LOVED THIS BOOK. Similar to Crouch’s Dark Matter, the mix of science and classic literary thriller elements was just right. The characters were engaging and like able and the plot kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. The timelines were a little confusing towards the end, but did not impact my understanding of the story overall. I can’t wait to see what Blake Crouch writes next!

Prepare to have your mind BLOWN when you read this. We’ve got a touch of an unreliable narrator to make this mind-bending tale all the more suspenseful. If you don’t like when a story messes with your head, you may not enjoy this. This book will make you look at life in a whole different light. I didn’t expect to get some valuable life lessons from this story. Blake, what a philosopher you’ve become! I absolutely loved it!

Recursion has everything that I loved about Dark Matter. It is complicated and action-packed and will have you sitting on the edge of your seat. It was also surprisingly romantic, which I wasn't anticipating but thoroughly enjoyed. It raises a lot of ethical and moral questions. It's a book I will continue to think about!

Full RTC.

Inspired by two MIT neuroscientists, who, in 2012, implanted false memories into the brain of a mouse, Blake Crouch has created another epic science-fiction story!

I'm convinced Crouch has become THE sci-fi phenom of our time. His novels have been some of the most consistently high rated of all my must-read authors. When Blake Crouch comes out with a new book, you may as well go ahead and pre-order it...the premise is irrelevant. You and I both know it's gonna be amazing.

So...Recursion.

My mind was blown.

I'd devour several chapters of this book, then spend the next hour multi-tasking...loading the dishwasher and contemplating Crouch's words; bathing my three pugs and St. Bernard and contemplating Crouch's theories; folding laundry and contemplating Crouch's genius.

You see, unlike Dark Matter, another novel by Blake Crouch, which I felt was fairly straight-forward and easy to understand, Recursion requires some brain unraveling. I was always able to reach an elementary understanding...but the science was complex. Fascinating, but difficult at times.

The basis of the story? What if your memories had never actually happened? What would you do if given the opportunity for a re-do? While it does get mildly repetitive throughout the final third of the book, I remained captivated.

Keep in mind, though, this isn't an easy beach read. This is a novel which will require your concentration at all times. And I recommend giving ALL Crouch's other novels a chance too...he's an author who is absolutely worth your time.

4 "explosive" stars!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Crown, and Blake Crouch for the digital e-copy, in exchange for my thoughts.

Publishing date: June 11, 2019
Review published on Goodreads: June 5, 2019

Crouch knocked it out of the park. I completely devoured RECURSION and cannot recommend it enough. Dare I say, that this is even better than 5-star Dark Matter?!?!

Never did I ever think that I would like this as much as I LOVED Dark Matter. I have to admit I was a tad nervous but he’s done it again! His storytelling makes science fiction something that is captivating, chilling and “almost” understandable. I was hooked from page one and thrilled the whole way through. Get ready for your mind to be blown!

Like Dark Matter there is lots to digest and you’ve got to use that noggin of yours. This isn’t merely a page-turner, it’s a deep and thought provoking look at how precious life is and the memories that make up our existence.

Most of us have experienced déjà vu. Well what if you experienced instances of acute déjà vu? Constantly struck with the sense that you are living multiple lives? Barry is a cop in 2018 when the world is struck by FMS (False Memory Syndrome). Suddenly people have two sets of memories. One true, one false. Some kill themselves over it. Barry is determined to investigate what the true reality of it all is. Meanwhile back in 2007, Helena, a scientist has dedicated her life to creating a technology that will preserve memories. I really can’t tell you much more than this without spoiling some of the plot, themes and questions the story touches upon. You’ll just have to take a leap of faith.

Captivating, mind-boggling and original I give this book all the brilliant stars. This will 100% be in my top 10 for 2019.

I have owned and lost more than a few copies of Blake Crouch's Dark Matter. I'm not sure what made me pick up my first copy of Dark Matter - I usually avoid New York Times bestsellers - but the book sunk its claws deep from the first page and didn't let go until the very last one, many hours later. Needless to say, the next day was fueled by copious amounts of caffeine. If the book was nothing more than a frenetic, roller coaster ride through multiple dimensions, I would have tossed it on the DONE pile and moved on, but Dark Matter was also a meditation on family, regrets, and the huge impact small choices can have on our lives and that real struck a chord with me. So over the years I have given many copies of this book to friends, family, and people that want to try something "new" but don't no what that "new" might be. Dark Matter also managed the small miracle of turning my allergic-to-reading daughter into a book guzzling fanatic. So, I was really excited to receive an preview copy of Recursion and see if Blake Crouch could, once again, take me on a wild ride through the inner cosmos of his grey matter.

Recursion follows the story of two main characters - Barry Sutton who is investigating the suicide of a woman suffering from False Memory Syndrome in 2018 and Helena Smith, a neuroscientists who is working with Alzheimer patients in 2007. Imagine experiencing an ice-pick through the skull migraine followed by a sudden flood of memories of a past that didn't happen. The memories are very detailed, but can only be remembered in black and white. Now imagine that those memories are of a life that is much better than you have - maybe you have a child in those memories that doesn't really exist and a life filled with love and belonging. For some, the memories are too painful and death is the only escape.

At the same time, but 10 years earlier, Recursion tells the story of a science project designed to preserve the memories of Alzheimer patients. While both stories are connected by the theme of memory - in one case too few and the other two many - how the characters connect doesn't become apparent until fairly late in the book. And just when you think you know where Blake Crouch is taking you, he makes a sudden left turn into the apocalypse and the end off all life as we know it.

Recursion starts as a straightforward sci-fi thriller but quickly becomes something much bigger when it starts asking questions such as what is memory? How does it define us? And what happens if we can no longer trust it? But more importantly he leaves the reader asking themselves - if I could take away (or change) the memory of my worst day, would it really make my life better? A few weeks ago, a friend's daughter died in a car accident during Prom Weekend, and after seeing the emotional devastation the family is suffering, I find that particular question doesn't come with an easy answer.

<b>Highly Recommended with special thanks to Mr. Crouch, Crown Publishing, and the Kind folks at Netgalley</b>

Blake Crouch fans will not be disappointed with this wild ride of a story. This book has science, adventure, war, time travel, murder, mystery, and love all in one book. Neuroscientist Helena has worked for years to create something that will stop Alzheimer's, which her mother is suffering from, and NYPD Detective Barry is struggling from a tragic family loss when "False Memory Syndrome" shows up in America. People are suddenly having memories of lives they have never lived before and nobody knows why. Until they do. Someone is changing memories, and with it changing the course of reality. I feel like this book is hard to describe without giving away plot points that people may not want to know about head of time, but just know that this book is pretty crazy in the best way possible. I couldn't put it down.

3 Stars.

What can I say about Blake Crouch’s new book Recursion? Well, it’s got “a Whole Lotta Crazy Going On!”

Can you say, do-over? Are your memories to be trusted? What happens if your memories are replaced with new ones and you keep re-living your life over and over?

Just ask NYPD Detective Barry Sutton, whose life has been in tatters for the last several years, ever since the death of his daughter Meghan. When he is called to the scene of a potential suicide, he learns of something called “False Memory Syndrome.” Ann Peters Voss claims that the life she is living now is not her original, true life. She states that she was once married to someone else and that she had a son and now, in this life, he ceases to exist. At first, Barry finds Ms. Voss’ claims to be incredulous, until the same thing happens to him.

Helena is the Scientist who is responsible for False Memory Syndrome. She finds a way to travel back in time to change memories and in the end, the world. For her, it started innocently, but then doesn’t it always?

Timelines shift, reality becomes obsolete. Human nature takes over.

“Recursion” by Blake Crouch is a novel that was highly intriguing at first, with characters who I was wholly invested in and then became way too technical for me, thereby losing my interest. I personally love Sci-Fi. I read a decent amount of it and tend to watch a lot more Sci Fi on television than anything else, and yet, I felt like Recursion, missed the mark as the novel wore on. The characters are what drew me into the story, yet around the mid-point of the novel the focus on the characters was lost when the timelines kept shifting, which became difficult to keep track of.

What Blake Crouch excelled at in “Dark Matter,” was crafting a well-executed, highly entertaining story about what could have been a difficult subject to understand - and instead he made it extremely easy to comprehend, while including extremely captivating characters to boot. “Dark Matter” was unputdownable! Sadly, “Recursion” was much more difficult to follow and the characters simply didn’t pull me in.

I read “Recursion” with my book buddy Kaceey. I think it might be the first true Science Fiction book we have read together. I loved our discussions about it and look forward to seeing how we feel about other Sci Fi books we read in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley, Crown Publishing and Blake Crouch for an arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Published on Goodreads and NetGalley on 6.5.19.

Memory makes reality.

Neuroscientist, Helena Smith has been working for a long time on a way to recreate memories. Helena's mother has Alzheimer's and Helena is racing the clock to create something that will allow people to re-live those memories they have lost. But with her budget small, it may not happen.

Then one day a man walks into her office and offers her the dream of a lifetime. Full funding, state of the art lab, everything she needs to bring her vision to life. But is her benefactor doing this for other reasons? Maybe not so pure ones?

Meanwhile, an NYC cop, Barry, is learning first hand about a phenomenon the press are calling False Memory Syndrome. Driving people to kill themselves. Believing they have lived other lives and being driven out of their mind, not knowing which memories are real and which lives they are living now.

When Barry and Helen team up to bring down the horrifying invention that has been unleashed as a weapon, things get insane. Time shifts, reality shifts, memories shift. What's real and what is not?

This is one of my favorite types of stories. A puzzle in a puzzle in a puzzle. I had to pay attention very closely to remember all of the timelines and it was worth every minute!

Very Well Done!

NetGalley/June 11th, 2019 by Crown Publishing Group (NY)

NUMBER OF HEARTS: 4
What would you do if you had a memory but couldn’t tell if it was real or just a story someone told you? What length would you go to to learn the truth. Once you are there do you think you can handle the truth?

Blake Crouch does an amazing job of writing a very disturbing story. Because I could easily see this happening to us in the future. The ending had me look for more pages in the book. I was left wondering what the heck (haha) in a good way!!

If you are a Blake Crouch fan you will love this book.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley & Crown Publishing
in exchange for an honest review. This review is my own opinion and not a paid review.

I'll start by saying I love the premise of this and the exploration of memory and being able to go back in time to past memories. The story alternates between Helena, the scientific maker of the chair that allows memories to be preserved as well as memory time travel and Barry, a cop who gets caught up in the implications of False Memory syndrome and is put in the chair himself. I wasn't crazy about this alternating structure, I preferred Barry's story to Helena's and this back and forth also made what was already a confusing storyline all the more so. This wasn't an easy plot to follow and I spent almost all of my time trying to figure out what was going on in order to just follow the plot. I really wanted to like this but I just didn't.

This takes a little work. There's the time line issue- and then there's the science. There's not a lot of science but there was enough to slow me down and probably not enough for veteran readers of the genre. The basic premise of false memory syndrome and Helena's work on the device is fascinating. The characters, especially Helena, are interesting and you'll find yourself invested in their lives and memories. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Not my usual genre but it's a gripping read and one that will make you question your own memories.

I've read several of Blake Crouch's books - his Wayward Pines series is bizarre, Dark Matter mind-blowing - and he's never let me down.  With this book, Crouch has made my auto-buy list.

Trippy, mind-bending, thought-provoking - it's unlike anything I've read before.  Recursion starts with a basic idea, and then it branches out from there, with tendrils weaving in several directions.  This isn't a book to read if you're expecting several interruptions - you'll want to give 100% of your attention to it, and you'll need every bit of brain capacity to keep up with this fast-paced enigma.

I really can't say much about it, because you'll never read spoilers in my reviews, but if you're a sci-fi thriller fan, this is a must-read.  It's taken me four days after finishing the book to write the review, because I've been turning the story over in my mind.  I can't recommend Recursion enough - one my best reads in the past few years.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I have been a huge fan of Blake Crouch since long before any of his books were turned into TV shows and I won't be surprised if this novel ends up as a TV series too, a movie wouldn't do it justice.
Barry Sutton is a cop investigating False Memory Syndrome, a strange disorder that causes sufferers of this malady to recall in perfect detail memories of living an entirely different life than the one they really have. Nobody knows what causes it or whether it is possibly contagious but once someone has False Memory Syndrome those in their close social circles seem to come down with it as well.
Helena Smith is a brilliant Neuroscientist who has been working on way to preserve memories in hopes of helping her mother who is rapidly forgetting everything and everyone to Alzheimer's. Her technology is successful beyond anyone's imagination and can give users the ability not just to remember the past but to relive it. What could possibly go wrong? When Barry is given the "gift" of a chance to relive the past and be a better father, son and husband he will find out what can go wrong, on more than one timeline.
This book will blow your mind.

"Recursion" by Blake Crouch
The sci-fi master of head games returns with another one. Blake Crouch's new novel follows a detective who is called to the edge of a building where a woman is going to jump. She tells him: "I have false memory syndrome."

"People are suddenly waking up and remembering another life that has run parallel to the one that they're living, and one is in all color, and one is faded, in black and white, but they both feel real. Suddenly people have memories of a spouse or career that they never had ... It end ups that it is something that's happening because of a neuroscientist named Helena, who has invented kind of a time machine ... I ignored my family so I could just get through the book, I wanted to know what was happening." -Stephanie Curtis

3.5 Stars

A sci-fi thriller with tons of twists. This book is dense; there is so much going on that at times I felt a little overwhelmed. But it was definitely worth it. We follow our two main characters, Billy, a NYPD detective, and Helena, a scientist intimately involved with the False Memory Syndrome. Knowing much more than that would spoil the wild ride that is Recursion.

I received an advanced copy through Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Call the chiropractor. This book gave me mental whiplash and I loved it. Talk about a mind bender! What if you could undo something in your past and relive your life from just before that point? Would you? In Blake Crouch's genre-bending thriller set in present day, FMS (False Memory Syndrome) is an unwanted side effect to using the device invented to give you a "do over." Told from the perspective of Barry (a police officer investigating the phenomenon) and Helena (the inventor), you will find yourself hop-scotching through time and staying up late to see how it all ends.

A big thank you to Crown Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview this genre-defying thriller in exchange for an honest review.

Special thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Overall, 3 stars. The first 50% was without a doubt 5 stars, but the repetition for the last half of the book was a bit too tedious for me.

If you were given a chance to go back and change the past, would you? Or would you leave the past in the past?

The book follows a researcher who is desperate to preserve her mother's memory as she deteriorates with Alzheimer's. She is approached by a man and offered unlimited money and resources to complete her research. What she doesn't know is that he plans to use her research for evil.

Then there's Barry who works in law enforcement, while battling depression surrounding his daughter's death and divorce.

In typical Blake Crouch fashion, Recursion is fast-paced, exciting, and hard to put down. Mixing thriller and sci-fi once again, Recursion deals with questions of time and memory in a twisty way that keeps readers guessing. Fans of Dark Matter by Crouch will love this one, although the tone is somewhat darker than Dark Matter's. I highly recommend this to anyone wanting to try out sci-fi who might feel intimidated by a lot of technobabble or lengthy tomes. Crouch keeps the story moving in a way that feels like you're reading a movie, and it's accessible for even the least likely to pick up a science fiction novel.

Blake Crouch’s “Recursion” grabs you from the first page and doesn’t let go until the satisfying conclusion. As a science fiction thriller, the storyline was gripping, but there was still time to explore the dynamics between the two point of view characters and how the events from the story were affecting them. The biggest surprise for me is the book succeeded in explaining complex concepts such as time, reality, and memory without making my head hurt. Then again, I really enjoyed “Dark Matter” so I knew going into this that Blake Crouch had it handled. Future books by Blake Crouch have been elevated to an automatic read for me after “Recursion.”