Recursion, by Blake Crouch (Review)

Recursion
by Blake Crouch

Genre: Science Fiction

Length: 336 Pages

Release date: June 11, 2019

Publisher: Crown Publishing Group

Synopsis: 

Memory makes reality. That’s what New York City cop Barry Sutton is learning as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome—a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived.

Neuroscientist Helena Smith already understands the power of memory. It’s why she’s dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious moments of our pasts. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent.

As Barry searches for the truth, he comes face-to-face with an opponent more terrifying than any disease—a force that attacks not just our minds but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only he and Helena, working together, will stand a chance at defeating it.

But how can they make a stand when reality itself is shifting and crumbling all around them?

My thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing Group for sending me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and are not influenced by the publisher. 

Crouch’s last novel, Dark Matter, is very preoccupied with the road not taken. Recursion, despite all of its differences, continues in the same vein in that regard. What starts as an attempt to map and artificially store memories so that they may be experienced again turns into something quite different, with far-reaching consequences.

This is a difficult novel to review. I will keep this brief, because I think readers should ideally know very little about the story going into it. It’s a story best discovered organically, watching the plot unfold as the author intended. I will say that the story is very fast-paced, twisty, and intricate. You will want to pay close attention as the timeline jumps around.

Despite all of the action and food for thought, at the heart of this book is really a love story, which was very unexpected. This part of the book is thoroughly intertwined with the science fiction aspects of the book, making for a really interesting dynamic between the two characters at times.

“False Memory Syndrome” brings up lot of interesting question for the reader; what are we without our memories? If we cannot trust our own minds, how do we go on? The answer for many people in Crouch’s book seems to be simply “we don’t.” Part of the urgency surrounding FMS is that it brings with it a rash of suicides, as people wake up one day and suddenly remember a life lived with a spouse they’ve never met, raising children who don’t exist. The existential horror and loneliness are too much.

I enjoyed Dark Matter, and I think Recursion has proven to be somewhat of a step up. The science fiction aspect is a bit mind-bending, but not difficult to follow. The pacing is spot-on. The love story kept me emotionally invested in the outcome, perhaps more than the fate of the world at large did. While we never really get as much in-depth exploration of the mechanics of the sci-fi aspect as we do in Dark Matter, it’s hard to mind very much; the book is just so much fun.

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Thank you for reading! If you could store one memory so that you could experience it all over again, what would you choose?

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