Upgrade is a Sci-Fi where it feels more real than fiction. It is set in a future where targeted gene mutations are entirely feasible but outlawed because of its environmental effects. In the middle of the story is Logan,

This is the second Blake Crouch I've read. I enjoyed reading Recursion so much 2 years ago that he became an insta-buy author for me. I was really looking forward to this book and it did not disappoint! Blake Crouch knows how to write thrilling mind-bending science-fiction that's hard to put down.

Overall, I really enjoyed Upgrade, it asked some great ethical questions about the environment, compassion, intelligent, the greater good and where these all meet. I really liked the way the author handled the changes in Logan, especially the emotional ones, as he gets smarter and stronger. His slow disconnection from humanity, the changes in the way he views others and his relationship with his family was both beautiful and heartbreaking. In some way it reminded me of Fowers for Algernon in this regard.
Beyond the emotional, the technical aspects of the changes in Logan were also handled in a very unique and cool way. For example, how being able to split your focus over and over again could feel like time slowing down.

Even though the book takes place in the future, it's not hard to imagine how our world could end up like the one in the book, and it's hard to miss the environmental crisis and climate change in the book as what we are moving towards. I liked that the book took a hard stance on these topics, without seeming defeatist and completely pessimistic. Blake Crouch himself has said in an interview that he doesn't feel like he's writing sci-fi anymore, and that's easy to see with this book.

There were a few small nitpicks I had with this book, that kept it from being a full 5⭐. One of these was some of small parts of the book that felt unnecessarily detailed to me, without actually adding anything to the story.

Also, the problem with any story where the main character gets superhuman smartness is that it gets difficult not to nitpick on small mistakes. TBF these kinds of discrepancies happen a tiny amount in this book, but they do happen.

Overall rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.2

Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for this eARC.

🧬🧬 BOOK REVIEW 🧬🧬

Thank you @Blakecrouch and @Penguinrandomhouse for the e-arc of Upgrade. I eventually got a copy via Book of the Month.

Summary: The mind-blowing new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matterand Recursion—currently in development as a motion picture at Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners. The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.

“You are the next step in human evolution.”

Thoughts 💭: This action-packed sci-fi thriller explores an interesting concept: what if we alter our DNA’s and become powerful in every way as super humans in a sense. This quest for immortality is not a new one, and something has been explored by authors and scientists for years. We meet Logan Ramsay, who works as a detective until he is infected with a questionable material during a raid. This leads him to quarantine and become a subject of his mom’s newest research. As the novel unfolds, the drama gets intense as Logan becomes a man on the run trying to save himself as people especially his mom and sister are out to get him. There are two aspects of this novel that stood out. First, it reminded me of District 9 - an allegorical film on South African apartheid when the main character becomes the alien (the other he despises), and secondly, Logan’s mother who do known for innovative and often dangerous research is known to be the cause of a genocide. The upgrade leads to a constant struggle for power between Logan and his sister, Kara, and the novel ends on a hopeful note in a sense. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel, and although sci-fiction is not my normal genre, I am happy to read allegorical social commentaries embedded in novel such as Crouch’s. I think there was one question I had perhaps, which would have made this novel more complex - the exploration of race in connection with the novels theme: who is eligible for the upgrade? What are the ethical implications? I would also go as far as to say that this book in many ways is a commentary on the covid-19 vaccine debates we had the last few years. It was viewed with skepticism but also in a way seen as an “upgrade” that we get and is an M-RNA vaccine.

QQOTD ⁉️: Do you have a dedicated reading spot in your house? I read on my couch usually across the tv :)

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I am a Blake Crouch fan and will always read his books. This one fell a LITTLE flat for me. I wanted a bit more mystery and less showing of his hand. The story was good and I loved the premise, I just wanted a SMIDGE more. Overall another gripping story from the master of speculative thrillers.

The description got me! It sounded like something I’d enjoy. I think what got me while reading was how Logan kept going on and on about all the “details” of how he was deciding to do this or that after his upgrade. And the end just didn’t jive. It got tedious. I know some people that will love this book but it just wasn’t for me.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

I’m not a big fan of Sci-Fi books, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this one.

I think the main reason why I liked it was because it read more like a thriller to me. It was fast paced and I just wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to happen. There was some science jargon specifically with DNA, but it was wasn’t too much and it didn't overtake the plot. Overall it was an entertaining and quick read.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Is Blake Crouch some kind of mad genius? I don't understand how he manages to write books about subjects that I have little interest in and no understanding of - but makes them so engaging and entertaining and full of heart. The subject this time is genetics and many questions are raised. How far should we go in engineering genetics? If we develop the capability to tamper with human genetics, should we? And to what extent - and to what end? And just what defines our humanity?
There's a great cautionary tale here as well, about just how wrong things can go when science tries in all good faith to correct one thing to improve life - and instead ends up making things infinitely worse. The book starts out in a future where the protagonist, Logan Ramsay, is working for a government agency tasked with eliminating genetic tampering. We gradually learn why there's been such a crackdown on such activity, and why Logan is involved. But when he begins to realize that his own genome has been hacked, he has to figure out why, by whom, and what path to take as his physical and mental abilities improve. Through it all he struggles to cling to his humanity. I still don't understand the underlying science, but that's okay. That was outweighed by the elements of the story and Logan's journey.
Thanks to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

I've read many of Blake Crouch's other novels and enjoy that his stories are always fantastic fun and a true blend of sci-fi and thriller. I love that this one had a superhero vibe while still feeling rooted in its genre rather than an action hero story. What I enjoyed most about Upgrade was the big ethical questions it posed. What would you do if charged with saving the human race? How far would you go to save humanity and what if it meant sacrificing what makes us human? If you could only pick intelligence or emotion, which would you choose?

We're meant to root for the narrator and align with his thinking but the reality is that there's no clear villain or hero... who plays which role depends on your perspective of what's right. I loved this element. Thought provoking AND fun!

However, several elements kept me from loving the book. I highlighted some sentences that felt like extremely unrealistic dialogue such as "Has your memory improved toward perfection?" I can't imagine someone actually speaking like that. Some of the descriptions were also too over the top. I'm usually able to suspend belief for sci-fi but for some reason I struggled with the concept of EVERYTHING becoming heightened to perfection; some examples pushed the boundaries of believability too far like being able to detect the exact velocity of moving items. Another example I highlighted was "Suddenly I was seven feet off the floor, lifted as if I weighed nothing. And thrown - sailing through the air for .85 second." I was annoyed by the constant details like this that made sure you didn't forget this guy was upgraded. I wanted to gloss over all of the science details. They felt so extra. I like sci-fi and am usually pro-details but they detracted here for me. They felt thrown in as random facts to showcase the author's research and crazy science knowledge, or else remind you that yes, this guy is now a super human.

I loved the epilogue which totally shifted my overall perception of the story back to the positive. It gets to the debate at the heart of the story but I still didn't see it coming. Thanks for the surprise and for tying it all up.

I thoroughly enjoyed Upgrade. It's exciting and, at times thought-provoking. Looking forward to his next book.

3/5 stars

The more I've sat on this book, the less I think Crouch really missed the mark. I think I was clouded by the quickness of the book, and didn't see how hamfisted a lot of what he was trying to say was. The tech was cool, but it worked against him with the characters by making them flat, and quite frankly, boring. I saw someone say that it felt this book was written strictly to get an adaption, and I can't say I disagree with the assessment. Here's to hoping his next outing is much better.

Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for the access to the digital ARC.
I finally read a Blake Crouch novel and if the rest are like this then I'm a fan. As a casual sci fi reader I found this was a perfect balance of science talk and character driven plot. Crouch manages to make me care about the main character and all of the crazy world changing events that are occurring. I loved the pacing, the storytelling and the ending is one of my favorites I've read all year.

This story set in the kinda near future feels familiar but also vastly different with it's tech and gene modifying abilities where we meet Logan in his job of hunting down those who break the gene laws. He is subjected to an attack during one of the raids and indeed this is where our "upgrade" comes into play as he then undergoes a vast change in his mentality and physical abilities. This triggers multiple events that he had no idea about and is now in the center of.

One of the most interesting aspects to me is his mentality and how it is affected by the upgrade. I had the pleasure of also reading The Daughter of Doctor Moreau at the same time as this and was fascinated at the juxtaposition of the two stories and how they felt so different but also similar. These stories ask us what makes a human? How does technology affect our humanity? Why are humans so cruel to each other? What is the effect of family on us? What makes a family?

The global scale and Logan's intelligence but also ability to hang onto his heart added to my enjoyment as this could have devolved into a grim picture of the future. I can't say much about the plot without spoiling but it was exciting and disturbing and though provoking and I would highly recommend to others who enjoy relatable sci fi with the pacing of an action movie.

The premise of the book was intriguing. I've read some of his titles before. I enjoyed this book and I think those who have read his other titles would enjoy it also, but it felt more like an action thriller than sci-fi. Oddly enough, even though it seemed more like an action thriller the sci-fi part was bogged down with the sometimes over explained scientific theories.

This book was everything I've come to love and expect from a Blake Crouch novel. Crouch has this crazy ability to fill a book with so many words and ideas and algorithms that I do NOT understand, but somehow still make sense to me. I loved how in addition to the scientific aspects of this book, it presented a moral issue - with both Logan and Kara believing they're doing the right thing, and myself finding aspects of both their ideas that sound logical. I really really truly loved this story and I can't wait to see what's next for him.

Thank you to Netgalley, Blake, and Ballantine for an advance copy of Upgrade.

In a future world where biological warfare has become very different than what we think of when we hear that phrase now, there is a gene mutation that elevates everything about human beings. They’re smarter, faster, stronger, need less sleep, less medicine, and less assistance with anything. Logan’s genome has been hacked, but due to his knowledge in gene therapy as the son of a woman who nearly destroyed the world with a failed genetic mutation as well as his work with the government agency, the Gene Protection Agency, he’s able to recognize what’s happening to him after a short time. As he discovers what’s going on and who may be behind it, the terrifying realization of the suspects plan sends him on a mission to reverse his own upgrade and stop a world-changing disaster.

Okay, if you’ve never read a Blake Crouch book, do it. At this point he is an auto-buy, typically five star author for me. He manages to write horrifying speculative fiction, heavy enough in science to be called sci-fi and make me walk away feeling like I’ve learned something and visited an alternate version of our current world while also painting an intimate portrait of the main character(s) and drawing us in to celebrate and mourn alongside them.

Blake does a great job balancing the word vomit of science jargon and making it easily digestible and sprinkled in so that it’s not an info dump that loses people who don’t care as much about the details of the science in the world he’s created. I know the title science fiction can be intimidating and a turn off to some readers, but I feel like if they disregard this book based on that genre, they are truly missing out on a great story full of emotion.

The idea of gene amplification feels so far-fetched and yet somehow also right around the corner in today’s world. Science is such a powerful study with the ability to cause intense destruction or extreme growth, depending on the hands that it is in. Reading this book was like reading a more realistic version of Captain America’s evolution, with much scarier results.

My first Blake Crouch book and he did not disappoint. Hold onto your hats this was a wild ride. Would definitely recommend.

This was good! I like Blake Crouch’s brand of scientific thrillers. I can’t tell you if the science in this story is completely accurate or not but I can tell you that the story was incredibly exciting and I was entertained. I know that I have heard debates about whether we should be altering genes and liked that this book took the possibilities of gene altering to the next level.

I liked Logan a lot. He works for the GPA, Gene Protective Agency, which works to stop rogue scientists from doing work with genes. On a raid, he is knocked out and ends up in the hospital. He goes home and starts to notice that he is able to do things he couldn’t before. Eventually, he finds out that he has been upgraded and seems to be improving every day. That is just the start of things getting weird. This book was really exciting and kept me guessing. Once I started this book, I did not want to stop and ended up finishing it in just a couple of days.

I believe that this is the first time that I have had the chance to listen to Henry Levya’s narration and I must say that I am impressed. I found his voice very easy to listen to and did just that for hours at a time. I thought that he added a lot of excitement to the story and I liked the character voices that he used. I would not hesitate to listen to this narrator’s work again in the future.

I would recommend this book to others. I didn’t like this one quite as much as Dark Matter or Recursion but I did find it to be a very solid thriller. I do hope to read more of this author’s work in the future.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Ballantine Books via NetGalley and borrowed a copy of the audiobook from my local library.

I am a self proclaimed Blake Crouch super fan! I went into this with extremely high expectations because of how much I loved Dark Matter and the Science Fiction writing with this thriller layer!

In Upgrade we follow Logan Ramsey who, after a raid ends with an explosion, starts experiencing changes. Changes in his physical and mental sense. It starts to feel like he could be a Guinea pig towards something far greater than he could ever think.

I really enjoy how Blake Crouch writes his MCs. They seem to be so loving and feel with their full heart towards their family. Logan had this compelling nature to him, but some of the things he did just didn’t seem like like they made sense as a whole to the story. I had moments of asking why…why were the characters doing this?
It could have been because of how the earth had changed in the time prior to the story that was mentioned. This did not deter from the overall enjoyment of the story I just felt like pieces were missing sometimes.

There was a slight pacing issue in the middle of the book and that could be why I felt things missing.

I count this as a win for Blake Crouch because even with the problems I had I enjoyed myself a lot while reading. Also love a science lesson from his books and not realizing it!

4/5

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review!

Human nature will be the last of Nature to surrender to Man. The battle will then be won. We shall have "taken the thread of life out of the of the hand of Clotho" and be henceforth free to make our species whatever we wish it to be. The battle will indeed be won. Who , precisely, will have won it. C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

To save humanity, I needed my humanity.

I am taking a deep breath because This. just. took. my. breath. away. I am dating myself but when I was in Junior High a new author came into the scene. We didn't have as many books as we do now. Different authors to choose from, different genres. But the book was Carrie, then the Shining and what had taken the bar higher was the Stand by Stephen King. Blake Crouch is his own. I am not comparing his writing style to King but what I am saying is he will take your breath away because it will conjure up many feelings of hope, fear and what the future holds. You will see our world align with the prose of Upgrade and it is horrifying.

The short premise is the future. The world has changed. Climate change, wars, and of course the power struggle. I can say that I felt this was not politically motivated but only stating what is in our current news. One thing that is frightening but has not been in the main news stream is the threat of DNA being used as a weapon. The government is warning not use 23&me for your DNA. This is what the premise is on DNA warfare. The main protagonist Logan Ramsay works for a government branch the Gene Protection Agency. He loves his family above all else. He has paid for his name because of his mother and what she did in the great famine trying to save the world. His daughter never got to meet her because of her untimely death. Logan is in Denver because of a hit of a possible gene interference. The altercation leaves him in a trap and his DNA changed forever. It also takes away his family, his job, and his purpose. It ultimately leads him to find out who is behind changing his DNA, why and what he does to stop it.

This book really makes you think about what we can really change. Do we make things worse with changes. Do we take humanity out with these changes. I look at the world in a Christian world view. I find it interesting that this book did not use God once in the prose but did use a C.S Lewis quotation that I put above. It also was a great reminder for me the reason why Jesus came as a man. He came as a human to save us from ourselves. I don't think Crouch was writing this to solidify why we need Jesus but the simple fact that when we play God, we dehumanize mankind. Whomever you worship, you are forced to answer how are you playing God and in doing so, how do I dehumanize others.

A special thank you to Random House Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

Blake Crouch never fails to swoon me with the way he can take on a complex scientific subject and make it understandable, intriguing, and most importantly a rich, enjoyable, engaging reading experience. This book is a plea to humanity to do better. I see it as a reflection of our current existence and a possibility of what may come if we keep the status quo. I learned so much about genetics in this book and he has us pondering the question: What does it really mean to be human? Thank you, Blake Crouch, for enlightening me and thrilling me!

Absolutely fantastic. Blake Crouch has done another great job of creating something that keeps you reading.

I was provided a review copy from Blake Crouch's publicist Dyana in exchange for an honest review. Once again, Crouch proves that he is the heir apparent to Michael Crichton in his most science-heavy adventure yet. Another absolute thrill ride where you cannot stop turning the pages. Like Mr. Crichton, he presents the idea of technology that is just right around the corner and present s the question of if this is something humankind should be messing with.

Full video review here: https://youtu.be/1YP389Ums6g