Book Club. All Are Welcome. Reading for End of May: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

[tankel]

I read all the light we can not see, but I can't remember a single thing about it.

 

[amyamyamy]

^^^ was

I'm reading the blindness but I'll probably finish it up here in a few days. anyone want to suggest another book?

 

[BookGeek]

I've definitely been out of the loop here. I got so annoyed with Dark Eden (it just made me mad mad) that I fell out of sync with reading for a little while. I've been binge reading a series of romance novels, but everything else has been sitting on my nightstand half-read and waiting for me to pick it up again. I guess I'm just in the mood for happy fluff and nothing too dense. The type of book where picking it up I know how it's going to end within the first 20 pages, but it's well written and fun to see the plot get there, you know?

 

[Whimsical88]

Spoiler

For you, what was the biggest surprise as you followed Jason through the many twists laid out in Dark Matter?
for me it was the fact that he truly wanted his family but 'somehow' opened endless other doors but not the one her wanted.
i get that fears manifest in your mind but when you truly want it,
thats all you focus on and it surprised me how he just would open up a universe that even his own mind failed to understand

What makes Jason 1 a standout amongst the others? Is our allegiance to him a matter of perspective? Or is there something fundamental to him that is more deserving of Daniela and Charlie than the others?
the other Jasons stood out to me more because they all managed to find "home" before the "real" one did.
the book portrayed him as number 1, which makes us just feel like he was the original Jason thus making us feel like we had an allegiance to him.
he was only deserving of them because never purposely endangered their lives.

When the novel switches to Daniela’s point of view for the first time, were you surprised by the scene that takes place? Confused? What did you think was happening?
was it the part in the cabin?? i just think she was thinking about what normal would have been.

At its heart, Dark Matter is a love story. Yet we see Daniela in many different worlds and in situations where she is not with Jason and happy. Do you think they are supposed to be together? Do you believe that they would have been just as happy pursuing their career-driven dreams?
supposed to be together, im not so sure. choose to be together in this world yeah. in the first door, she was perfectly happy without him there so i dont see her being career driven as her end of happiness. she just had a different kind of happy that we never knew the whole story of.

Many of the decisions in Dark Matter center around the notion of career and family. If you had to choose, would you rather live Jason 1 or Jason 2’s life? Why?
same as Tank, i already have chosen Jason 1's life in real life and im happy with it.

Jason 2 (and some of the other Jasons we meet later in the book) acts in morally questionable ways throughout the novel. Do you think that his life path has caused him to be less kind-hearted? Or is he merely self-interested and willing to do whatever it takes?
agree with both of you. our journey in life makes us a certain type of person and the things we go through makes us react in certain ways.


What kind of world do you imagine Jason, Daniela, and Charlie entered at the end of the book?
im not sure, i wasnt happy with the ending.

What did you think of the science and technology in the book? If this kind of advancement in science was possible, would you want it to exist?
its amazing what the mind can think of but as Tank said, im glad it doesnt exist, i would not want to live in that kind of world that makes you live only in regret.


Is there a path not taken that you wish you could experience? If so, what is it? Do you feel you ultimately made the right decision?
i have thought about this and it brings up being Jason 1 or Jason 2 but i think i ultimately found my happiness and it may not be what others choose but its what i did and i could not be more happy with the women i am, the wife i am, the daughter i am, the sister i am.

Tank i am feeling that way about the book i actually loaded it more than once on play books because i thought i never start reading it. still cant remember what the book is about.

 

[tankel]

So any takers on the next book?

 

[writingislove]

I fiiiiinally got my copy of Dark Matter. I'm about 20 pages in. I'll have it finished in no later than two weeks because that's all I have it on loan for. If you're willing to wait for me, I'll give a shot at the next book...

 

[tankel]

 

[Whimsical88]

we can wait for you WIL. (no smilie of going to bed and hibernating)

 

[amyamyamy]

Willing to wait

 

[lemon_tree]

Totally happy with waiting!

DH and I have been playing a new video game lately, so I'd be too distracted anyhow, right now.

How do you like it so far, WIL?

 

[writingislove]

I'm almost halfway done. I like it so far. It's kind of giving me anxiety but once I start reading I have a hard time putting it down.

 

[writingislove]

Finished!

Since I'm so late to the party, I'll skip the questions but I'll share my overall thoughts.

Spoiler

I really liked this one. The premise was super intriguing and I loved the whole book from the first page. The concept of being able to see how your life turns out based on the choices you make is interesting, but I was more captivated by the focus on how your personality morphs based on your experiences. At the end with all the Jasons, even though they were all the same person in theory, they were all fundamentally different.

I'll admit I'm still struggling with wrapping my head around all of the versions of Jason at the end. If each time Jason 1 opened a door and then returned to the corridor, he created another version of himself that branched off and continued a separate journey--what happens, then, each time that NEW version starts entering new worlds and then returning to the corridor? The same thing? Because if that's the case, I'm fairly certain the population of Chicago is going to double just from all these extra versions of Jason.

Also, I agree with whoever said it didn't make much sense that all these other Jasons found home before the original Jason did.

I didn't mind the way it ended, although I will admit that I'm the pessimist who closed the book with the feeling they ended up somewhere terrible. I totally laughed out loud at tank's suspicion, though.

I guess I volunteered to pick next. I have a couple on my list that are piquing my interest at the moment...let me know if any of you are on board with either of these (wrapped in spoilers so this isn't the longest post ever).

Spoiler

Fire Is Your Water by Jim Minick:

Sacred chants are Ada Franklin’s power and her medicine. By saying them, she can remove warts, stanch bleeding, and draw the fire from burns. At age twenty, her reputation as a faith healer defines her in her rural Pennsylvania community. But on the day in 1953 that her family’s barn is consumed by flame, her identity as a healer is upended. The heat, the roar of the blaze, and the bellows of the trapped cows change Ada. For the first time, she fears death and — for the first time — she doubts God. With her belief goes her power to heal. Then Ada meets an agnostic named Will Burk and his pet raven, Cicero.

Spoiler

The Crooked Heart of Mercy by Billie Livingston:
Ben wakes up in a hospital with a hole in his head he can't explain. What he can remember he’d rather forget. Like how he’d spend nights as a limo driver for the wealthy and debauched….how he and his wife, Maggie, drifted apart in the wake of an unspeakable tragedy…how his little brother, Cola, got in over his head with loan sharks circling.

Maggie is alone. Again. With bills to pay and Ben in a psych ward, she must return to work. But who would hire her in the state she’s in? And just as Maggie turns to her brother, Francis, the Internet explodes with video of his latest escapade. The headline? Drunk Priest Propositions Cops.

Francis is an unlikely priest with a drinking problem and little interest in celibacy. A third DUI, a looming court date.…When Maggie takes him in, he knows he may be down to his last chance. And his best shot at healing might lie in helping Maggie and Ben reconnect—against all odds.

 

[Whimsical88]

i like Fire is your water, based on the insert. i think it really will open up a whole book of adventure and thinking out the box