2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Recursion by Blake Crouch.

Pages: 336 pages

Length: 1 Month (July)

Participants: Trisha, Simbarashe, SarahKat.

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.


Happy Buddy Reading!

Definitely waiting a few weeks before starting this one. Going to try to get Dead Astronauts and A Heart so Fierce and Broken done first.

I am also reading this novel for July!! Very excited to start this (just have to finish off Becoming by Michelle Obama first!)

I read this one back in January and enjoyed it! I hope you all like it. :D

I'm starting this today!

I finished Part 1. (view spoiler)[Very good and incredibly trippy. Every time I look away from it I have sort of a reality slip. I finished Dark Matter in a day when I read it. This would be similar if I didn't have more going on in real life nowadays.

It sure begs the question, at what point in your life would you go back to in order to "fix" things? I know mine! (hide spoiler)]

SarahKat, this book was VERY (view spoiler)[trippy, that's for sure! Very mind-bending with the time travel & how it affects things, but so so interesting. (hide spoiler)] I hope you enjoy the rest of it!

Also, I flippin' LOVED Dark Matter. It's one of the few books to which I have given a perfect 5-star rating. :D

I would love to jump in on this buddy read. I'm planning on starting this book next!

Welcome Joan!

I finished it. Loved it! It's hard to comment on it honestly because it was so trippy.

(view spoiler)[I do like that when the government agency got hold of the chair, they were trying to do good things with it and really intelligently. They went back no farther than 5 days, didn't use it for personal things, only things that could be stopped swiftly and by one person. Good for them. Unfortunately, humankind just cannot have something like this without royally screwing everything up.

This book certainly did not end up where I thought it would when I started it. I figured there would be all sorts of wonky time paradoxes and stuff when Barry goes back to save his daughter. And I mean, that's true sort of but there is much MUCH more to it than that. (hide spoiler)]

Just started and OMG! This is awesome! 🤩

Done with Book 1. This is INSANE! (view spoiler)[ Is this time-travel? Because if it is, wouldn’t there be two Barry Suttons coexisting on October 26 2007 - one from the present and the other from the future? Would they bump into each other and go crazy over it? I’m guessing not, but in that case, everything I’ve seen or read on time travel makes no sense now! (hide spoiler)]

SarahKat wrote: "I finished Part 1. Very good and incredibly trippy. Every time I look away from it I have sort of a reality slip. I finished Dark Matter in a day when I read it. This would be similar if I didn't h..."

In response to your super intense question at the end of your comment: (view spoiler)[ Umm, I dunno! There sure would be things that one would like to go back and fix, but isn’t the life ‘now’-at this very instant, a cumulative result of all the events that have happened in one’s past? Changing one small detail, say an insignificant event can change our current reality. Would anyone dare take that risk? 🤓 (hide spoiler)]

I am only on page 24 but this book has grabbed me right away. It's not going to take me long!!!!!!!!!!!

I really like his books. I also tend to gravitate more towards books with a lot of dialogue and this book looks like it has that.

I've completed Book 1. So far this book is everything that I wanted it to be. Dark Matter was one of my favorite books. The writing is fast paced and lots of dialogue which I love. I'm interested in the direction that this book is going to go in.

(view spoiler)[ It's interesting that Barry was taken back to that night where he could save his daughter. I think Slade is going to be a really evil person and I'm wondering how he knows so much about Helena.

I don't think I have a night or a day that I would go back to. Maybe there are a couple of parenting things I would change that I've done but nothing major. So far my past made me what I am. (hide spoiler)]

Just finished book two. I'm still loving the book. Halfway through and I want to finish it tonight but have been tired so it might end up being tomorrow.

Trisha wrote: "Done with Book 1. This is INSANE! [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[Time travel paradoxes always make my brain wobbly but I actually really like the mechanism Crouch uses in this book.

Yes, it's time travel, but only your conscious goes back in time. There aren't 2 of you running around because you've supplanted your younger mind with your older one. Sort of the age-old idea of "If I could go through life again knowing what I know now..."

There is no paradox because any time ANYONE goes back, that timeline "dies" and becomes those gray memories, but obviously only for people who would have had memories of the original differences. (hide spoiler)]

SarahKat wrote: "Trisha wrote: "Done with Book 1. This is INSANE! [spoilers removed]"

Time travel paradoxes always make my brain wobbly but I actually really like the mechanism Crouch uses in this book.

Yes, it's..."

It took me a while to adjust to the fact (view spoiler)[ that there were actually no paradoxes involved, and the characters were just revisiting their past and living it all over again. I agree, the content was so well packed and presented. Neither overly simplified nor complicated- just the right balance of science and philosophy.

I asked my husband the question you posted - “at what point in your life would you go back to in order to "fix" things?” to which he answered, “From the f***ing beginning, I’m going to ace all exams, predict the future, buy Facebook shares in 2004...” and list went on. Lol! (hide spoiler)]

Finished the book and absolutely loved it! It was a thrill ride throughout! Adding Dark Matter to my TBR.

Trisha wrote: "SarahKat wrote: "Trisha wrote: "Done with Book 1. This is INSANE! [spoilers removed]"

Time travel paradoxes always make my brain wobbly but I actually really like the mechanism Crouch uses in this..."

That is almost exactly what my husband said too! Men 🙄
Until I pointed out that we probably would not be together because he would have changed the trajectory of his life. I guess we women overthink these things and men underthink them haha.

Dark Matter was just as good! Read it a few years ago.

SarahKat wrote: "Trisha wrote: "SarahKat wrote: "Trisha wrote: "Done with Book 1. This is INSANE! [spoilers removed]"

Time travel paradoxes always make my brain wobbly but I actually really like the mechanism Crou..."

Ditto, SarahKat! I responded the very same thing to my husband, but I don't think he'd mind my absence, haha!

Thanks for recommending Dark Matter!

I just completed this. I loved it and I loved the ending.

(view spoiler)[ I felt like Barry should have gone through his original life and met Helen after his died and he departed from his wife. A world where his daughter wasn't born at all would be a sad one. I think there were some things I could question on the science of it or how the book was done but I don't want to pick it apart. I thought it was a fun read that kept me on the edge of my seat.

If I could go back to one day I probably know what day I would pick but if I changed that one day what would I have missed out on? I guess that is where faith has to come in for the human race. You have to trust that it is all going to work out in the end. (hide spoiler)]

I ended up rating it 5 stars. I saw in some comments about the book that people didn't like the repetitiveness of it but I thought that is what made the book good.

And I loved Dark Matter - I hope you have fun reading that!