Dark Matter - Premium Cosmetic for Night Skincare

I think the title explains most of the gist of what I'll be talking about here. The book is good, until the end, like a hollywood movie usually is. It's filled with great science to mask the really strange plot devices and moments in the story that don't quite make sense, as though the novel were missing a continuity editor (like a lot of major movies these days) More details will be explained below, but this book is Entertaining, but that doesn't make it a good novel. There will be spoilers!I'll start off by saying that the novel's beginning is... Okay like the rest of it. We don't spend much time getting to know the main character before he's whisked off by a convenient plot device into the main conflict. For some people this will be welcome if you don't have much patience (but if that's the case, why are you reading a book in the first place?) For those of us that appreciate a little more exposition, it's a bit jarring. But basically the main character, Jason Dessen, has a relationship with his wife of many years and their son Charlie that strikes him as a bit mundane. He is shocked by a random encounter (that happened to be on the same night---what a coincidence!) with his old college roommate who has gone on to be everything Jason never was but always wanted to be. He has earned a prestigious award that no one has heard of for making advancements in science that were made ages ago, but the book expects us to believe that this is some sort of noteworthy achievement. After being shocked into thinking everything about his life is awful because he might have been able to never have kids or settle down he is whisked off by a masked figure who we later learn is himself but from an alternate reality. He is violently forced, instead of convinced, to enter into the other Jason's reality where in this future all of his dreams have come true! He never married, never had kids, and is able to create his life's work---a quantum box that lets you switch worldlines and travel to different ones. These new realities are different versions of what happened based on a different set of choices that were made, but are somehow "adjacent" to the other ones. How these two things can somehow be true based on the numerous worlds visited makes a ton of sense if you don't think about it.When faced with this new reality, Jason makes the only rational decision and escapes as fast as he can. He eventually tracks down the version of his wife from that world who coincidentally is sleeping with the roommate from before! Wow! They meet up and sleep together and eventually she is brutally murdered by the people he escaped from in order to bring her back in. Her death is a pill that is awfully tough to swallow as it came off completely needless. For one, obviously she had some sort of importance to Jason otherwise he wouldn't have been hiding out with her, but somehow Velocity thinks that killing her is going to convince Jason to return? What kind of sick and twisted logic thinks that MURDER is the best way to snap someone out of amnesia or disorientation, or even make them want to return with you?Jason miraculously manages to keep his cool despite witnessing a murder in cold blood right in front of his eyes. Ryan, the roommate from before, spills the beans on what really happened (Jason confessed everything as a stoner joke but apparently he saw through it and decided to just tell Velocity everything) but honestly more convenient plot devices could not be found. Again, the lack of clear throught and silly logic appears to show this Author's credentials as a screenwriter rather than a Novelist. Good stories do not have such a goofy structure and lack of exposition. Often they indulge in more subtleties that hint at the aspects of new characters and their internal workings rather than just spelling them out as this novel so frequently does. It reads like a movie, very episodic and direct.After the jig is up Jason manages to scramble into the box and leap off into the quantum corridor and tries his hand at finding new realities. For some very stupid reason after opening a door they manage to walk out into what is obviously a blizzard (we are told it's early autumn before he leaves). While this isn't impossible for a blizzard in autumn, dumping several feet of snow should be a dead giveaway that this is not in fact the world he came from. However, this genius scientist manages to get himself into a completely needless predicament along with his new sidekick, Amanda, the psychiatrist who couldn't stomach murder (but somehow everyone else could) from Velocity labs. After their hiccup with the blizzard they return to the corridor and resume their adventures.This is the part where things stop making sense for me, as the group enter a few different doors that seem to make no sense. We later on learn that the corridor is controlled by one's feelings right before opening a door. I.e. the blizzard world was triggered by Amanda conversing with Jason about a white out she remembered from her childhood. Now how a white out specifically, which seems like a thought to me (not a feeling) manages to create that kind of world seems a bit farfetched to me, but less so than the other examples. At one point Jason randomly throws open a door and they see a wolf standing on the other side of a chain link fence. How does one feel a wolf? What kind of memory could have evoked this? We are given no explanation for this particular world, nor some of the others that we are eventually made to witness and enter. Another example that we are made to believe is real is the "future Chicago" where the dynamic duo enters into a futuristic chicago because amanda writes it down in her notebook after they discover how it works. Now we are also told that the world lines have to be adjacent, meaning they can't be too different from each other. Given this other rule, I'm not sure how it would be possible for them to enter a world that is obviously so radically different from the one they came from (whether it be Jason's or Jason2's world).Now what ends up being particularly frustrating about all of this is the painstaking research the author apparently has done into quantum mechanics and how they function. All of the phrasing he has on this subject is spot-on, including the message about schrodingers cat. The thing about quantum physics and physics in general is that they adhere to a set of rules that are constant across the universe. We call these the laws of physics. As the plot advances Jason resorts to cramming as many details into a notebook as he possibly can in order to return to his world. This ends up being one of the central conflicts to the novel---will he be able to get back to Daniela (wife) without exhausting his supply of Ampoules? However the process to get there does not appear to follow a constant set of rules, something Jason, who has a PhD in PHYSICS should be able to anticipate. Apparently these laws do not apply to the corridor and feelings reign supreme, where conversations can spark incredibly deadly blizzards but painstaking details do not lead to the desired results? Where wolves can randomly appear with seemingly no prompting, and other disease-ridden worlds can be triggered by memories of the death of a grandmother? Again, the laws of the universe are in fact consistent, but not apparently in this instance. The book seems to be at odds with itself over its very nature for the sake of being entertaining---just like a movie!The ending is probably one of the dumbest parts of the novel, and it's where things truly break apart. After arriving home, Jason realizes he has no plan for confronting Jason2 and llaments this by heading to a hotel not far from his house in order to discover a plan. While there he is introduced to the upwards of 70 Jasons he had inadvertently created through his journey in the Corridor---all of whom made it back to where he is currently AT THE SAME TIME. What convenience! Where are all the Jasons from when Jason2 made the same attempt? Did he just get lucky and land there on his first try because he just knew how it worked? Did he somehow murder everyone else who came before him in order to secure the precious Daniela? It's more likely the latter as Jason2 on several occasions implies that he has visited many other worlds in order to get here, and that this is the best one. But given the scale with which we later see the Jasons arriving, how did one man manage to kill 80 other versions of himself given the unique problems this presents?Eventually, the real Jason manages to get Daniela by being "unpredictable" as if 80 other versions of himself wouldn't ever have the same idea, and whisks her away to Water tower place to explain everything then whisks her off again to Wisconsin where they break into a cabin and hole up there while they figure out what to do. The main plan ends up being a stupid lottery because Jason, after everything he's seen, who has a PhD in PHYSICS and is clearly a SMART GUY manages to think that after everything he's been through those other versions can be trusted to agree to a lottery and he is also willing to give up his wife to a random stranger. Cool man, this makes total sense! Daniela ends up saving the day here by convincing him that it's a very stupid plan (which it is from the beginning but he for some reason needed her to tell him that). The whole thing is blown up horror-movie style with teenage stupidity when Jason's son turns his phone on to text the girl he likes. This somehow tips off Jason2 who uses a locator app to track the son's phone like every teenager's worst helicopter parent nightmare. The cabin is swarmed with Jasons soon and the real Jason has to kill a few in order to save his family. They get back to Chicago for some reason where the other jasons had gathered for the lottery in the old factory where the box is. The ending is so shocking and so surprising that you will literally poop yourself with how unexpected it is. Are you ready? The family goes back into the box!Pop the confetti and break out the champagne! The ending you saw coming a mile away because it's how every hollywood movie ends actually happened. It was such a disappointing moment for me that I really just wanted to toss my computer out a window because of how cheesy and stupid it was.Now for the best part, this book, is being made into a REAL movie by Sony! Isn't that exciting? Honestly, I think they have a great chance here to make a movie that ends up being better than the book it came from---given how crappy their base is. Although since the whole thing read like it was made for the big screen, I'm honestly not even the tiniest bit surprised.Thanks for reading my review, I hope it helps you make a decision. I gave it 2 stars because the book was enjoyable but overall it made very little sense and the ending absolutely sucked---just like a movie!