Recursion: A Novel

Wowwwww this book messed with my mind!! I really enjoyed it and liked the ending. Felt a bit redundant towards the middle but such a great read.

Where do I even begin?? This book had my brain doing gymnastics from beginning to end. I knew I was walking into a story of time travel, but I had no idea the levels to which Crouch was going to take us. I doubt I even caught/understood all of the nuances that he provided as we watched Barry, Helena, and Marcus start, end, and restart lifetimes.

I love a novel that makes my brain think and wonder and stretch its limits...especially about concepts that we believe cannot happen or do not exist. Recursion did just that.

SPOILERS AHEAD











While this book was absolutely riveting, a true page-turner, I was a bit... put-off? annoyed? with the final page before we reach the epilogue. I felt like so much thought was put into this very intricate storyline only to have Barry have a bit of a “Come to Jesus” meeting with himself at the end.

He thinks he may be dying. He’s reliving his many, many lifetimes.

“I don’t want to look back anymore. I’m ready to accept that my existence will sometimes contain pain. No more trying to escape, either through nostalgia or a memory chair. They’re both the same fucking thing.”

Had he stopped there, I would have been fine. It’s a good realization to come to...a natural one. However, the next few lines felt like our life-lesson from the book was being delivered to us on a platter instead of letting the reader glean it from the story itself.

“Life with a cheat code isn’t life. Our existence isn’t something to be engineered or optimized for the avoidance of pain.
That’s what it is to be human-the beauty and the pain, each meaningless without the other.”

So much excellent build-up and work, only to have it cheapened with a spoon-fed moral.

Sigh.

It’s okay, the epilogue makes up for it – it’s the ending we were all hoping for.

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Solid 4.5 Stars

Thank you to Crown Publishing & NetGalley for the digital copy to review.

This read is a slow burn, ignited by alternating realities into a blazing inferno! Crouch cleverly uses memory as a transportation device, and takes us through time and 'space' to undo one travesty after another, but to what end? I couldn't believe the heart-pounding side effects reading this one, could-not-put-down, doesn't begin to cover it.

I read this in about two days! It felt similar to the concept of Inception to me. The different story lines are fun to keep up with.

What a great book. Most of the time, time travel does not work for me but here it was great.