Blake Crouch’s latest novel navigates the reader through the interesting theory of intellectual upgrade and evolution. What would happen to humanity if we suddenly could process things at unheard of levels? Would we lose our “humanity?” Would we become less empathetic and more stonewalled from emotion connections?

The novel explores that and much more. Logan, our protagonist, is given an upgrade. As expected the U.S. government is a bit weary of this intellectually supreme human. On the other end is the notion that something has to be done otherwise humanity will eclipse past the brink of extinction.

I enjoyed this one. It was at times a bit to jargon-filled but overall one of the better books I’ve read this year.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballentine for this ARC. Blake Crouch is a great writer that has the ability to keep you drawn in. I constantly found myself needing to know what happens next.

I loved the dystopian setting of the book. It was easy to see how something similar could actually become reality in the future. The main character Logan finds himself purposely attacked and infected with an unknown virus. As his body and mind start changing, he needs to figure out why, how, and who. As an "Upgraded" version of himself, we follow along as he tries to save all of humanity.

Although the writing was good and the storyline interesting, I always find myself feeling a bit unsatisfied/unfulfilled by Crouch's stories. I think science fiction is a hard genre for me to review because I think it will be very hard for anything to stand up against Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

…and when Pandora opened the jar, multitudes of evil and mayhem were unleashed onto the world. The one item left trapped inside was hope…

In the near future our messing around with DNA and gene manipulation have caused so much havoc that a whole new governmental Gene Protection Agency has been created. Any work on genes is illegal now and researchers and scientists are being aggressively prosecuted. Logan Ramsey is an agent for the GPA, having once served time in prison for his work. Not coincidentally, his mother’s work in the science was unintentionally but directly responsible for the death of millions. She drove off of a cliff to her death, leaving Logan cursed with the legacy of Ramsey’s Famine.

Logan is attacked by a boobytrap while leading a raid on a suspected gene lab. While he seems to have recovered, little aftereffects develop. Physical and mental powers begin strengthening. Someone has messed with his DNA and he is both enthralled and terrified. Inevitably his government employers have taken a keen notice.

Is this mutation a good or a bad thing? Logan may be in a position to replicate these changes in others. Is the tampering with the mind necessary for our survival? The world in “Upgrade” is in a precarious position. New York City has been flooded and is now a giant homeless encampment. Miami is uninhabitable. Global warming is just one of the many threats to the planet. Is a radical transformation of man’s intelligence the only shot we have at saving ourselves?

“Upgrade” zooms along as a thriller without getting bogged down by a heavy handed techno-speak. The science is explained in a reader friendly manner with relatively few points where you want to gloss over the details. There is a code-breaking sequence where I took a leap of faith and accepted the logic without caring to verify it (okay, that is how you solved this Rubik’s cube, I believe you). These types of passages were minimal, however, and did not slow down the flow.

Blake Crouch has given us a suspenseful sci-fi thriller which poses thought provoking issues. I particularly appreciated his main character’s conclusions at the novel’s end. Highly recommended.

Thank you to Random House Publishing, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for providing the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review. #Upgrade #NetGalley

For all of the hype Blake Crouch gets… I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he used all his mind-blowing twists in his two most popular Sci-Fi books, Dark Matter and Recursion. But for a first attempt at his works, Upgrade was remarkably unremarkable. This is one of those books that is going to fall into the very specific genre of “written during the 2020 peak uncertainty era of the pandemic.” It’s impossible to read the discussion around a manufactured, catastrophic genetic modification released onto the Earth that decimated the population and not draw the conspiracy theorist parallels.

Pandemic aside, there’s other reasons why this book never sat quite right with me. For one, the entire Sci-Fi element of the story being a genetic modification that provides its “victims” with heightened intelligence, faster reflexes, and the ability to detach from their emotions reads with a weird sense of wish fulfillment. It has the same energy of a man telling you with their full chest that they have a high degree of emotional intelligence while you nod along and privately tell yourself that anyone who would say such a thing lacks any kind of emotional intelligence. Logan is an uninteresting character to follow, and his emotional detachment reads more as convenient sociopathic tendencies that allow him to move the plot along without being bogged down by pesky emotions rather than him being an actual human being.

Don’t get me wrong though, this book is not poorly written. Or poorly paced, or poorly researched. I obviously can’t speak to any of the actual biological science mumbo jumbo being explained, but it reads in a way that’s clear Crouch at least put a modicum of thought and a fair amount of research into it. And I really did love Logan’s backstory that tied him to the onset of the events that initially destroyed the Earth’s population and how that drives him to try and save it. I just wish the author did more with the implications of this guilt, rather than remove all of the character’s emotions in the “upgrade.”

In the end, Upgrade was a disappointing introduction to Crouch’s oeuvre, but not a bad one. I’m convinced I’ll have better luck with his other works and can understand how he has created such a cult following in the Sci-Fi space. His writing and plotting are fast-paced and approachable. It’s just this book in particular that reads as too much of a “2020 pandemic book” that made the entire experience feel a little... dated.

Thank you to the publisher Ballantine Books for providing an e-ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

Logan Ramsey works for GPA, the government's Gene Protection Agency. While on a case, he becomes injected with a gene that changes his whole DNA makeup. Soon, he is more alert, can do multiple task at a time, and remember everything!
He has to decide should the human race be changed to this type of human? Physically, Logan hurts everywhere, but his brain is sharper than ever. It’s a true dilemma! Who was responsible for the genetic altering ice bomb? How is he being altered, and for what purpose? When Logan is kidnapped from an observation laboratory, the purpose of the virus injection becomes apparent, and he must make a difficult decision. What will he do?
Parts of this book were gripping and I easily read them while others became a bit too technically scientific for me and I found myself rereading, trying to process unfamiliar information.
I’ve come to the conclusion that sadly sci-fi is just not really for me. The majority of the science parts were so overly confusing. I"m not dumb by any means but I found myself skipping most of the sections about genes that I didn’t understand at all.
Sadly, I don't feel like this lived up to his other two books. I didn't hate it by any means, but I had a hard time connecting to Logan. Perhaps that was because of the upgrade that he felt emotionless and apart from the
As with his other stories, I will say this one will have you thinking about the what ifs long after the last page.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group Ballantine Books for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest sci-fi thriller by the one and only, Blake Crouch

Upgrade was my first book by Blake Crouch, and it will not be my last! A twisty sci-fi thriller with a frightening and thought-provoking plot involving the manipulation of human genetics or "upgrades."
Logan Ramsey works for the GPA - Gene Protection Agency. He and his colleagues track down rogue scientists who engage in gene editing. Logan's deceased mother, Miriam, was a brilliant scientist whose work left a dark and devastating legacy. And then, strange things start happening to Logan. His senses are sharpening, his abilities and intelligence are increasing, and his strength is growing. Logan's genome has been hacked, and he's now been upgraded. But by whom and for what purpose? Logan's new strengths make him the perfect person to figure that out. So he faces a race against the clock to stop a dangerous and potentially deadly plot targeting all humanity.
An action-packed story with an intriguing take on climate issues and the human condition, this book chillingly ponders human genetic engineering as well as scientific hubris and ethics. Set in the near future, the ethical questions it raises are insightful and timely. It's an imaginative, well-researched, and exciting read. Ideal summer reading that would make a great screen adaptation! I cannot wait to read more by this author! Thank you to NetGalley Random House Publishing Group Ballentine for the opportunity to review this ARC. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

4.5

This surprised me a little. It started out leaving me with the clear impression that this was an action adventure movie in book form. Digestible and exciting, but not deep or artful. But this ended up having more to it in the end.

I will say, the pacing didn't always work for me. I don't tend to love extended action scenes and did get a little bored a few times. There isn't really anything objectively wrong with the pacing, but it didn't always suit me.

There is also a lot of killing. Sometimes I doubted the righteousness of our main character as he effortlessly expends lives in a couple scenes.

However, what really won me over was the questions that this book raises. What does humanity need to save itself from extinction? Would increasing our collective intelligence help? At what cost?

It was also fun to read a story centered around genetics since I recently completed a genetics course. That's right, I already knew about telomeres. Ha! ;)

I really liked the conclusion of the book. I also really liked how I wasn't sure I always agreed with the hero. The "villain" kind of had a point..

Overall, the tone is light and adventurous, but still manages to ask some philosophical questions and work with some interesting science. I give my stamp of approval.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an advanced reader copy.

Sexual violence? No. Other content warnings? Lots of killing, torture, epidemic, medical stuff, needles, dysfunctional family (to put it lightly), genocide, guns, imprisonment.

✨Book Review✨

I’ve finally read my first Blake Crouch novel! I feel like @blakecrouch1 is one of those #bookstagram hyped authors. So, thank you to Crouch and @netgalley for the eARC.

Pub date: July 12, this coming Tuesday!

Imagine what it would be like to have all your senses heightened. Your mind sharper and your memory suddenly photographic.

Logan Ramsay feels this way after a bust gone awry. Someone has done this to him, but who and why? Logan’s transformation occurs over a period of time. As he assimilates, he uncovers a connected plot to “save humanity.” Will he help or hinder those involved?

I really liked this book! I’m not a big science fiction reader, but this one was highly enjoyable. I can’t wait to read Dark Matter and Recursion to catch up on all the Blake Crouch fuss.

Upgrade has a lot of big words. I found myself having to look up a lot of stuff. I learned a lot about DNA, if nothing else. Imagine a future in which designer DNA has resulted in worldwide famine and death. Further imagine that you were involved in it and your own mother basicaly caused it. That’s where we start. And then, as a parting gift, she performed massive DNA mutations on you to make you some sort of super human in order to save the world.

At times weighed down in scientific details, the story was fascinating and quick moving in between. I will admit to sometimes skimming over these descriptions as I got further along in the book. Still, Blake has a way with science fiction and the horrors that can come from good intentions.

This is an intriguing story. It is a scientific end of days plot. The plot is well constructed with great characters. Logan is a husband and father who works for the government tracking down people who break the genetic laws. The story turns when he becomes the one on the run and fighting for his life. It is an action packed ride as the fate of humanity lies in his hands.

An improvement on previous Crouch works to me! As always, I recommend going into Crouch's work as blind as possible because I feel it gives more to enjoy in the works. That being said, it can feel dense at times with the sci-fi elements while also feeling easy to follow because, well, thrilling.

First book I have read by Crouch and won't be the last. Fast paced from start to finish. A quick read. I started yesterday afternoon and finished around midnight. It was that good.

You may be wondering, if it was that good, why didn't I give it a 5 ⭐. There is a lot of scientific talk about genes that I found a little overwhelming. I understand why it was in the book, but someone who doesn't do science, it just kind of overwhelmed me. I guess it was information overload for my brain. I don't usually read this kind of book, but I am glad I did.

Logan Ramsey works for GPA, the government's Gene Protection Agency. While on a case, he becomes injected with a gene that changes his whole makeup. Soon, he is more alert, can do multiple task at a time, among other stuff. He has to decide should the human race be changed to this type of human. What will he do? Find out July 12, 2022.

Thanks to Netgalley, and Random House Publishing for a Kindle Version of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#netgalley
#randomhousepublishing

Many thanks to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group Ballantine Books for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest sci-fi thriller by the one and only, Blake Crouch - 5 stars!

In the future, humankind is struggling in the new world, caused by a combination of climate change and gene modification. Logan Ramsay works for the GPA (Gene Protection Agency). His plan of being a scientist was squashed when his mother unleashed a gene modification that caused devastation. Because Logan worked with her, he ended up in prison. In his new job, he apprehends those seeking to do dangerous genetic work. On his last job, he is hit with an explosion that caused an upgrade to him - he is now capable of amazing intellectual and physical strength. So much so that he becomes a target himself. But the real target is still out there and Logan is on the hunt.

I'm not a huge sci-fan fan, but this is Blake Crouch! His books are so amazing that they are absolute must reads for me. I don't know how his brain works - he definitely got an upgrade at some point - because each book takes you on a different path that immerses you in some new science while taking you on a thrill ride with lots of heart as well. This book will make you think and think hard - what have we done to our planet and species and can we right that ship without destroying ourselves? Do the ends justify the means? This book is highly recommended - don't miss it!

Blake Crouch does it again.

I’m really not sure how to verbalize how I felt about this book except for that it was exciting, fast paced and almost thriller like.

While I didn’t understand some of the “lingo” for some of the scientific upgrades this was easy to follow. I’m giving it 4.5 stars solely because I was not a fan of the epilogue. I felt like Logan went through everything to STOP his sister just to ultimately do what she and his mother were trying to do.

Thank you Netgalley & to the publisher (on mobile so I can’t pull it up easily to copy/paste) for this ARC by one of my favorite authors.

Blake Crouch again proves why he's an auto-buy author for me. He takes his brain-bending high concept that's shiny and mysterious but then surrounds it with characters you learn to care about. I loved this!

Such an appropriate title for this intriguing read about Logan, whose job requires him to seek out those scientists who are tampering with genetically altering genes. He gets caught on the wrong side of an ice ball that changes him forever. His recovery was fascinating, as was his growing realization that he had, in fact, been upgraded. He had “transcended to another level of being” His task became bigger than ever - saving the world.
Parts of this book were gripping and I easily read them while others became a bit too technically scientific for me and I found myself rereading, trying to process unfamiliar information - almost like reading a textbook in the midst of a novel.
I greatly appreciated the epilogue which again humanized Logan and brought to the forefront everything he had missed with Beth and Ava. His letter to them made me cry…but also made me question the possibilities he mentioned. Time will tell.
Many thanks to Blake Crouch who has opened my eyes to the marvels (and scariness) of genetically modified genes, Ballantine Books, and NetGalley for affording me the opportunity to read an arc of this sci-fi gem. Another winner for Blake Crouch.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, and Blake Crouch for allowing me to read the ARC of Upgrade, in exchange for an honest review

Living with viruses threatening our country, we can all relate to the challenges of one man, Logan Ramsay, whose mother has created an upgrade virus to peoples genomes, causing some people to change for better or worse, some to die. Logan races to stop his sister from completing their mothers work and do his best to save humanity. This is a thought-provoking book about how our country can do so much good, but turn around and demolish the good with evil. You will have plenty to think about when you are finished reading.

What a peculiar book.

I'm not sure if I disliked it but it has the same writing style as his other books where an attempt to have things seem like their going fast makes everything be

in

one

sentence

paragraphs, which, as you can probably tell, is a bit annoying. But you get over that quickly once you get into the thick of the story.

Because there is a lot, and we don't have TIME to go into the depths to characterizations. I am still a bit confused as to why the MC's sister Kara decided to do all this. Like, she went from never speaking to her mother to deciding to uphold her mother's viewpoints and try to upgrade the world? A big leap, I will admit!

I was honestly more interested in learning about the Mother and things about her. We obviously got snippets but like homegirl seemed off her rocker after the many things she did that lead up to this book.

But as an action thriller? I didn't love it. As a ... science... thriller? (Is that what you can call it?) I didn't love it.

Honestly, I've read all of Blake Crouch's books and this just might be the last one! I think Dark Matter was such a fast paced read that I enjoyed it but if I thought about it for five minutes, I didn't like it anymore. I don't remember Recursion at all despite reading it a few years ago.

So. Well. For a final book for me, it was absolutely fine.

Thank you Ballentine and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Blake Crouch is a master of taking science and turning it into both plausible and comprehensible science fiction. This book is no different. I am thrilled to have been offered a chance to read this early, it was well worth diving into.

This book is so amazingly good that I honestly don't know how to rave about it.
Crouch writes a near-future where geneticists can alter crops, animals, and people at will and it, of course, results in the death of millions and the beginning of a highly-regulated, police state. In the middle of it all is Logan Ramsay, the son of the geneticist who accidentally created a famine that killed millions. His guilt has him working for the agency that now polices scientists, but an attack now has him running for his life with the knowledge that he might just be the only one who can save humanity.
It's a page-turner full of very complex scientific terms that I didn't even mind because that's how into the story I was. There is action, emotionally impactful moments, moral quandaries, and points that will keep you thinking about them long after you turn the last page.
Trust me, this is one of the very rare books that deserve all the praise and more.

Very happy thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the phenomenal early read!