Upgrade - Blake Crouch

-


Having loved Blake Crouch's "Dark Matter" and then "Recursion" somehow even more, my hopes were almost insurmountably high for "Upgrade." Nonetheless, Crouch has done it again and delivered a knockout of an action-packed, sci-fi read. 

The one thing I wish to stress to readers who can't wait to get their hands on "Upgrade" is that it's great--excellent, really, but it did not blow me away in the same indescribable way that his other two novels did. 

Why? The biggest thing I can pinpoint is the originality factor; I've already seen this title loosely compared to something between The Matrix and Limitless, and I'd heartily agree with that comparison (especially the Limitless piece). Crouch's writing and plot-building in the sci-fi realm is truly second-to-none, but this concept did not feel as mind-blowing, fresh, and epic as the foundations that "Dark Matter" and "Recursion" stood upon. 

Is it still complex? Without a doubt. As usual, Crouch has his remarkable gift for making incredibly complicated scientific topics digestible to the everyday reader on full display. The way he weaves dense genetic science into an immediately-explosive plot is impressive, and captivating from the very first few pages. I feel like I became a genetic expert while reading this (LOL) while still grasping every page.

Ultimately, "Upgrade" is an astounding feat, and my third-favorite Crouch sci-fi novel. Very much worth the read; it will still take you on an exhilarating journey of epic proportions (while not losing an emotional appeal that renders Crouch's books exciting AND profound) that certainly doesn't pale in comparison to its predecessors, but doesn't quite outshine them, either. 

Rating: 4 Stars
Publication Details: Out July 12, 2022 - Random House, Ballantine

Huge thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for providing my review copy!

Popular posts from this blog

American Mermaid - Julia Langbein

-
Image
  When Penelope Schleeman learns that her debut novel "American Mermaid" is picked up by twin screenwriters in Los Angeles to be adapted into a movie, she packs up her life in Connecticut and jets out to the West Coast for a taste of the new, author-of-a-bestseller life that awaits her. What she finds in California, however, is not only a startling loss of control over her story's integrity, but something else that suggests her book about a wheelchair-bound scientist-turned mermaid might be coming to life. As the synopsis suggests, "American Mermaid" is a lot of haphazard plot to digest, readers. Personally, I was drawn in by the reviews that hailed this debut as "full of heart" and "laugh out loud funny," but found myself trudging through the story when I had hardly made a dent in it. While the first few chapters about Penelope, high-school-teacher-turned-feminist-author, did have me in near-tears from laughing, once the laughs subsided ...
Read more

The Half Moon - Mary Beth Keane

-
Image
  If one were to do a survey of the larger stressors life can put on a marriage, Jess and Malcolm have had more than their fair share. Infertility, financial strain, the ups and downs of owning a local bar called The Half Moon, and--most recently--swirling rumors of a one-sided infidelity. Set over the course of one week's time against the backdrop of a debilitating snowstorm in the Northeast, "The Half Moon" is a slow burn character examination of an ordinarily-imperfect marriage across its origin, past, and fractured present. Despite being such a straightforward, unembellished story, the amount of sheer concentration it took to read this book was frustrating from the onset; unfortunately, I attribute this both to Keane's dull, heavy-handed narration and the nonlinear timeline jumps that occur throughout the story with nearly-imperceptible context clues. All in all, the premise coupled with Keane's praise for "Ask Again Yes" was enough for me to div...
Read more

Hide - Kiersten White

-
Image
  The stars I gave "Hide," one of my most-anticipated books of this summer, are really just for concept alone. Kiersten White had such a unique, potentially-extraordinary concept on her hands with a group of strangers hiding out in an abandoned amusement park for a competition, but (in my opinion) she totally under-delivered and the book fell flat. It took a solid 100 pages for the world of “Hide” to be established, and even once it was, I found myself struggling to keep track of our cast of characters and to find any kind of emotional investment in them. Talk about a slow burn supposedly action-packed thriller? The odd, sort of clunky writing style here really stalled the action for me; there were so many points in this book where I was hoping for more excitement, more horror, and just more substance. This read like a been-there-done-that, low-budget horror movie from the plot to the dialogue, and it pains me to say that. I wanted to love it so much, but found it to be a was...
Read more