Dark Matter
by Blake Crouch
★ Top 25 book of 2016 · #17 on Best Books of 2016
Chicago physics professor Jason Dessen is abducted, drugged, and wakes in a life that is not his own, with a different wife and no son. He must fight to return to his family while facing a fearsome enemy.
Best for: Readers who like fast, mind-bending thrillers about alternate realities and family
Dark Matter is #17 on BookWard's Best Books of 2016, out of 68 2016 books that cleared our data bar.
What Dark Matter is about
Jason Dessen is a physics professor in Chicago with a loving wife, Daniela, and a son, Charlie. One evening a masked man forces him at gunpoint to an abandoned industrial site and injects him with a powerful drug. Jason wakes in a laboratory, in a Chicago that is almost his own, except that fifteen years ago he chose his physics career over marrying Daniela.
In this other life he is a celebrated genius who has built a cube that allows people to step between the worlds created by every possible outcome of every choice. Blake Crouch draws on the many-worlds idea from quantum mechanics and turns it into a tense, fast-moving thriller about identity, regret and what we would risk for the people we love.
It works well for readers who like science fiction with a human heart and a puzzle at its centre. A television adaptation premiered on Apple TV+ in 2024.
Dark Matter on the Best Books of 2016
Dark Matter came out in 2016. Of the 68 books first published in 2016 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #17 on our Best Books of 2016 list.
Why it made the list: 811 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4 out of 5 (91 ratings); 33 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2016 list
- Culpa Tuya Mercedes Ron, #15
- A Gentleman in Moscow Amor Towles, #16
- A Thousand Boy Kisses Tillie Cole, #18
- It Didn't Start with You Mark Wolynn, #19
See all Best Books of 2016 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2015 Best Books of 2017.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 636 want to read it, 33 are reading it now and 142 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 4 out of 5 from 91 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 75 | 55% |
| Reader love | 53 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 68 | 20% |
Questions about Dark Matter
When was Dark Matter published?
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch was first published in 2016.
Was Dark Matter one of the best books of 2016?
Dark Matter is #17 on BookWard's Best Books of 2016, out of 68 2016 books that cleared our data bar. 811 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4 out of 5 (91 ratings); 33 are reading it right now.
Why is Dark Matter on the Best Books of 2016 list?
811 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 4 out of 5 (91 ratings); 33 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 2016
- It Ends with Us Colleen Hoover, #1
- Dog Man Dav Pilkey, #2
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Mark Manson, #3
- Never Split the Difference Chris Voss, #4
- The Hidden Oracle Rick Riordan, #5
- Born a Crime Trevor Noah, #6
See the full Best Books of 2016, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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