So that being said, this is really a mind-bendy sci-fi story, the kind that I typically love. It’s a story about preserving memories and then taking those memories to shift our reality. I will say that in their search for the truth about what’s going on, Barry and Helena discover that this whole memory thing is causing society to unravel as it becomes increasingly difficult to tell reality from these so-called false memories. Now I recommend going into this book knowing as little as possible about it, so I’m not going to say too much more. They are both trying to figure out what in the hell is going on and eventually, their paths and stories cross and converge. The story starts out with the dual timelines of two people: Barry Sutton, an NYC cop whose teenage daughter was killed years earlier and Helena Smith, a neuroscientist who is trying to find a way to restore memories in Alzheimer’s patients.

So this affliction is called False Memory Syndrome and leads up to a lot of people committing suicide as a result. He also is the author of Dark Matter, which I haven’t read, so these tidbits made me even more excited to read the book. Now I wasn’t familiar with Blake Crouch, the author of the book then I learned that he penned the Wayward Pines trilogy, which was turned into a television series that I did he. I love books about memory and timelines, so this was right up my alley. It was recently one of the Book of the Month Club selections, and when I heard that this book was about an affliction that drove people mad with memories of a life they never lived, I snatched it right up.

Recursion book review