Dark Matter - Blake Crouch - A Short Summary & Review

Dark Matter - Blake Crouch - A Short Summary & Review

By: a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures

A Rite of Fancy Book Recommendation and Review

Black and red science-fiction themed book review graphic for Dark Matter by Blake Crouch, featuring abstract particle imagery and the book cover.
Trouble in the multiverse, multiplied.

A short summary:

In Dark Matter, Blake Crouch explores the terrifying possibilities of the multiverse through the life of Jason Dessen, an ordinary man abruptly thrust into an extraordinary nightmare. After a violent encounter, Jason awakens in a world that looks familiar, but isn’t his own. His wife is not his wife, his son was never born, and the life he knew has splintered into countless alternatives.

As Jason races through parallel realities in search of the one place that truly feels like home, the novel becomes a high-speed meditation on choice, consequence, and identity. Every decision creates a new path, and not all of them lead somewhere safe.

My favorite quote from the book:

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious."
- Blake Crouch, Dark Matter

Dark graphic with red light flare featuring a Blake Crouch quote about the mystery of experience, evoking themes of science fiction and uncertainty.

Questions to ponder while reading:


Have you ever wondered what would have happened if you had made another choice?

How do you decide what life to live?

My review:

Dark Matter takes the idea of the multiverse and turns it inward, making it deeply personal and deeply unsettling. The thought that infinite versions of ourselves exist, each shaped by a single different choice, isn’t just fascinating; it’s terrifying.

Crouch asks questions that linger long after the book is finished. Do we really have that many variables? How fragile is the life we call ours? And what, exactly, makes a place, or a person, home?

The pacing is relentless, but the emotional stakes are what give the story its power. This isn’t abstract science fiction; it’s existential suspense. The novel taps into the quiet dread of regret and the longing to believe that the life we’re living is the right one. Dark Matter is both thrilling and unnerving, a story that reminds readers how thin the walls are between the lives we chose and the ones we didn’t.


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About the Author
a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller traveling through life

She shares her journeys at Take the Back Roads, explores new reads at Rite of Fancy, and highlights U.S. military biographies at Everyday Patriot.

You can also browse her online photography gallery at shop.takethebackroads.com.

✨ #TakeTheBackRoads

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