Upgrade: A Novel

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “If Michael Crichton had written a superhero novel, it would look a lot like Upgrade.”—The New York Times Book Review

“You don’t so much sympathize with the main character as live inside his skin.”—DIANA GABALDON, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Outlander series
 
“Mysterious, fascinating, and deeply moving—exploring the very nature of what it means to be human.”—ALEX MICHAELIDES, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient and The Maiden

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, She Reads

The mind-blowing new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and Recursion—currently in development as a motion picture at Steven Spielberg's Amblin Partners


“You are the next step in human evolution.”

At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.

But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.

The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.

Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.

Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.

And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?

Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.

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Published Jul 12, 2022

368 pages

Average rating: 7.57

208 RATINGS

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Social Science Fiction Book Club

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Community Reviews

What Bookclubbers are saying about this book

✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI

Readers say *Upgrade* by Blake Crouch is a science-heavy, thought-provoking sci-fi thriller exploring gene editing and its ethical dilemmas. Many prai...

foxland
Jan 04, 2026
8/10 stars
Ending very predictable and a bit…cheesy? Compelling writing before then. Easy quick read with lots of action.
natalietriano
Feb 20, 2026
10/10 stars
Could not put this down! Read it all within a 24-hour period. It is brilliant.
Janicks
Feb 02, 2026
6/10 stars
Nowhere near on par with Dark Matter or Recursion!

This book took me so long to finish in comparison to his others. It just isn’t gripping, is even more science dense than his previous books, and just fell a bit flat. I was really looking forward to reading this. Maybe i’d built it up too much for myself.
Btru
Jan 11, 2026
August 2025 book - Megan
Bosky
Dec 30, 2025
6/10 stars
OK I had JUST read dark matter a few weeks prior- Loved dark matter. Def not a good idea to read books by this author back to back. Too much testosterone. Too much going on. Not enough time to reflect and get to know the characters. The main characters back story were too similar to Dark matter- husband, wife, and child. While the concept was interesting- genetic upgrading the human race, concept wasn't enough of a drive. On the other hand, book was a quick read.

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