Review: Recursion

Recursion by Blake Crouch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sometimes books are too smart for me. This is probably one of them.

I mean, think I “got” this one? Yes, I feel as though I most likely did. I believe there’s a good chance I grasped what this novel was trying to say. Sure, it’s usually not a good sign if you have to close the book every few chapters and stare blankly at the wall trying to get your little brain cell friends to fire in the right direction in order to comprehend the information you’ve just taken in. But, I have to imagine I’m in on the joke here...as long as I don’t think about it too much..

I was on board with incredibly intelligent scientists mapping and using our memories as a means of time travel. And I can get behind the concept of memories ultimately functioning as our only “true” source of reality. I was giving Blake Crouch the ol’ thumbs up - “I’m good!” - signal during the first few times these characters transported through space and time by dying in a sensory deprivation tank, only to be reborn in a strategically selected moment from their past. And - drum roll please - I could even follow the logic of “dead memories” from previous timeless spontaneously triggering in the minds of all impacted folks upon the anniversary of each new timeline’s creation.

But, sadly, I think that’s as far as my comprehension could take me. The train had to make its last stop somewhere I suppose.

Once we ventured into the mass chaos that saw thousands of people traveling back in time, simultaneously spawning an infinite number of new timelines, and as a result, an infinite number of dead memories from the previous timelines, I couldn’t quite keep up. So I simply didn’t. Instead I willingly chose to accept the things I cannot change (re: fully understand) and just enjoyed the overall beauty and madness and terror, emphasis on terror, that was this novel.

Seriously. This novel contains some of the most truly horrifying shit I have ever read. If there’s one thing that will always haunt my psyche and inevitably have me reaching for my Xanax, it’s being forced to confront the frailty of the human race and accept the likelihood that at any given time, THE END is near, and we’re all really just hanging on by a thread hoping that someone somewhere doesn’t choose to press THAT button. Cue quickening heart rate and tightening of chest.

All that being said, the aforementioned cataclysmic destruction of mankind as we know it storyline does contain a sweet and soft creamy center, in the form of an absolutely astounding love story. Yes, this modern / historical romance is smothered in complexities, and heartbreak and paradox, but damn it if it isn’t the stuff Nicholas Sparks wishes he could write. Blake Crouch took on the burden of making me question everything I know about life and love and being a human and hid it inside a sci-fi thriller, as he must have known this is the only way I will come within 10 feet of anything tagged as a love story. Tricky, tricky!

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