This is a pretty wild ride. I have to say I didn't like it as much as Dark Matter, but it was still good. I got lost in all the science jibber jabber. Barry and Helena weren't as developed as much as characters as I would like them to have been. It's as though they they were both supporting characters to the science and the chair. All in all a good suspenseful, action packed read. Definitely would recommend.

4-5 stars! Not exactly what I expected, but was still so well written and riveting I could hardly set it down. I thought it was going to be a thriller, but it’s definitely more in the science fiction with some flair of mysteries! Can definitely see why Crouch is a popular author and will be looking forward to reading more by him. The way it’s written really draws in the reader with so much intrigue. Well written in a way that you feel like you are experiencing what the characters are! Overall, a great read!
Will recommend to the members of Chapter Chatter Pub!

Holy crap, what a roller coaster. Okay, so this was not an easy read. There were times when my eyes were bleeding and my mind was reeling from all the physics and quantum dynamics, but man it was such an AWESOME RIDE. Really, it was fanfreakingtastic. It was kind of like a really dark and twisted Groundhog Day. The book starts with Barry in 2018. He is a detective and something known as False Memory Syndrome is plaguing the country. People are being hit with memories of these other lives that they had supposedly lived. Meanwhile, in 2009, a scientist (Helena) is trying to come up with a way to help people with Alzheimer's because her mom is suffering from it. But she creates something that the world just isn't prepared to handle.

There are so many alternative timelines that my head was spinning and I got confused more than once. But did I want to put it down? Hell no. It was nerve wracking and totally addictive. This book raised so many ethical questions too. This book addresses what happens when someone gets the power to change the world in profound ways and how the world can even deal with something like that (hint: not very well). This book was so complex and thrilling and I honestly can't say very much more about it because I don't want to give it away. Let's just say that it was amazing!

Blake Crouch has done it again. I liked this as much as Dark Matter, but in a different way. There’s a mysterious illness going around that’s causing people to remember things that never happened. Detective Barry Sutton and Helena Smith are the key to unlocking the mystery of what’s going on- but they haven’t met yet. This was so mind bending and really does demand your full attention.

Wow. This book made me think on so many levels. What would you do if you were given the power to go back in time and stop something awful from happening? An event like a break up, an event like WWII. Anything that you’d like to change could be changed in an instant. But, to do so would change the memories of all people involved. Would you do it? At first you may think yes, but read Recursion and then decide if you’d make the same choice.

Told in multiple perspectives spanning many (many) years, Recursion is a fast moving book with a lot of technical terms. They’re very well explained though, so I never felt lost.

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

What if instead of living with remembered life changing regrets you could go back in time and change them? What if you realized today's reality might be part of a false memory? What if there is no true present, only past memory? All these what ifs become plausible in Blake Crouch's breathtaking novel Recursion.

In an online interview with Entertainment, Crouch said "Memory makes reality, so what happens if you start messing with memory? What does that do to the present moment?" His protagonist, Barry Sutton, finds himself swept away by this question. Is he a NYC grieving NYC policeman in 2018? Or is he the parent of a successful daughter who is a social worker? or is he married to a brilliant scientist?
or ... This sounds confusing. It is not. Crouch's control of theme and plot are such that this reader never had an "oh c'mon!" moment.

In October, Netflix announced that Sondra Rhimes and Matt Reeves will be adapting this work as a movie and a television series. Amazon lists Recursion as A Best Book of June 2019. Don't be left out. Read it now.

Full disclosure: I received this e copy from netgalley and Random in exchange for an unbiased review.

I really loved Pines (the first book in the Wayward Pines trilogy) and Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, so I was really looking forward to seeing what he would come up with in this book. Again, he has come up with a fascinating look at time travel, this time via people's memories.

The first half of this book was very good, but towards the middle it seemed to lose focus (or maybe I just lost focus) and I put the book down and almost didn't finish it. I kept thinking about the story, though, so I went back to it and finished reading. It did pick up towards the end, and I did like the way it ended.

My thanks to the author, the publisher, and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A scifi popcorn romp that I finished in a few hours. It's like that movie Edge of Tomorrow with Tom Cruise dying over and over again, except times 100. But looking beyond the surface level fun of the book, like any great science fiction it makes us dig deep by asking some questions about: humanity; how our memories do or don't define us; science and technologies impact our lives; what "for the greater good" actually means, and who defines that.

Time travel is always a tricky thing to pull off, the butterfly effect or grandfather paradox is going to come bite you in the ass at some point. [book:Recursion|42046112] cleverly avoids those problems by whole embracing the conundrum and having the fucked upness of messing with the concept of time be the core issue. It completely understands the consequences of small changes and allows that to be the driving force of the entire story.

Honestly, I had a lot of fun with this book. While I thought the two main characters were well developed on their own, <spoiler>the last section of the book that hinges on their connection as a couple doesn't quite work. I think it would have been important to either see one of their timelines together, even if it was just the 4 months from the semi-original timeline.</spoiler> The world [author:Blake Crouch|442240] created was believable even as things were simultaneously deteriorating and escalating quickly.

I'm writing this book riding the high of just finishing it. So I haven't really had time to mull and nitpick any of the science. I'm sure that would cause a rating change in the future. As it is, 4.25/5 rounds to 4/5.

Started this book on my lunch hour yesterday, picked it up this afternoon again, and just finished it. It was one of those books where you just want to keep turning the pages to see what happens next. For those who enjoyed Dark Matter, this book is just as good if not better. Really makes you think. All I can say is WOW!

Ok, I guess this is a SciFi Mystery? It's like watching The Matrix; you get lots of those kinds of understanding breakthroughs. It was a good read that I read in like 3 hours.


False Memory Syndrome is spreading like wildfire. The condition gives people real-seeming memories of a life they haven't lived.
The two central characters are Detective Barry Sutton and Dr. Helena Smith. Smith is a neuroscientist seeking a cure for Alzheimer's in the hope of curing her's mother terminal descent into dementia. She plans to construct a machine that can record a person's most valued memories for posterity.
It seems like a great idea until it has unintended consequences.
False Memory reports are on the rise, and Barry's interactions with a woman who killed herself drive him to investigate further. People can't handle the mental rewiring of their memories and desire their fake life more than their real ones.

It left me wondering about every single moment of deja vu I've ever felt. It also made me ponder the butterfly effect all while invested in what would happen next.

I won't go into any more of the plot so that you can read it yourself. I'm going to move on and learn everything else that Blake Crouch has in print.

“Just so you know, my primary goal is to help people. I want to find a way to save memories for deteriorating brains that can no longer retrieve them. A time capsule for core memories.”
This was Helena Smith’s ambition.

Then there is Barry Sutton, he has a dilemma and tragedy in the narrative.
“He’s been a detective for twenty-three years because he loves solving puzzles, and this one, this contradictory set of events, is whispering to him—a misalignment he feels a compulsion to put right.”


Then there is this occurring and recurring with “mysterious epidemic with no identifiable pathogen”….
““Eight months ago, the Centers for Disease Control identified sixty-four cases with similarities in the Northeast. In each case, a patient presented with complaints of acute false memories. Not just one or two. A fully imagined alternate history covering large swaths of their life up until that moment. Usually going back months or years. In some instances, decades……“Nobody knows. They haven’t identified a single physiological or neurological abnormality in those who are affected. The only symptoms are the false memories themselves. Oh, and about ten percent of people who get it kill themselves.”

And fundamentally what the author set out to do with this work in his own words:

“What is the most precious thing we have?”
The answer came instantly: Memory. Take our memories away and what are we?
In the course of my research, I discovered memories don’t just define who we are. Memories create the very fabric of reality.
And if memory makes reality … then to destroy memory is to destroy reality. That mind-bending thought was my jumping-off point for Recursion.
How, you may ask, does memory make reality? The science behind the answer is some of the most mind-blowing stuff I’ve ever encountered, and you’ll see it play out in this book’s pages, which, in my totally unbiased opinion, comprise the wildest, most astonishing story I have ever concocted—something bigger in scope, more unexpected, and more emotional than anything I’ve attempted before. (And, if you read my books, you know that’s saying something.)
Recursion also carries at its heart a love story—one that played out in ways more profound than I ever imagined when I first sat down at my keyboard.
Every book I write is a conversation with you, the reader, and this one tackles a treasure trove of the fundamental questions of our existence. Time. Identity. Memory. Reality. Loss and love.
I hope you love Recursion, and I hope reading it changes how you see yourself. After all, who would you be without your memories?”
-Blake Crouch

Desperation to set things right, Déjà vu, that sense of familiarity, memories playing out again, Life playing out again in different strain and fate, recursion.
Things people carry, the past, the loss, and what about a second chance rewrite rewind start again? Ummm..complicated

Reverse engineering, second chances, undoing histories personal and social comes with consequences, the complexities and intricacies intertwined, in the wrong hands a deadly weapon, the power of undoing could be dangerous.
Great concept used in this tale with careful crafted storytelling techniques in a deep provoking tale, also maybe trigger stress too, one that would have you thinking of the past and what could be rewritten, prepare yourself for the fates of the chair in this mesmerizing mind storm of redoings and fates.

Recursion by Blake Crouch is a stunning masterpiece. I thought his previous book, Dark Matter, could not be surpassed and I was dead wrong. I don’t even like science fiction but Crouch has a way of writing science fiction books that I absolutely love. Sometimes the science went over my head but I still was able to grasp the important themes and meanings of this book. You really have to read this! I don’t even know what else to say about this. I am speechless. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I did not love this one as much as previous Blake Crouch books, it took a bit longer to get into and I think a lot of the sciencey stuff went over my head this time. But it eventually got unputdownable. I liked the characters. Wish there was just one more line at the end or an extended epilogue though haha.

This is one of the most original sci fi books I have read! Think the Giver meets Jason Bourne for adults! A new noir for our generation!

I'm not generally a fan of science fiction, but Blake Crouch is an exception. I really enjoyed "Dark Matter" and was ready to jump into "Recursion." It still hasn't changed my feelings about sci-fi, but it was a pretty good read, especially when looking for something different than the mysteries and psychological thrillers I typically read.

Let's open Blake Crouch's head and see what's inside. I mean it; I need to see the mechanism in his brain that produces the ideas that propel his books, Dark Matter, and now, Recursion. No, I didn't know what it meant either. Recursion is the process of repeating items in a self-similar way. In programming languages, if a program allows you to call a function inside the same function, then it is called a recursive call of the function. The word derives from mathematics and linguistics. The action in this fascinating novel derives from Helena, a brilliant mathematician, and Barry, a New York City police detective. And there's a villain. But the beating heart of the book is the idea that time is fungible, elastic and it's possible to re-live your life. What a great way to remove regrets, to right wrongs, to undo disasters and other bad things. The rub is Unintended Consequences and boy, these are consequential. Anyway, it's a fun read about a deep subject and you will want to join me when I open up Blake's head -- metaphorically, of course!

RECURSION
Blake Crouch
Crown Publishing
ISBN 978-1-5247-5978-0
Hardcover
Thriller/Science Fiction

RECURSION by Blake Crouch is stunning. It is impossible to put down once you start reading it. Crouch sinks the hook early on --- within the first paragraph or two --- by starting things out as if RECURSION might be a police procedural before he turns it into a philosophical and science-based work that makes one reconsider everything they think they know about reality. That he does all of this within a little over three hundred pages and explains the loftier nooks and crannies of quantum physics in an understandable manner makes RECURSION all the more miraculous. And miraculous it is.

The propulsion that drives RECURSION at rocket speed is something called “false memory syndrome,” which has been acknowledged for well over a quarter century. It describes a condition in which a person’s memory and/or relationships are affected to varying degrees by memories that are factually incorrect but which they nonetheless strongly believe. The syndrome is out there, and I mean out there, in RECURSION, as demonstrated when a policeman named Barry Sutton attempts to talk a woman down from a suicide attempt driven by memories of another different and arguably better life. Sutton, who is troubled by the incident, does some research on the woman and what she described. It leads him to a home in Long Island, then to a private hotel in Manhattan. What occurs there changes his life, putting him on an intersection course with a Helena Smith, a neuroscientist specializing in memory research. The narrative in RECURSION switches back and forth between Sutton’s and Smith’s respective viewpoints at different points in time. Smith, whose research has been sparked by her mother’s devastating battle with Alzheimer’s disease, is attempting to find a way to preserve memories in order to restore them. She receives funding from an enigmatic, driven entrepreneur and achieves her goal, but with consequences so devastating that everything changes, and not just for herself and her mother. By the time that Smith realizes what has happened things have deteriorated to the point where only she can correct the course that she originally started, if, in fact, it can be fixed at all. Sutton is there to help --- in ways that are expected and otherwise --- and with the assistance of a theory from an unexpected source there is a chance that things can be made right, if what is “right” can be determined. The answer, as one finds while reading RECURSION, isn’t always clear.

RECURSION will scare the heck out of you. Crouch’s exploration of reality here is on a par with Philip K. Dick. I was put in the mind of Dick’s novel UBIK, as well as Ursula K. LeGuin’s THE LATHE OF HEAVEN and “The Monkey’s Paw” by W. W. Jacobs. The end result of RECURSION, however, is all Crouch, who combines hard science, horror, and mystery with a touch of a love story --- a couple of love stories, actually --- to create an unforgettable work on this and all other timelines. There is no reason to delay or deny yourself the pleasure of reading RECURSION immediately. As for Crouch...he will need to clear off his mantle to accommodate the trophies that will surely come his way for this stunning work, which is perfect in every way. Very strongly recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2019, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

This has to be one of the most original and ingenious books I’ve read in a very long time. Recursion by Blake Crouch, as it stands, is my favourite book I’ve read this summer.

Helena Smith is a brilliant scientist who is on the cusp of ground breaking new technology research on memories. In the hopes of preserving memories for people with Alzheimer’s, like her mother, she has developed a chair that will record memories and re-implant them. When her project receives a massive boost by a rich philanthropist, Helena questions if there is a darker motive for his interest.

Barry is a police officer in New York City who has had his fair share of incidents with False Memory Syndrome that has rapidly effecting people in New York. When he decides to take his own investigation a bit further, he has no idea what troubles of his past will come to light with Helena’s new project. What are the side effects of having our memories manipulated and replaced? And is it really worth replacing painful ones with new events?

This is a stunning science fiction thriller that really makes you think about the future of technology and how mankind will use it as a tool or a weapon. While the premise of this book is really out-there, and sometimes complicated, I found myself trying to wrap my head around the scientific jargon and even trying to figure out how everything would all play out. Let me say, it is not at all how I imagined it would end!

What really drew me into the book were the two parallel characters, Helena and Barry. At first I didn’t see how they went together, but when they did, I was rooting for them until the end. Having diverse and even entertaining dialogue throughout made it light-hearted at times too, which was needed. Crouch outdid himself, again, with the characters, plot and even the writing. I couldn’t put this one down and finished it in one sitting!

Even though I’m not a huge fan of science fiction, Recursion by Blake Crouch takes you on a thought-provoking journey filled with suspense, tension and even a little romance! I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for something that is going to stay with them long after reading it! I didn’t think my mind could take another mind-f**k after reading Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter, but little did I know Recursion came in for dirty seconds! This is thrilling, addictive and mind bending — you’re going to love every second of it!

Thank you to NetGalley, Crown Publishing and Blake Crouch for an ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

This book was excellent. It's a science fiction book about a woman whose mother has Alzheimer's. So, she works on building a chair that can help preserve her memories. Unfortunately, it falls into the wrong hands and chaos ensues. I couldn't put it down once I started. It was very fast paced and not at all confusing. It is well written and the characters are all likable.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

I couldn't put down Blake Crouch's Recursion. I finished this book in four days. I started out casually reading it, but then got sucked into the premise and the storyline.

Recursion is about the importance of our memories. They give us the sense of permanence and our identity. But what happens when memories can simply change and you can no longer trust them? In the book, a brilliant scientist figures out a way to go back and alter them so people don't have to deal with tragedy in their lives and what follows is even more tragic.