Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Published 2016 · 352 pages · 85,000 words · about 6 hours at an average pace · Science Fiction, Thriller & Suspense
How hard is Dark Matter to read?
Dark Matter scores 19 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it relatively accessible. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 22 out of 100
- Accessible prose. Quantum physics concepts simplified.
- Sentence structure: 18 out of 100
- Abstraction: 28 out of 100
- Quantum mechanics as emotional metaphor. Accessible.
- Information density: 35 out of 100
- Fast-moving. Concepts introduced through action.
- Narrative indirection: 15 out of 100
- Linear chase through parallel realities.
- Symbolic density: 18 out of 100
- The Box as Pandora's box. Branching paths as regret made literal.
- Ironic distance: 100 out of 100
- Emotionally direct. No ironic detachment.
- Resolution withholding: 18 out of 100
- Tension sustained through branching realities. Resolution is earned.
- Structural complexity: 20 out of 100
- Linear narrative with reality-hopping complications.
How Dark Matter is regarded
Dark Matter holds a literary regard score of 30 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.