Dark Matter Analysis

Griffin Neary

Mr. Davidson

Period 5

11-13-19

Dark Matter Book Review

          The novel Dark Matter written by Blake Crouch is a tale of perseverance through a turbulent and confusing scientific for Jason Dessen. Jason, a professor at a small college is slightly haunted by the fact that he did not fulfill his potential of being a world renowned scientist. These doubts are put to bed by his loving family, including his wife Daniela and his son Charlie. While on his way back from a party celebrating his former colleague’s winning of the Pavia Prize, he is abruptly kidnapped and wakes up in a world that is not his. With the help of a woman named Amanda Lucas, they try to navigate their way through many different realities and worlds that include other versions of Jason, Amanda, Daniela, and other people they know and love to try and get Jason back to the life that he has come to know and love.

          A theme of destiny plays a huge role, especially towards the end of the novel with the fate of all the Jasons. There is always a constant clash between the ethics of interacting with alternate realities as if it were one’s own reality. Jason 2 is the biggest example of this, because no matter how much he loves Daniela, that is not his world and it will always belong to the Jason he stole it from. As for the other Jasons, it is no secret that they love Daniela just as much as the Jason narrating the story, but it is fate that Daniela ended up with the Jason that was able to outthink the others and get them to safety, and Daniela believes this as well. This is seen when Daniel convinces Jason, “Of all the versions of Jason, it was you who pulled that crazy stunt at the diner, which landed you in jail, which brought us safely together” (Crouch 443). She’s basically saying that they are meant to be together and there is a reason she ended up with the Jason who got her safely back to their old lives. There are literally countless other scenarios that the original Jason could have lived out, but the choices he made from resisting Amanda to begging on the street shaped him into the person who would persevere for his family while still being in a stable mind frame to be that father and husband that they had. Although the lottery for Daniela and Charlie did not go through, Jason experienced winning a lottery of his own by being that only Jason out of an infinite number of Jasons to end up with his wife and son.

          Crouch also illustrates the greatest and worst of people as Jason is faced with versions of himself trying to kill him. Throughout his ordeals and hardships in the box, Jason comes to realize that there other versions of him who took paths that were much worse than his, which proves that people’s behaviors are directly affected by their circumstances. Jason is first introduced to this fact when he first sees another version of himself who is physically marred and walks aimlessly throughout the Box, which hinders the original Jason’s psychiatric state. Another could be the scar faced Jason who holds a conversation with the original, but letting him know afterward that he will kill the original Jason without hesitation. “But if it comes down to you and me, I won’t let you stop me from being with Daniela and Charlie. I won’t like it, but I’ll kill you if it comes to that” (Crouch 377). This unnerving statement by the scar faced Jason shows that the collective love the Jasons have for their old life will drive them to pursue dire and lethal solutions. Jason 1 realizes that all of these people were the same person as him up until a couple of days ago, which proves that the only thing separating him from the other Jasons is the situations that they encountered over their journey through the Box. This aspect of Crouch’s writing makes the story much more interesting and also makes an ending that is suspenseful while not confusing the audience.

          Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter is a thrilling and intriguing novel that I would recommend from casual science fiction fans to hardcore fans. Prior to reading this, I was not excited about it because I am not a fan of science fiction and thought I might have a hard time following along. However, the development of the plot was easy to follow and had a very interesting build up throughout the novel. The twist of Jason seeing more versions of himself at the end of the novel shows a conflict between protecting his own interests versus the interests of his other counterparts. This novel is both thrilling in a scientific and social aspect and is a book that I would rate highly as a book to read.