"Recursion" by Blake Crouch

A few years ago, I had a friend recommend "Dark Matter" by Blake Crouch to me. He hadn't even read the book, he watched the series on Apple TV and told me about it. When I looked it up, I found it that it was also a book. Yes please! I went to the bookstore that day, found the book and read it within the next couple of days. Okay Blake Crouch, I'm in!

My brother probably reads more than I do, so I told him about this book and he went out and found the first book by Blake Crouch he could find, "Recursion". He read it and passed in on to me. We both agree that these two books are like non-identical twins, they are very similar but stand well on their own too.

"Recursion" is based on the idea of time being more like a fabric and less like a linear line. It is like in the show "The Bad Place" where they talk about time being a Jeremy Bearimy - time moves like the name Jeremy Bearimy written in cursive. 🤣

In this book we get to follow Helena and Barry. Helena is a brilliant scientist who wants to help her mother ease the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. She ends up creating a memory chair that will actually take people back in time to any recorded memory. This beautiful invention falls into the hands of the wrong person and things take a turn for the worst.

Barry is a New York City cop. He is going through a divorce and his daughter died after being hit while walking by a drunk driver. Barry is a good guy, but he is lonely and sad. He tries to help a women who is threatening to jump off of a skyscraper and kill herself. She says that she wants to die because she can remember this other life where she had a husband and kids, she has FMS (False Memory Syndrome). The woman ultimately jumps and Barry starts to look into her life and FMS. Barry is taken and forced into the memory chair and sent back to the day his daughter dies, before she is hit by the car. He saves her and lives his life, but knows something isn't right.

Barry and Helena eventually meet. They try to save the world together. They get stuck in a time loop and watch the world end over and over again. Not only is this a fascinating story about time, but it is also a beautiful love story about how Barry and Helena find love and share it over lifetimes. It's about being in the moment and appreciating it. This book reminds us to live each day and love the people we are fortunate enough to spend this life with.

This book engaged and interested me from the first page to the last. I caught myself sitting down to read one chapter and looking up and hour later. Ultimately, you can't go wrong with Blake Crouch and I plan to read everything he has ever written.

You can find this book here: https://amzn.to/41enc2p