4.5 stars. Recursion (2019) begins with a dual timeline in alternating chapters, a familiar literary approach, but then splinters into razor-sharp time shards as the characters deal with the explosive consequences of a new technology relating to personal memory.

In November 2018, detective Barry Sutton attempts to prevent a woman from jumping from the 41st floor of a New York City tower. The woman, Ann, tells him she has False Memory Syndrome (FMS), a new affliction in which a person remembers an entirely different past for themselves, like their memory branched at a certain point in the past. The memories, though vivid, are in shades of gray. Ann’s conviction that she’s lost a life in which she had a happy marriage and a nine-year-old son was so compelling that she searched for ― and found ― the man she remembered marrying, who said he didn’t recognize her, though Ann is convinced he did. Barry, deeply curious, begins his own investigation of Ann’s past, and it leads him to danger as well as a to a chance to rectify a terrible event in Barry’s own life.

In October 2007, neuroscientist Helena Smith, haunted by her mother’s gradual loss of her memories due to Alzheimer’s, has dedicated her life and career to researching ways to preserve memories. She dreams of building a chair that will incorporate technology to record and project memories. Unexpectedly, Helena is visited by a stranger who offers her millions of dollars in funding if she’ll come to an off-shore research facility (a converted oil rig) to continue her memory studies and technology development. She’s met there by Marcus Slade, a billionaire business magnate and investor, who takes a suspiciously deep interest in Helena’s research. Helena’s research takes a turn toward the ominous, as Marcus pushes her research testing in directions she hadn’t foreseen.

In Recursion, author Blake Crouch stretches the concept of memory preservation into a technology that affects the very fabric of reality, expanding that idea to explore its most chilling, unintended consequences. Barry and Helena’s race against both personal enemies and time itself are gripping. Although I couldn’t entirely suspend disbelief in the pseudoscience, Crouch does a laudable job of giving it a plausible basis in quantum physics.

“You really believe time is an illusion?”

“More like our perception of it is so flawed it may as well be an illusion. Every moment is equally real and happening now, but the nature of our consciousness only gives us access to one slice at a time.… Some other moment, an old memory, is just as much now as this sentence I’m speaking, just as accessible as walking into the room next door. We just needed a way to convince our brains of that.”

The pace of Recursion picks up steadily until terrifying events are occurring at breakneck speed. My other beef with the science is that the final resolution of the plot relies on a particular quirk of the technology that was a just a little too convenient, and doesn’t really stand up to close examination. These are fairly minor quibbles, though. It’s an outlandish plot, but you just need to suspend disbelief and roll with it.

Though the focus of Recursion is on the action and suspense, Barry and Helena are engaging main characters with difficult problems in their lives that motivate their actions. There’s also a brief cameo by Amor Towles, who seems to have an alternative life and career in the pages of this book, that made me smile (as well as wonder what the connection is between these two authors).

Readers who enjoyed Crouch’s previous techno-thriller, Dark Matter, will probably have just as much fun with Recursion. There are some distinct style and theme similarities between the two books, but the plots are different enough that Recursion doesn’t feel like a retread. It kept me glued to my seat and reading far, far too late into the night.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas and Crown Publishing for an ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts.

You know, if you'd ask me, I'd say I really don't like science fiction. Then I read books by Blake Crouch--usually categorized as science fiction--and I love them! Either Crouch is just a great story teller (I think this is true) or my notion of genre needs to be more flexible (also probably true). At any rate, this was another page-turner by Crouch that I couldn't put down.

One of the things I've found with Crouch is that he is very good at character development. Despite the plot line, I always feel strongly for his characters and become connected to them. At the same time, he's able to write a thriller into his science-heavy novels. Some others have noted the change of pace in the last part of this book; yes, I felt that too. However, any distance I felt from the characters at that point was replaced with an anxiety to find out how this mess would turn out and, hence, it kept me turning the pages.

I don't want to talk much about the plot--it's best to uncover it as Crouch presents it in this one. Though I will mention one small point: I've always been fascinated by the Mandela Effect and was intrigued to see it briefly discussed here along with an interesting suggestion of what might cause it. Overall, this is another winner by Crouch. It's a fun, fast, intense read. Enjoy the twists and turns, don't work too hard to follow everything down this particular rabbit hole, and have fun.

I don't usually read fantasy novels and tend to stick within the thriller genre. I finished RECURSION in just a few days. When a chair is invented, with the original intent of helping Alzheimer's patients, that allows a person to go back in time to a past memory. When this chair falls into the wrong hands, Helena, the creator of the chair, must outmaneuver government officials that want to yield the chair's immense power for their own agendas. This book is mind-blowing and heart-pounding all the way through, it honestly read like an episode of Black Mirror! I'll definitely read more by Blake Crouch.

Dark Matter and Recursion are two of my favorite books of the last several years. Recursion is a thrilling page-turner, but it is also a compelling love story and a thought-provoking examination of the ethics of time travel and what it means to live your best life.

I loved Crouch's novel Dark Matter, which is also a twisty time-bending novel, but this book just blew me away. I read it on a long car ride and couldn't put it down despite feeling a little car sick from reading. There are some similarities with Recursion and Dark Matter, namely how the main character is taken against their will and forced to move through time (and space), but both scenarios make sense for their respective stories. I was riveted from the very beginning of Recursion, taken in by the characters and the unique way he looks at time-travel (and how it affects the world at large).. When we got home from the trip and I only had two pages left to read I sat in the car to finish! I'll be thinking about this book for a long time to come; it makes you think about how our actions impact so much more than just the space in which we inhabit. I also saw that the book has been snapped up by Netflix. WOW can't wait to see that!

Thanks Netgalley and Crown for the early read!

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.