“Are you happy in your life?

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he wakes to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before the man he’s never met smiles down at him and says, ‘Welcome back, my friend.’

In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined – one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.”

This book is serious stuff.  I enjoyed reading it but oh my, it’s a bit of a mind flip.  There were times when I felt I needed to increase my IQ by 100 points to follow the story.

Jason Dessen is a pretty normal guy with a beautiful wife, teenage son, average job as a college professor and a nice(ish) house.  He’s happy….sort of.  Then one day he is mugged at gun point, taken to a disused dilapidated building and injected with some strange drug.  Upon waking life has completely changed for Jason.  No wife, no son, no mundane job, but he does own a very swanky house.  The same house he owned with his wife but it’s a lot nicer.  Can Jason find his wife and son?  And what extremes will he need to go to to do that…

I’m not one to swear but this book is a bit of a mind f*ck.  I would describe it as a sci-fi thriller.  However, looking on amazon.co.uk it appears to fall into the romance (yes!), time travel (no!), thriller (yes!), conspiracy (sort of!) categories.  If you took ten people and asked them to classify this book I think you would get quite a few different answers.

I really liked the lead protagonist, Jason.  He’s such a wonderfully normal person who unwittingly ends up on this MEGA adventure.  His mission is to find his wife and son, he’s guided by love and I really liked that.

It’s a fast paced read and I recommend that you are fully awake whilst reading this book (otherwise you may miss parts of the story and be even more confused than I was!).  I absolutely loved the closing chapters where Jason was fighting against his unbeatable foe, brilliant!

Would I recommend this book?  I would but be prepared for a bit of a mind flip!  A fast paced thriller cum sci-fi novel that takes you to places you never thought possible with a very likeable lead.

Four out of five stars.

Many thanks to Sophie at edpr, the publisher and the author for providing me with a copy of Dark Matter in exchange for an honest review.

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch was published in the UK by Macmillan on 11th August 2016 and is available in hardback and eBook formats | amazon.co.uk | amazon.com | Waterstones | Goodreads |

Blake Crouch is the author of over a dozen bestselling suspense novels, including the international runaway bestselling series Wayward Pines, which became a hit television series from Executive Producer M. Night Shyamalan, starring Matt Dillon, Melissa Leo, and Terrence Howard.

His short fiction has appeared in numerous short story anthologies, and his longer fiction has been shortlisted for the International Thriller Award.

Blake lives in Colorado. To learn more about what he is doing, check out his website, follow him on Twitter @blakecrouch1 or on Facebook.