“Jason Dessen is walking home through the chilly Chicago streets one night, looking forward to a quiet evening in front of the fireplace with his wife, Daniela, and their son, Charlie — when his reality shatters. “Are you happy with your life?” Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before a man Jason’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.” In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible. Is it this world or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could’ve imagined — one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.”
Review:
We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to read a recommendation from one of my dearest friends. This book was a Christmas gift from my friend Sean, he read it and knew how much I enjoy reading so he gave it to me.
And I really don’t want to hurt his feelings but, this is a miss. Our main character(s), Jason Dessen, a supposed genius, discovers how to jump between different dimensions. Gets kidnapped by himself from another dimension to steal his life. An interesting premise to be sure. But for a genius, our main character was 100% the dumbest main character I’ve ever read. Also this further cements to me, that men really do have every audacity.
First off, this man named drop Chicago like he’s being paid for it. And maybe he is. It was infuriating. As someone born and bred in this city, I understand the urge to want people to know how great it is, but this seemed more like a dude who wanted to show off how much he knew about the city. Like street names and neighborhoods he’d been to. While also… not really knowing anything beyond those two dimensional facts. Like, congratulations you can memorize things about our city found on paper, but you and I both can tell you don’t know the first thing about Chicago.
In addition to the ego stroke this book seemed to be it also remind me a lot of when Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk went through their space travel phase and when they came back and talked about how we needed to started caring for each other and the planet. I feel like I reacted the same way to that that I did to this book. NO FUCKING SHIT EINSTEIN. I read in real time a dude discover empathy, while still clinging to the notion that not just the world, but many iterations of the world revolved around him and it was uncomfy to say the least.
This was not something I’d ever pick up for myself and for good reason. Sometimes your hunch is right, that’s the lesson here.
Anyways! Stay tuned for the regularly scheduled program, of fantasy and romance and horror! As always, let me know your own thoughts and feels down below in the comments!
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