

But there is not much said about self-sacrifice and self-denial for the sake of another. That’s generally seen as settling, giving up, and not living up to your potential rather than a noble choice with a meaningful purpose.

Dark Matter is a poignant tale that forces us to see that what we think might be better, may not actually be. Sometimes the little things are the big things.

Brief Plot Summary

The main character in the book— Jason— is an atomic physicist and professor at a small college in the Chicago suburbs married to an aspiring artist, Daniela, and father to a 15-year-old son, Charlie.

When he and Daniela got unexpectedly pregnant with Charlie they made the choice to build their family. Jason gave up intense quantum physics research. Daniela gave up time spent advancing her art.

They see friends and colleagues achieving the things they used to think they would do.

Well all that changes for Jason. A version of himself from a different universe made the choice to continue his research instead of being a family man. His research led him to create a special box that allows him to break the barriers of reality and traverse through the multiverse. Having realized his research-focused life was unfulfilling, he enters Jason’s universe and effectively takes over his life, forcing Jason to switch places with him.

This launches Jason into a heart-wrenching and devastating journey across the multi-verse to try to get back to his family. He has to continually make the choice whether to take the life he could have had or choose Daniela and Charlie as it is now, if he can even get back to them.

“What if all the pieces of belief and memory that comprise who I am—my profession, Daniela, my son— are nothing but a tragic misfiring in that gray matter between my ears? Will I keep fighting to be the man I think I am? Or will I disown him and everything he loves, and step into the skin of the person this world would like for me to be?”

If you like this concept, you should definitely read Brian Freeman’s book Infinite. It also takes place in Chicago and involves a man dealing with another version of himself from another universe ruining his life. I wouldn’t be surprised if Freeman was inspired by Crouch’s book since his came out in 2021. But it’s somewhat the inverse of Dark Matter in that Dylan’s wife has died and he has to struggle with not taking over other lives where she is still alive.

Also, this book feels similar to The Midnight Library by Matt Haig but with more action and violence.

Dark Matter

The book is called Dark Matter because dark matter is the term used by astrophysicists to describe “the [theoretical] force holding stars and galaxies together—the thing that makes our whole universe work.” and “some string theorists think it might be a clue to the existence of the multiverse.”

You don’t really have to understand the quantum mechanics of the theory at the base of this story. Thanks to Marvel we’re probably all somewhat familiar with the multiverse, and we can just accept the fact that the box works the way it does without having to fully comprehend the ‘how.’ Since that’s all theoretical anyway.

But let’s explore some of the concepts in this book for fun…

Part of the idea behind the box is the theory that “observation determines reality.” An object can be in two states at once until it is observed in a single state.

I don’t think that observation is the only thing that determines reality. Does observation require sight? Touch? Hearing? All at the same time? Not everyone can give that. Are their surroundings less real? Observation obviously influences our perception of reality, but it doesn’t determine reality itself.

I’m not sure how many people actually believe in the multiverse. But to indulge in that line of thinking I’ll also bring up that I disagree with Jason’s conclusion on how the multiverse influences his view of identity:

“My understanding of identity has been shattered— I am one face of an infinitely faceted being… I can’t help thinking that we’re more than the sum total of our choices, that all the paths we might have taken factor somehow into the math of our identity.”

Perhaps that makes sense within the context of the particular story, but I don’t think that theory can hold any weight. What a burden it would be to carry the weight of every choice you effectively DON’T take but COULD HAVE. What importance would any choice really have if the multiverse says you actually made every choice or your identity is formed in part from choices you didn’t take. How could you have any identity?

Plus this multiverse theory doesn’t hold up to a biblical worldview. In that theory, there would be universes where Jesus didn’t die on the cross. Universes where God’s actions didn’t happen. It is inconsistent with the character and sovereignty of God.

So if the multiverse scares you, fear not. It can’t be true biblically. We don’t have to worry about our other selves living in a universe where Jesus didn’t save us from our sins. A universe where Jesus didn’t defeat the death we deserve.

We only have one soul. It can’t be both saved and not saved.

Our hope is assurance, not just luck that we happen to be conscious of our self living in the ‘right’ universe.

But that does make your choices all the more important. You don’t get infinite chances to try until something works. You get this life. And your choices will have eternal consequences.

Jason comments, “I suppose we’re both just trying to come to terms with how horrifying infinity really is.”

Infinity is impossible to comprehend. And depending what infinity is applying to, it can be horrifying.

Or it can be comforting. I know that I will spend infinite time in heaven when I die. But if I wasn’t sure about that… that would be a terrifying reality I would have to contend with.

The multiverse is a fun idea that makes for good books and movies and creative hypothetical conversations. But it’s not real. It doesn’t excuse the choices we make today and it doesn’t burden us with the ones we didn’t.

It does allow us to ponder the significance of the life we wake up to every day and the choices we make right now. It does remind us to be thankful for what we do have instead of pining for what we do not.

And that’s what I liked most about this book. The way it invested me in Jason’s story and the way he fights for his family and his ‘mediocre’ life. The here-and-now taking precedence over the what-ifs.

Recommendation

I would definitely recommend this book! It is a super fast read because you won’t be able to put it down.

It immediately draws you into the main character’s dilemma and wanting his family to be together.

I could definitely have done without some of the swearing, but in this case I think the story was worth dealing with that.

Even if you don’t like quantum physics, I think you’ll still be engaged in the drama of Jason trying to get back to his wife and son.

The overarching concept of this story is relatable to pretty much everyone and will hopefully help you see the blessings of the life you currently live.

Book to Film

This was made into a series on Apple TV and I watched it with my husband (who didn’t read the book) and here are some of the similarities/differences and some of my thoughts.

Overall, we enjoyed the series, though they did put in a lot of swearing as I feared they would, and it was a little sad and depressing at times. I’m actually writing this section months after I watched it so it’s not super fresh in my mind and my notes don’t make as much sense so these thoughts won’t be as fleshed out as they could have been had I not procrastinated this.

There are some differences I noticed:

We get more of Jason 2 because the book just follows OG Jason around and we don’t really know what’s happening back in his original timeline but the film switched back and forth from OG Jason and Jason 2 helping us see how Jason 2 was struggling to integrate into the life and not knowing about certain family dynamics and issues. They used a distinct sound to help viewers understand the switch.
Jason 2 takes his friend Ryan into the box and leaves him somewhere because Ryan and his wife found out about how he was using the compound Ryan made for him.
They added that Charlie had a twin named Max who died; I liked that they added this because they wanted it to be more powerful that Jason wants to go back to a life where there was real pain. We don’t ever have perfect lives but the pain we experience in our lives is part of who we are and how we grow and love.
They added another character named Blair: a previous box pilot that had gone missing in the multiverse.
There is a scene while they’re at the University of Chicago and someone getting killed in the bathroom.
When Jason is with his wife and telling her to call his phone and prove to her that Jason 2 isn’t him, Jason 2 is with Charlie so they don’t go to Charlie’s school like the book
They don’t go to an abandoned farmhouse, they go to Charlie’s girlfriend’s family’s beach house.
When it all culminates at the house, Jason 2 does give them keys to his car but he doesn’t deliberately tell them about anything in the glovebox; they decided to give Jason 2 more character development and didn’t want to demonize him

If you liked the book, I think you’ll enjoy the film adaptation. I think they did a good job of showing and explaining a complex and trippy concept. And the changes they made felt meaningful to the primary idea behind the book. It’s interesting to see how they handle the different versions of Jason and how his choices changed his character, yet still offering some redemption for Jason 2 which I suppose is a good thing because sometimes we need to see that our bad choices don’t define us and we can really can change.

[Content Advisory: a decent amount of f-words (mostly used in relation to sex); a couple sex ‘moments’ but nothing graphic or erotic; some gore/violence throughout but a graphic stabbing/ ‘fight scene’ at the end]

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