While I didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as Dark Matter, it was still a fun, fast-paced read. I liked Logan and thought his motivations and decisions made sense for him as a character. I enjoyed the arguments about the state of humanity and how to save us from ourselves. There is a lot of science jargon about DNA and the human genome and biology, but it was explained well and made everything seem that much more realistic.

While this book didn’t have quite as many twists and turns as the author’s previous books, the last third of the book rocketed toward the conclusion. As with Dark Matter and Recursion, this story played in my head like a sci-fi action movie and I could definitely see it being made into one. Overall, I enjoyed this and if you’re a fan of Dark Matter or Recursion or sci-fi thrillers that are heavy on the science, I would definitely check this one out.

Upgrade by Blake Crouch is a well written, easy to read story about the effect hacking genomes has on the world. Logan Ramsey has had a hard life. His mother, a once in a century genius did some hacking and killed over 200 million people. As a result, Logan spends some time in jail but eventually becomes an agent for the Gene Protection Agency and somehow, his genome is hacked and he becomes . . . better.
Good world building but the DNA discussions did approach I don't care land. Fast paced action plot. If you buy this book you bought a "hidden gem."

Imagine yourself being better? You are smarter, faster, needing less sleep, a very powerful machine. Is this the way the human race will eventually be, or are we doomed and the homo sapiens species will go out of existence in time.

This is the dilemma presented to us in Blake Crouch's book, The Upgrade. Our main character, Logan Ramsey, the son of a well- known scientist mother, finds himself a person who has been upgraded. Surely his dead mother, the vile perpetrator of a virus that devastated the earth, can't be behind this new state of humans and yet?

As is everything, untested well by scientists, anxious to permeate their findings. this new state of humans can also be detrimental to many. His sister becomes involved as she too, is a victim of an upgrade and sees nothing but benefits coming from this. However, Logan carries a much divergent view and sees this as it it, dangerous, ominous, and threatening. It arrives at a point where upgraded brother versus upgraded sister in the battle for all humanity to survive.

Filled with action, the edge of your seat kind, Logan strives to bring about the destruction of the upgrade genome change. Bereft of his family,because he fears for their survival, Logan takes on many as he finds those he once trusted might not be the ones he needs now.

Thoroughly enjoyable with lots of salient points especially about our human's capacity to feel empathy, I so enjoyed this story and thought its relevance in today's world spot on.

Thank you to Blake Crouch, and NetGalley for bringing this book to me. It published in July.

Blake Crouch does it again! His book ‘Dark Matter’ was the first sci-fi thriller I had ever read. From there — I was ruined. I couldn’t get my hands on his his work fast enough! As soon as I saw ‘Upgrade’ was available, I knew I had to get my hands on it. This book is thrilling and action-packed, in true Crouch form. It twists your mind and grips you through every moment until the very end.
I want to thank NetGalley for this ARC! Although it took me a bit longer to read - life! - I thoroughly enjoyed this and appreciate the opportunity to read this!

Blake Crouch’s books feel as if they are written to be adapted into movies. They are generally fast paced, thrilling, epic stories that leave an impression. For me, Upgrade didn’t have the same something that made Dark Matter and Recursion so engaging. Granted, genetic modification doesn’t really hold the same stakes as multiple universes and time travel. All pretty high stakes, but definitely different levels.

Upgrade was an interesting, well written story. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really on the edge of my seat to find out what happened next. The only part that gave me a rush was when Logan visited a city that made me wonder if it was one of the locations featured in Dark Matter. I absolutely started googling the city and busted out my copy of Dark Matter to check the name of the town I was picturing. Regardless of whether or not it is, these two places are now cemented in my brain as the same place. The similarities are too much for me not to let this theory live rent free in my head.

I think if you’ve enjoyed Blake Crouch’s previous works you’ll enjoy Upgrade; however, while the story is told on a grand scale, it isn’t quite as intense as some of his others. His books do tend to grow on me so I may just need a little more time to digest this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced electronic copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
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Question with potential spoiler for Upgrade and Dark Matter:

Did anyone else think Glasgow in Upgrade was the city Jason visited in Dark Matter where all the residents where forced to stay inside their homes due to an illness and place scraps of cloth outside their homes indicating if someone was sick or had died? The lockdown, the colors of the cloths hung outside, the police presence, and even the symptoms mentioned in each book are similar. I’m 99% sure it isn’t but then again…

I am a big fan of Blake Crouch's science fiction novels. This one starts a little slow but once it starts moving, it never slows down.

Set in the near future, Logan Ramsay is a government agent working for the Gene Protection Agency, looking for people working on gene editing which is a crime. During a raid, there is an explosion and Logan is injured. Shortly afterwards, he starts to notice changes in his body and brain--improvements in memory recall, needing less sleep, and better able to multitask. Logan's genome has been hacked and this is just the first step in an audacious plan that could impact all of humanity.

I am a fan of science fiction in general but I know that many people find it too hard to get into. Blake Crouch is able to take a concept like gene editing and weave an interesting story around it without getting too technical. Yes, there is a lot of talk about various genetic markers but it isn't really necessary to know all of those to get enjoyment out of the story. The epilogue was excellent as well. Quick read--this would make an excellent action movie that has some heart in it and asks some big questions.

Blake Crouch is as impressive as ever!

Upgrade continues Blake Crouch’s streak of constantly blowing my mind with his stories and has definitely solidified himself as science fiction’s modern-day genius. Upgrade is just as fast-paced as his other works and you will not be able to help yourself by finishing this book in a few sittings. Upgrade follows Logan Ramsey as he battles an internal battle with an infectious agent that has never been seen before. He is starting to notice changes both in his body and mind as he comes to the realization that he is transforming into a super-human. But this transformation is just the beginning for Logan as more questions than answers arise between his family and the future of humanity as a whole.

It is obvious that Crouch really put in a high level of research, specifically into genetics, for this novel. I would even argue that this is his most technical book with a ton of science thrown at the reader. However it is accomplished in a way that masterfully straddles the line of not dumbing down the science while explaining the science in a way that actually makes the reader believe that this could be possible in the near future.

Uprgade is a book I can easily recommend to most people and I believe I would be hard-pressed to find they do not like it. This holds true for all of Crouch’s works, in my opinion. This book is a homerun and has solidified Blake Crouch as one of my current favorite authors! Thank you to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for a copy of this book. This review is my own opinion in which I freely gave.

A great book by Crouch, it absolutely lives up to the hype surrounding it. Already it is one of my favorite books of 2022, The story, characterization and writing work perfectly together to create one of Crouch’s best!

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 :)

#BlakeCrouch #Upgrade #Netgalley ##bookstagram #instabook #book-photography #bookporn #igbooks #ilovereading #bookhaul #bookhoarder #bookaddiction #bookstoread #whattoread #fortheloveofbooks #bookblogging #bookpics #weekendreads #bookrecs

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.