I have not gotten so swept up in a book like this in YEARS. I finished it last Sunday and refused to get out of bed before I read every word, which is rare for me because I count any minute spent in bed after 7 a.m. a waste of daylight.
“I know everything feels hopeless to you in this moment, but this is just a moment, and moments pass.”
― Blake Crouch, Recursion
I’ve seen Recursion on book recommendation lists all summer long — The Popcast greenlit it, The Lazy Genius sang its praises, and Annie B. Jones gave it 4 stars on her mini Instagram book review. And apparently everyone in my county also heard the hype because I was like 58th on the hold list at the library. So when it appeared in my Libby account, I sent it straight to my Kindle and dove in.
Recursion is set in a world where people suffer from False Memory Syndrome (FMS). Ordinary people go about their ordinary days when suddenly they can remember living whole lives, except they never happened. A woman remembers being married and having a son so vividly that she can’t imagine it never happened. A man remembers his daughter being the victim of a hit-and-run at 16, but he’s having brunch with her on her 26th birthday. Y’all, it is wild.
When a New York detective starts linking different FMS occurrences together, he sets a course for himself that requires mental strength, patience and a whole lot of pain to see it through. I loved every bit of this book. It was exhilarating and heartwrenching and made me question what I would change if given the chance and how that would change me.
Book Club Questions
- Would you visit Hotel Memory if given the chance as a character in the book?
- Are there any other points in Helena’s life that you feel like she could have revisited to prevent the manipulation of her invention?
- How do you think people would react today if the Big Bend appeared out of nowhere?