Recursion by Blake Crouch (2019)
Good idea: Major flaws
Book cover blurb
‘My son has been erased.’
Those are the last words the woman tells Barry Sutton before she leaps from the Manhattan rooftop.
Deeply unnerved, Barry begins to investigate her death only to learn that this wasn’t an isolated case. All across the country, people are waking up to lives different from the ones they fell asleep to. Are they suffering from False Memory Syndrome, a mysterious, new disease that afflicts people with vivid memories of a life they never lived? Or is something far more sinister behind the fracturing of reality all around him?
Miles away, neuroscientist Helena Smith is developing a technology that allows us to preserve our most intense memories and relive them. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss or the birth of a child.
Barry’s search for the truth leads him on an impossible, astonishing journey as he discovers that Helena’s work has yielded a terrifying gift . . .
My Review
My first experience with Blake Crouch was Dark Matter, and I loved it, for the most part. As soon as I finished that book I pre-ordered Recursion hoping for more of the same. But to begin with I was actually a little disappointed.
For some reason, at least within the first fifty or so pages, I found the present tense to be really jarring, to the point that I couldn't manage a comfortable flow to my reading. But having said that the last couple of sections leading up to 'Book Two' (page 99) really got rolling, and finally made me think, 'yes, now we're getting somewhere. This is the Blake Crouch I signed up for.'
But then, closing in on the climax...if there actually was one, I got frustrated again. I try not to mention anything about the actual story in my reviews because I don't want to spoil things for potential readers, so hopefully, this won't give too much away. The main character decided to relive her life over several times, everything leads up to this so I don't think I'm giving anything away here. The thing that really bothered me about all this was the fact that we don't get to experience much of it. It's as if Crouch needed to make a point of these relived lives, that it was very necessary, but he couldn't be bothered to add interest to it for the reader. We get little more than, "she relived her life again," and that's pretty much it.
And I'm sorry, but the way this thing is resolved is a complete cop-out in my mind. So yes, I was disappointed with some of it. But I've since bought the first in the Wayward Pines series, so I haven't given up on him just yet.
My copy of this novel
Macmillan hardback edition.
Published in 2019
329pages
ISBN 9781509866656