Dark Matter

I just finished this and read it for the weirdest reason. Someone told me a couple of months ago, they couldn't sleep the entire night because they were up all night reading this book called dark matter. They said it was a love story about parallel universes. I was like hell yeah, there are only so many books i would be able to read in one sitting and i'm all in on parallel universes, so when i got home i googled the book and this came up seemed like it was about parallel universes and love so when i found a copy on fb marketplace i bought it. I certainly enjoyed it while i was reading it, and there was definitely something page turnery about this book, i was actually trying to savour it because there were some cool vibes, and when the inciting incident in this book happens, i was like, oh damn, they're going to have to switch universes to get out of this mess, that's why this was recommended so highly. Alas no, that's not what happened. Parallel universes and the many worlds theory were only used as a subtle theme throughout the book, employed not for narrative but for stylistic choices. I also loved the detective who thinks in the third person. And despite not having the kind of interaction with real parallel universes i was hoping for, I still found it kind of charming and cute, like the parallel universes were there but just on the edge and you could never reach them, as much as the characters wanted to. Two characters in this book, Oskar and Sebastian have completely opposite views on the many worlds theory which leads to a super heated tension in their friendship, and no matter how many times this tension in their scientific theories comes up, i still genuinely have no idea what position either of them hold. It doesn't seems to be a typical many world vs the other one. It feels different than that, but i have no idea if the reason i don't understand it is because I'm too dumb to understand it or because the author uses lots of technobabble to talk about their competing theories and has no actual content. Either way i enjoyed it, but i have no idea what position Oskar held vs what position Sebastian held. This is a detective story and follows most of the tropes of one, and yet still feels pretty interesting. I really liked how it was resolved. Except the very end where i actually have no idea what happened or what the reason for [REDACTED] was.

But now you might be wondering, is this the kind of book someone could say is their favourite of all time and that kept them up all night? What's more is it even one i would describe as a love story? I'm not sure. In fact i was really so unsure (not to judge the person that recommended it to me) that i had to triple check he was not talking about a different book. And when i googled this like 20min ago it is pretty clear this was not the book he had recommended it was Dark Matter by Blake Crouch 🤦

But i'm somehow so glad for this, because there is no way i would ever have read this book without such a glowing review - and i'm glad i did read it. If you've read this book you'll also know that:

- Mishearing a word

- Coincidence

Are probably the two best ways anyone could hope to have been recommended it.