Crouch offers another creepily warped vision in which time travel is discovered and the results wreak havoc. In attempting to find a cure for her mother, who has dementia, Helena Smith inadvertently creates a machine to travel through time and change past events. The only problem is, that even when an event is changed, the participants of that event eventually remember what actually happened initially, frequently with disastrous results.

Barry Sutton, an NYPD cop, encounters one set of those disastrous results when he tries to talk a woman out of committing suicide. Because something nags at him about the whole thing, he investigates deeper and stumbles onto the phenomenon known as False Memory Syndrome. In an effort to stop him, the owner of the technology (who has taken it over from Helena) offers him the opportunity to change tragedy in his own life.

Eventually, Barry and Helena meet and spend years traveling through time, attempting to 'un-invent' the machine. Of course, they are pursued through the years by the thief who made his fortune using the machine. A fast-paced thriller that only Crouch could devise.
Dr. Cheryl Youse

I always love some good time travel shenanigans. The pacing was great and I loved the element of reliving lives. Thoroughly enjoyed this.

Recursion
by Blake Crouch
due 6-11-2019
Crown

Sci-Fi Thriller about the perception of time, False Memory Syndrome and a scientific invention gone horribly wrong. This is genre-bending at itś best. I loved this one!

A Scientist, Helena Smith, whose mother has Alzheimers, creates a memory chair meant to help her with her lost past. But the chair did not turn out as intended, giving people false memories, and questioning their reality. leading many to suicide.
Barry Sutton, working for the NYPD, is investigating the suicides and the FMS causing them, until he finds himself tangled in memories of his own....lost in a timeline where he cannot stop the inevitable and longing for a unreachable past.
Thanks to Crown books and net galley for the ebook ARC for review.
#Recursion #netgalley

First of all thank you to Netgalley and Crown Publishing for the Advance Reader Copy! I was very excited to get the opportunity to read Recursion, especially on the heels of reading Mr. Crouch's previous novel Dark Matter! Both novels use science fiction mixed with science fact while creating an exciting narrative. The best way I can put it is that he makes the unbelievable seem completely possible! What is so fun about the mixture of science fiction and fact is that it makes anything possible! This creates plot points that seem to come out of nowhere, but later make perfect sense. Amazing how Mr. Crouch keeps all the "timelines" together! Not going any deeper, I do not want to spoil the awesome narrative. I consider Blake Crouch one of my go to authors, always a exciting adventure, and he always makes me question my reality! A fun adventure that reflects on what it is to be human, our memories, and reality itself. Thank you so much! Happy reading! #netgalley #blakecrouch #recursion #crownpublishing

Courtesy of NetGallery for this ARC . I've been so excited for another book by one of my fav authors and it did not disappoint. Similar feel to dark matter, I spent at least half of the book trying g to figure out what the f was happening.

This book started out incredibly strong. At about 50% through I stared to get worried because I couldn't figure out where it was going to go from there. It got (or stayed) interesting! It starts out with the False Memory Syndrome, which is a really original concept, but it really comes down to humanity and how much our memories define who we are. This is a mix of science fiction, mystery, and love story. The characters were amazingly drawn out and deep with their own motivations.

Notes:
- Not sure if this was because it was a draft copy but loved that he used real names for some of the characters. It looks like they are in the acknowledgements so hope it sticks. I hope I found some new authors to read too.
- Some of the scenarios at the end of the book were a little gruesome for me to read. I was going to reduce the stars because of that (and because of how many times it happened) but ultimately, the reader needs to understand what is at stake.

I have loved every book by Blake Crouch so far. This book is not the exception. I can't wait for everyone else to read this book. Great concept, great characters, great story!

Policeman Barry is sent to stop a suicide, a suicide spurred on by false memories. False Memory Syndrome is a spreading plague, and his investigation of it leads to questions about whether the past is written in stone. These questions are linked to the work of Helena Smith, a neuroscientist determined to unlock the secret of human memory in order to help her mother who is struggling with Alzheimer’s. This was propulsive and fascinating!

I'm a sucker for mind-bending sci-fi thrillers and Blake Crouch has recently shot to the top of my list of authors to look out for in this genre.

Recursion was impossible to put down. I'm slogging through my workday with a whopping 40 minutes of sleep because I needed to finish this book last night.

Many thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and to Crown Publishing for the review copy of Recursion.

This was absolutely a page-turner for me. I usually shy away from sci-fi/fantasy books, but the characters and the mystery in this one kept me coming back for more.

I loved the two main characters, Barry- the cop and Helena- the neuroscientist made an unlikely dynamic duo as they tried to counteract or stop the False Memory Syndrome. I was rooting for them both, even though I wasn't quite sure that Helena could step away from her incredible invention, or that the alternate lives that Barry and his daughter could live would be worth it for them.

The characters were well developed; the storyline was actually believable; and as always, Blake Crouch did an excellent job with the prose.

Blake Crouch delivers again with a mind-bending sci-fi thriller! Recursion was such an interesting read that made you really think about how every action has a ripple effect, and could the advancement of technology ultimately lead to the down fall of humanity. High action with a love story woven in, you won't be able to put this book down!

Thanks to Netgalley and Crown Publishing for this ARC!

In this timeline and any others that exist, I am blown away by the genius of Blake Crouch. I absolutely loved Recursion. This novel is like an action packed, sci-fi adventure onion with all it's wonderful layers. Just when I feel comfortable with the direction of the story and think I know where it's headed, Blake peels back another layer and gets me hooked for more. I loved reading Dark Matter and I loved reading Recursion even more. Blake Crouch just gets better with each novel he writes and we all w get rewarded because of it. I highly recommend Recursion and I look forward to reading more from Blake Crouch.

Recursion By Blake Crouch
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Of the 3 books by Blake Crouch I have read this is by FAR my favorite!!! I loved the time travel to different timelines and the mind bending effects of watching how changing something in a timeline effects everything.

Had me thinking about all the decision we make both great and small and the ripple effect it has on SO MANY things!!!

This book will give your brain a work out in the best kind of way. As you travel with Barry and Helena and try and figure out how to back up to try and save the world from itself.

So grateful to Netgalley for the Advanced Readers Copy.

I loved "Dark Matter" and was really excited to get an early copy of this book. As with 'Dark Matter' there is alot of complicated science in this one that went over my head, but the story itself is compelling and twisted. It's difficult to write a proper review of this without giving too much away, so I will just say that in addition to themes of regret and loss, woven together with scientific advances and the ethical quandaries of attempting to rewrite history, there is a love story at the center of all of this. I enjoyed it, as I've enjoyed everything Blake Crouch has written, but the time lines do become very hard to follow and toward the end there came a point when I just wanted them to stop what they were doing because it was getting ridiculous. Thank you to Netgalley and Crown Publishing Group for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lou Jacobs's Reviews > Recursion

Recursion by Blake Crouch
Recursion
by Blake Crouch (Goodreads Author)
M 50x66
Lou Jacobs's review Mar 27, 2019 · edit
it was amazing

What a mind blowing read! This is the first Blake Crouch book for me ... this has to be one of the best reads in the last several years ... if I could it would be a 5 + Star. What starts out as a life long pursuit by neuroscientist Helena Smith to record and capture the neuronal substrate of human memory turns out to be much more. She painstakingly develops over years the technology to accomplish this by building "the chair" and it's attendant software and infrastructure. This leads to an unanticipated ability to travel back in time to an earlier vividly recalled memory. However, the unintended consequences being a reality shift for not only the time traveller, but all mankind ... effectively creating an alternate timeline. This would lead to the possibility of altering events ... not only redoing your live, but also all mankind. This technology falling into the wrong hands would lead to dire and possibly nefarious purposes.
Suddenly the Centers for Disease Control identifies multiple cases of patients presenting with acute false memories .... a fully imagined alternate history covering huge swaths of their life. The patients apparently have two sets of memories in their consciousness. This entity is termed FMS. ...
false memory syndrome. Some of the patients cannot stand this new reality and this accounts for a huge uptick of suicides. Naturally scientists are unable to account for this new phenomena ... we however, suspect someone is using the chair and altering reality.
NYC detective Barry Sutton is caught up in the invesigation of FMS and it's resultant suicides.
He crosses paths with the forces actively using the chair and is swiftly catapulted into the consequences of using the chair. He goes back in his memories to intervene and prevent the death of his 16 year old daughter by a hit and run driver .... and enters into a new timeline, effecting all. Helena realizes that the chair has to be destroyed to preserve mankind from madness and destruction.
The paths of Helena and Barry are intertwined in their search for a method to stop this subversion of her technology. Helena's goal was to help people... find a way to save memory for the deteriorating brain ... perhaps benefiting millions affected with Alzheimer's Disease.
Crouch proves to be a great storyteller ... the reader is swept along in this complex and relentless narrative and convincingly buys into this magnificent concept premise. Time being an allusion... and our perception of it is flawed .... the nature of our consciousness only gives us access to one small slice at a time.... better to view our life as a book, and we can only perceive one moment, one page at a time.
Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House publishing for providing an Uncorrected ARC of this wonderful immersive page-turner and genre-bending novel in exchange for an honest review.
I can't wait to go back and read Crouch's previous book: Dark Matter.

This book surprised me in many ways, not the least of which was how romantic it is (but not sappy). The narrative is complex but well-thought-out, the writing is smooth and enjoyable, and as long as you don't dwell too much on the science fiction aspects of the story – holes can be pretty easy to find – it's a good read. I really enjoyed it. I'd give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.

THIS BOOK. This is my second favourite book read in 2019 so far (my first favourite is a topic to come in 2020, so we'll deal with that then.) But this book! THIS BOOK! Ohmygosh. I read the description and was highly intrigued but I didn't expect it to warp my brain quite so much. My brain is a different being having read this book.

I have never been more glad of train delays. Normally my morning commute is seamless, but thankfully, today I ended up stuck in a tunnel which is good because otherwise I would have been sitting at work finishing this because it was so very readable and so mind boggling and so curious. I have an issue with tending to completely race through books, but with this one, I had to pause and think, because Crouch brought in so many topics for contemplation. But I also had to finish it as it was gorgeously pacy.

There is a subtle love story (my favourite kind), and there is a lot of maturity in the discussion of what makes a couple work and what makes them drift apart, and whether that's a bad thing (spoiler alert: it's not.) I appreciated the relationships in this book so much. The nuances of the parent child relationships especially were incredibly touching and powerful. I just want to take the big relationship here and squeeze them a bit and cry with them and love with them. "You look like someone who might want to buy me a drink." "My soul knows your soul. In any time." My heart. I forgot I had one.

And Helena! Helena! Helena, my love, how you evolved! Once you've lived a certain amount of years, you're significantly different to who you once were, and this book does such a great job of capturing that sentiment and exploring it--how you're the same, but different.

THIS ENTIRE CONCEPT. And the title. Oh, how I love the title (hello I was a computer science minor and data structures was one of my favourite college classes and recursion is endlessly fascinating.) The title actually helped me to comprehend what was happening, and though I will never fully understand, the author did such a good job of explaining it in a way that was just detailed enough to be believable. To the extent that I was indeed questioning the space-time continuum as I sat on that train this morning, as I sat at a show last night, as I pretended to pay attention to the nice pair conversing with me. Was that conversation really happening? Would I remember it enough to have 120 synapses fire? What aspects was I paying attention to? So many thoughts that this provoked.

And the ending worked. Endings never work in books like this, but this wasn't too shabby. It made sense, and while I want to know more nuances of what happened as an epilogue to the epilogue (how annoyed I was to read the word "epilogue"!) logically it made sense following the timeline that had already happened. And when I figured out, slightly earlier, how it was going to happen, man. Oh man. That just changed everything, too.

I hadn't realised until before writing this review that Crouch also wrote DARK MATTER which I wasn't actually a super big fan of, but I did adore the concept, so now I'm so terribly excited to see what world he dreams up next. And maybe dive into backlist. Once I get through this pile of library books. (Ha!)

So excited to tell everyone I know about this book (though I'm going to have to refine my pitch a bit here before I become known as the crazy memory girl.)

One of the greatest things Crouch brings to literature is the utter shock and surprise that comes with his stories. They are so truly unique and original that I consistently find myself questioning how someone’s brain even functions the way his does. Asking myself how someone can even begin to think this up. I think that if I tried to spoil this entire story right now, I may not even be able to because it’s such a complicated and intricate web that Crouch has woven here. What leaves me even more impressed though, is that despite how complicated the story is, I was able to follow along *for the most part* because Crouch is able to make ideas that would normally fly right on over my head, accessible and tangible.

Recursion is truly a whirlwind and it has everything any reader could ask for. It’s exciting, thrilling, heart warming and gritty all at the same time. It asks questions I haven’t ever thought of and created scenarios that made my brain ache to contemplate. It challenged me as a reader and it challenged my ideas of what creates “reality” and “the present”. I should’ve read this with someone else because I wish I could have talked to someone who was reading it at the same time as me. However, I’m super excited to add this to my list of book recommendations for the future and to discuss it then!

In the end this is another total slam dunk for me and I can’t wait to see what Crouch comes up with next. This is a twisty novel that you’re never going to be able to pin down where it’s about to head next. It left me truly breathless at points because it felt like I was reading and the story was moving at break-neck speed. There were points I almost needed to take a break because so much is being thrown at you at once. If this review has confused you at all, I totally understand because this book is insane to try to explain. However, I still can’t suggest picking it up enough!

Wow! This is some effed up sh!t, in the best of ways. An intense sci-fi thriller that was hard to put down.

It pushed me to the brink of sanity in understanding what reality really is, cause now isn't now, it's actually a few seconds ago, always, because of how long it take the brain to process what it's seeing and hearing. Now couple that with the power of memories (good and bad), and the intricacies of time travel. Throw in family, relationships, and how politics and technology can affect the world, now mix it up real good, and.........Mind blown, mike drop.

Confused yet. Start reading and don't stop till you're done. You won't be disappointed.

I got through this book but the title is very apt! The same thing recurring over and over made me want to get to the end. The only reason I kept going was I wanted to see if the author redeemed himself in the end. Sadly. he didn't.