Recursion by Blake Crouch – Review

Published: June 11, 2019

Publisher: Crown

Series: Standalone

Genre: Science Fiction

Pages: 336 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 5.0/5.0

Synopsis:

Memory makes reality.

That’s what New York City cop Barry Sutton is learning as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome—a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived.

Neuroscientist Helena Smith already understands the power of memory. It’s why she’s dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious moments of our pasts. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent.

As Barry searches for the truth, he comes face-to-face with an opponent more terrifying than any disease—a force that attacks not just our minds but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only he and Helena, working together, will stand a chance at defeating it.

But how can they make a stand when reality itself is shifting and crumbling all around them?

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Can this man write a thriller or what? First Dark Matter was mind blowing and now Recursion is just as terrifyingly epic. Blake Crouch might be the master of writing creepy technologies and how best to not use them. 

In an effort to preserve the memories of her mother, Helena Smith invents a memory chair that can map out your most precious thoughts and let you relive them. Of course, it ends up not being so benign once it’s discovered that the chair can send you back into your own past. Barry Sutton is one such person sent into his past. He is kidnapped and essentially forced into the chair by Helena’s former assistant who’s claimed the tech as his own (short and sweet version) after he gets involved in a “false memory syndrome” suicide case. Barry goes back and saves his daughter from being struck by a hit and run driver and gets to see his daughter grow up. Sounds great, right? It is, until they reach the day Barry was sent back and now his family, coworkers, and so many others have false memories of a life where his daughter died.

Barry and Helena meet up (its complicated) and are trying to fix the damage being done to the world. This is where the action really gets kicked up to eleven and MAN, OH MAN IS IT GOOD. Living dozens of lives, research, nuclear holocaust, and dying over and over again. Geez.

Recursion was a heck of a thriller and I desperately want it to become a movie or TV show because Crouch’s books are written for screen! The audiobook was excellent and if you’re anything like me, it keeps you from skipping ahead or speed reading through the crazy parts and missing things.