Let's open Blake Crouch's head and see what's inside. I mean it; I need to see the mechanism in his brain that produces the ideas that propel his books, Dark Matter, and now, Recursion. No, I didn't know what it meant either. Recursion is the process of repeating items in a self-similar way. In programming languages, if a program allows you to call a function inside the same function, then it is called a recursive call of the function. The word derives from mathematics and linguistics. The action in this fascinating novel derives from Helena, a brilliant mathematician, and Barry, a New York City police detective. And there's a villain. But the beating heart of the book is the idea that time is fungible, elastic and it's possible to re-live your life. What a great way to remove regrets, to right wrongs, to undo disasters and other bad things. The rub is Unintended Consequences and boy, these are consequential. Anyway, it's a fun read about a deep subject and you will want to join me when I open up Blake's head -- metaphorically, of course!

RECURSION
Blake Crouch
Crown Publishing
ISBN 978-1-5247-5978-0
Hardcover
Thriller/Science Fiction

RECURSION by Blake Crouch is stunning. It is impossible to put down once you start reading it. Crouch sinks the hook early on --- within the first paragraph or two --- by starting things out as if RECURSION might be a police procedural before he turns it into a philosophical and science-based work that makes one reconsider everything they think they know about reality. That he does all of this within a little over three hundred pages and explains the loftier nooks and crannies of quantum physics in an understandable manner makes RECURSION all the more miraculous. And miraculous it is.

The propulsion that drives RECURSION at rocket speed is something called “false memory syndrome,” which has been acknowledged for well over a quarter century. It describes a condition in which a person’s memory and/or relationships are affected to varying degrees by memories that are factually incorrect but which they nonetheless strongly believe. The syndrome is out there, and I mean out there, in RECURSION, as demonstrated when a policeman named Barry Sutton attempts to talk a woman down from a suicide attempt driven by memories of another different and arguably better life. Sutton, who is troubled by the incident, does some research on the woman and what she described. It leads him to a home in Long Island, then to a private hotel in Manhattan. What occurs there changes his life, putting him on an intersection course with a Helena Smith, a neuroscientist specializing in memory research. The narrative in RECURSION switches back and forth between Sutton’s and Smith’s respective viewpoints at different points in time. Smith, whose research has been sparked by her mother’s devastating battle with Alzheimer’s disease, is attempting to find a way to preserve memories in order to restore them. She receives funding from an enigmatic, driven entrepreneur and achieves her goal, but with consequences so devastating that everything changes, and not just for herself and her mother. By the time that Smith realizes what has happened things have deteriorated to the point where only she can correct the course that she originally started, if, in fact, it can be fixed at all. Sutton is there to help --- in ways that are expected and otherwise --- and with the assistance of a theory from an unexpected source there is a chance that things can be made right, if what is “right” can be determined. The answer, as one finds while reading RECURSION, isn’t always clear.

RECURSION will scare the heck out of you. Crouch’s exploration of reality here is on a par with Philip K. Dick. I was put in the mind of Dick’s novel UBIK, as well as Ursula K. LeGuin’s THE LATHE OF HEAVEN and “The Monkey’s Paw” by W. W. Jacobs. The end result of RECURSION, however, is all Crouch, who combines hard science, horror, and mystery with a touch of a love story --- a couple of love stories, actually --- to create an unforgettable work on this and all other timelines. There is no reason to delay or deny yourself the pleasure of reading RECURSION immediately. As for Crouch...he will need to clear off his mantle to accommodate the trophies that will surely come his way for this stunning work, which is perfect in every way. Very strongly recommended.

Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
© Copyright 2019, The Book Report, Inc. All rights reserved.

This has to be one of the most original and ingenious books I’ve read in a very long time. Recursion by Blake Crouch, as it stands, is my favourite book I’ve read this summer.

Helena Smith is a brilliant scientist who is on the cusp of ground breaking new technology research on memories. In the hopes of preserving memories for people with Alzheimer’s, like her mother, she has developed a chair that will record memories and re-implant them. When her project receives a massive boost by a rich philanthropist, Helena questions if there is a darker motive for his interest.

Barry is a police officer in New York City who has had his fair share of incidents with False Memory Syndrome that has rapidly effecting people in New York. When he decides to take his own investigation a bit further, he has no idea what troubles of his past will come to light with Helena’s new project. What are the side effects of having our memories manipulated and replaced? And is it really worth replacing painful ones with new events?

This is a stunning science fiction thriller that really makes you think about the future of technology and how mankind will use it as a tool or a weapon. While the premise of this book is really out-there, and sometimes complicated, I found myself trying to wrap my head around the scientific jargon and even trying to figure out how everything would all play out. Let me say, it is not at all how I imagined it would end!

What really drew me into the book were the two parallel characters, Helena and Barry. At first I didn’t see how they went together, but when they did, I was rooting for them until the end. Having diverse and even entertaining dialogue throughout made it light-hearted at times too, which was needed. Crouch outdid himself, again, with the characters, plot and even the writing. I couldn’t put this one down and finished it in one sitting!

Even though I’m not a huge fan of science fiction, Recursion by Blake Crouch takes you on a thought-provoking journey filled with suspense, tension and even a little romance! I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for something that is going to stay with them long after reading it! I didn’t think my mind could take another mind-f**k after reading Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter, but little did I know Recursion came in for dirty seconds! This is thrilling, addictive and mind bending — you’re going to love every second of it!

Thank you to NetGalley, Crown Publishing and Blake Crouch for an ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

This book was excellent. It's a science fiction book about a woman whose mother has Alzheimer's. So, she works on building a chair that can help preserve her memories. Unfortunately, it falls into the wrong hands and chaos ensues. I couldn't put it down once I started. It was very fast paced and not at all confusing. It is well written and the characters are all likable.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

I couldn't put down Blake Crouch's Recursion. I finished this book in four days. I started out casually reading it, but then got sucked into the premise and the storyline.

Recursion is about the importance of our memories. They give us the sense of permanence and our identity. But what happens when memories can simply change and you can no longer trust them? In the book, a brilliant scientist figures out a way to go back and alter them so people don't have to deal with tragedy in their lives and what follows is even more tragic.

Wow, Blake Crouch has done it again! I didn’t think there was any way he could top the mind blowing reading experience of Dark Matter, but man, was I wrong…He really outdoes himself with his latest novel, Recursion, a gripping sci-fi read that explores what happens when memory storing technology designed to potentially help Alzheimer’s patients retain some of their memories ends up in the wrong hands.

The story follows Barry Sutton, a NYC police detective, and Helena Smith, a gifted neuroscientist. Barry is sent to an address in New York where a woman is threatening to kill herself. She has False Memory Syndrome, or FMS, a somewhat new phenomenon that keeps popping up more and more frequently. People who contract FMS suddenly develop a complete set of memories of a life that they haven’t actually lived. The false memories are so vivid and detailed that they seem real, which causes those who have the condition to become completely confused about what is real and what isn’t. The woman Barry has been sent to talk down from the roof suddenly started believing that she was happily married to a man that she really wasn’t. The memories were so convincing that she sought out the man and discovered that he was happily married to someone else and had a family of his own. Devastated by this discovery and armed with the knowledge that she’s really all alone in the world, she decides she doesn’t want to live. Barry gets a taste of just how closely our memories dictate our reality and how it can all fall apart if we can’t trust those memories.

Eleven years prior to our meeting Barry, Helena Smith is hard at work trying to develop a technology that she hopes will help Alzheimer’s patients, including her own mother, retain some of their memories. When a wealthy benefactor offers her nearly unlimited funding to fast track her research, Helena can’t resist. All goes fantastically until she and her benefactor start testing the technology on live subjects and see all of its possibilities, both good and bad. Fast forward eleven years and we can see firsthand the bad that can come of it and we see Helena’s and Barry’s journeys intertwine as they come together to try to stop what Helena has inadvertently set into motion.

What made Recursion such a phenomenal read for me was how Crouch manages to take this fictional memory storing technology, which, at first, sounds outrageous and completely impossible, and he transforms it into a scenario that seems completely plausible. And because it actually does seem plausible, it starts to feel a little less like science fiction and a little more like a glimpse into our future. The fact that there are potentially catastrophic consequences lends the story a real sense of urgency and ratchets up the tension and suspense. The emotional and sometimes desperate reactions of those who are impacted by all of this mucking around with memories felt completely authentic too. I sympathized with them so much and found myself wondering how I would react if I was in their shoes. I loved that added emotional layer.

Crouch had me so caught up in this story that I was up until nearly 2a.m.one night because I just couldn’t go to sleep until I knew how the story was going to end. I kind of hated myself the next day, but it was so worth it. Plus, the writing is so crisp and smooth that it just naturally lends itself to binge-reading it.

Recursion is a powerful and mind blowing read that I just know I’ll be thinking about for a long time to come. Aside from being a riveting page turner, it’s also a book that left me with some pretty major food for thought, namely the question of whether technology that has the potential to do an incredible amount of good is worth having if it also has the potential to do a devastating amount of bad if placed in the wrong hands. If you enjoyed Dark Matter, you’re going to love Recursion. And if you’re a science fiction fan, I highly recommend both novels. They made Blake Crouch an auto-buy author for me.

This book was given to me for free in exchange for a review on NetGalley.

I struggled, I really did, to like Dark Matter, and Recursion was something of an improvement in terms of the issues that plagued Dark Matter (self-seriousness about totally bogus science, women characters being idiotic/ornamental/clingy/implausible humans etc.). Crouch hasn't entirely fixed those issues here, but they're certainly much better. As long as you don't dwell too long on the gaping holes in logic, plot, and temporality, then you'll enjoy a fun, fast, and zippy read.

GoodReads interview with Blake Crouch: https://www.goodreads.com/interviews/...
'Memory is more fundamental than time. Memory is the actual thing that gives us the illusion of time.'

What if you could go back in time using a memory as a portal and change things that happened?

Helena Smith is a Stanford neuroscientist who is working on an invention she'd call an 'Immersive Platform for Projection of Long-Term, Explicit, Episodic Memories' if she succeeded. In layman's terms, she's hoping to build a 'memory chair' to help people with Alzheimer's disease like her mother retain their memories. She is quickly running out of grant money when she is offered a life-line to continue her experiments with no-limit funding by wealthy Marcus Slade. (Cue the dramatic music as the evil guy enters the stage.) Hint: his goals might not be what Helena has in mind.

Meanwhile in NYC, Detective Barry Sutton tries to stop a woman from jumping to her death from the 41st floor of a skyscraper. She explains to him that she has False Memory Syndrome: memories of another (and much better) life where she has a husband and son. And because she can't have that wonderful life, she'd just as soon end it all.

Afterwards, Barry starts to investigate using some of the details she gave him. He's finding some truth to her story. Other reports of FMS are coming in from around the country. What is going on? Is it contagious?

Barry's daughter was killed by a hit-and-run driver when she was 13. What if he could go back in time and prevent that from happening? What are consequences when you diddle around with time and memories?

These kinds of stories just fascinate me. The plot is complicated but hang in there--it's worth it. Strong characterizations drive this story. Crouch leads them to the apocalypse--can they figure out how to stop it?

I received an arc of this inventive thriller from the publisher via NetGalley. Many thanks for an enthralling read.

After <b>Dark Matter</b> I was scared to pick up this book. You see I really fμ¿¥!Ω LoVeD that book. I was excited for <b>Recursion</b> but didn't really see how Blake Crouch could come close to its mind bending awesomeness. But boy did he deliver! Once again I am blown away. I am certainly a fan of Mr. Crouch.<br /><br /><i>Special thanks to NetGalley, Crown Publishers and Blake Crouch for advanced access to this book.</i>

What a wonderful book! I was expecting a run of the mill sci-fi tale but ended up being blindsided by how good this was. Thrilling and very well written with a cool concept. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley, Crown Publishing, and the author for providing an advance copy for review.

In 2007 Marcus Slade finances neuroscientist Helena Smith's project to build a machine that allows people to relive their memories. With her work she is hoping to help others who suffer with Alzheimer's disease, like her mother.
In 2018 NYC detective Barry Sutton cannot keep a woman with FMS (False Memory Syndrome) from committing suicide.
He begins to investigate these occurrences of FMS, and joins Helena as they find out they are are related to the misuse of her creation.
Will they be able to save the world from these deadly consequences?
I am keeping this review synopsis a bit vague because I think the less you know about it before going in, the better.
This electrifying, mindbending technological thriller will keep you completely absorbed.
And the powerful, emotional relationships that are built within, it, are captivating.
This is not my usual genre, but in Blake Crouch's magical hands I am loving it!
I was a big fan of the author's first book Dark Matter and this one is even better!
Thank you to Crown/Archetype and NetGalley for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Mind: blown! 🤯 This book was SO good! I demolished it in two sittings. I was obsessed! My brain hurts a little.. but in a good way!

I’m not a big sci-fi gal but Blake Crouch has a way of luring me in his stories and I’m now second guessing myself.. maybe I AM into sci-fi books?! I loved Dark Matter last year and Recursion was just as good!

I love the way he pieces together this story, it’s almost like you’re trying to solve the puzzle with him! I was so excited to see what happened next that my heart was beating out of my chest in anticipation.

I had high hopes for this one and it did not disappoint! I loved every minute of this crazy ride. It’s out in stores now!

Thank you to @crownpublishing and @netgalley for providing a free advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so good! While I'm not normally a sci-fi reader - I make an exception when it is written by Blake Crouch because I loved Dark Matter.. This book just really blew my mind - What a gifted imagination and knack for writing this author has! I think i will be thinking about this book for a while - it was that good!

<em>Recursion</em> is crazy heaps of mind-melting, time-distorting, reality-altering fun, and I loved it start to finish.

Barry is our non-scientist entry into the world of playing with reality by activating memories. Helena is the scientist who makes it all possible. Her goal is to help her mother before she completely loses herself to Alzheimer's, but an innovative mega-millionaire realizes that Helena's invention can be so much more. When he funds her research, the best scientific minds are assembled to create the device at the heart of Helena's studies, a chair that enables people to save the synaptic imprints of vivid memories so that they can be re-experienced later, perhaps when those memories have been consumed by disease and deterioration.

I won't go deeper into plot than what I've already said. Through Barry and Helena's separate experiences, we learn about the research, the ulterior motives of Helena's benefactor, and the mind-boggling way in which her device can be put to use. The end results are far from what Helena intended or even dreamed... and from the reader's perspective, it's just so weird and cool. I came close to permanently tying my brain into a pretzel trying to follow some of the logic and cause-and-effect factors and timey-wimey shenanigans that get wilder and wilder as the book progresses. How crazy is it all? There are apocalypses. Yes, plural. Apocalypses.

At the same time that all this reality bending is going on, there are deep and beautiful relationships at stake, painful emotions and harsh truths, and some really intriguing thoughts about the role of memory and the meaning of experiences.

As I think is obvious by now, I completely fell for <em>Recursion</em> and have been recommending it like a madwoman ever since I finished it. And every time I got confused by a freakish time twist? I just remembered a comment of Helena's:
<blockquote>You have to stop thinking linearly.</blockquote>

I've always loved Blake Crouch's writing style. His books are fast-paced thrillers that pull you in from the first page. The Wayward Pines Trilogy. Run. Abandon. Dark Matter. They're all amazing books. Honestly, he never disappoints . . . and Recursion is no exception. Although my head was spinning from all of the science and time-travel logic, I loved the book and thought it raised the stakes with regards to time travel in a really interesting way. Great characters. Great pacing. Definitely a must-read book for the summer! Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was so goooood! Not my usual genre but I have read another book by this author and loved it so I thought WHY NOT? THIS WAS EVEN BETTER!!! Heart stopping and thrilling...great concept.

Where do I even begin?? This book had my brain doing gymnastics from beginning to end. I knew I was walking into a story of time travel, but I had no idea the levels to which Crouch was going to take us. I doubt I even caught/understood all of the nuances that he provided as we watched Barry, Helena, and Marcus start, end, and restart lifetimes.

I love a novel that makes my brain think and wonder and stretch its limits...especially about concepts that we believe cannot happen or do not exist. Recursion did just that.

SPOILERS AHEAD











While this book was absolutely riveting, a true page-turner, I was a bit... put-off? annoyed? with the final page before we reach the epilogue. I felt like so much thought was put into this very intricate storyline only to have Barry have a bit of a “Come to Jesus” meeting with himself at the end.

He thinks he may be dying. He’s reliving his many, many lifetimes.

“I don’t want to look back anymore. I’m ready to accept that my existence will sometimes contain pain. No more trying to escape, either through nostalgia or a memory chair. They’re both the same fucking thing.”

Had he stopped there, I would have been fine. It’s a good realization to come to...a natural one. However, the next few lines felt like our life-lesson from the book was being delivered to us on a platter instead of letting the reader glean it from the story itself.

“Life with a cheat code isn’t life. Our existence isn’t something to be engineered or optimized for the avoidance of pain.
That’s what it is to be human-the beauty and the pain, each meaningless without the other.”

So much excellent build-up and work, only to have it cheapened with a spoon-fed moral.

Sigh.

It’s okay, the epilogue makes up for it – it’s the ending we were all hoping for.

Solid 4.5 Stars

Thank you to Crown Publishing & NetGalley for the digital copy to review.

I love sci-fi and have ventured in many a story exploring memory; Recursion is the best of them. Memory, changed memories, and changing realities are tricky things to write about. It's easy to get confused when you're following an "everything was not what it seemed" kinda story. Yet Recursion was executed so well; I was able to follow the concepts and stay engaged, and still continue to be surprised as events unfurled.

What is False Memory Syndrome? How is it spreading? Why/how are the consequences so devastating? How much longer can the world tolerate looping through recursive memories and realities before everyone goes completely crazy? These questions kept me plowing through this adventure.

Recursion was as mind-bending as Inception; I'll have to give it a reread eventually and create an infographic to straighten out the timelines in my head! I'll also have to read more Blake Crouch; I'm thinking of going for Dark Matter!

NYPD Detective Barry Sutton arrives on the scene of an attempted suicide by jumping. It is not his beat but he is the first one there. Must be a reason for that…When the woman tells him about her “false memory syndrome” and the memories that she had from another life before she dies, something sticks with him. He begins to look into it and uncovers more than he could ever imagine.

Helena Smith is working on a chair to enhance memories. Her mother has Alzheimer’s and she is hoping to preserve her memories. When Marcus Slade comes in the picture offering her more money and resources than she can imagine, she jumps at the chance. But Slade has other plans for the chair.

Thus begins our memory/time travelling story and I have to tell you, I was utterly confused and utterly fascinated! It reminded me of Ian Malcolm (the wonderful Jeff Goldblum) in Jurassic Park saying “but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn’t stop to think if they should.” The eagerness to discover the unimaginable leads to complete mayhem. I had to stop a few times because the time jumping was crazy and trying to remember just where or when something happened was making my head spin. Yet, I kept turning the pages. This is a fascinating look into science. It is a fascinating look at humanity. Don’t we all have things we would go back and change? If I was Barry, I would have went back too. I have to say that the underlying thing that kept me reading was the love story. It was unexpected and the ending was perfect.

Thanks to Netgalley and Crown Publishing for a copy of this book.

I'm finding it difficult to articulate my thoughts on this book. It felt like a video game, like you should be able to pause the action, open up some fourth-wall-breaking menu and read up on some supplementary material in order to understand what's happening in the present. I guess you don't have to, but reading that little blurb makes everything make more sense. Of course, this is a book and doesn't have that option.

I'm very open about the fact that I didn't like Pines or Dark Matter. I found them unnecessarily violent and confusing for the sake of confusion, dumbed down just enough that the story can be crammed into book form but not enough to actually make sense.

In Recursion, that wasn't the case. The attempts to explain the technology made my suspension of disbelief crumble to pieces (seriously, when the technology is first presented I knew immediately that we were entering a realm of "for the rest of the book, we'll have absolutely no idea what's happening"). Then we bring Helena and Barry together, but we never get the foundation for that togetherness. We don't get Helena's original meeting with Barry, we don't get any of the four months that jump-start the meat of the conflict.

The last 30% of the book shows Barry and Helena reliving one day over and over again, but all the preceding time was told in tiny snatches of summary, leaving me feeling jostled and unmoored. This book should have been longer, so we could actually get at least a little bit of this foundational material. Because for the whole remainder of the book, I was unable to settle into the present action, because I couldn't get over the fact that I had no idea what the basis of their relationship was.

I did really enjoy the structure, particularly at the end, as memories come flooding in and overwhelm people, as the world devolves into chaos. I think I personally would have benefited a lot from more of Helena's perspective in the last big chunk. It was hard to understand her as a character from the perspective of someone who only knows a small piece of her