5 Books to Read After Dark Matter Rewires Your Brain

If you’ve read Blake Crouch’s newest, Dark Matter, then you’ve likely been walking around with an expression on your face that is half deep contemplation and half paralyzing paranoia. You can pick out fellow Crouch readers by similarly haunted expressions. Dark Matter, a story about a scientist who chooses love and family over scientific immortality and major awards—only to run headlong into versions of himself who made different choices—is peak Crouch: cleverly imagined, dizzyingly plotted, thrillingly told.
So now that Crouch has shaken your belief in everything you thought made you you, the only question is…what to read next? Here are five more books as unsettling, pulse-pounding, and sci-fi inflected.

Pines, by Blake Crouch
Go back to the source: Crouch made a big splash with the Wayward Pines series, which was briefly adapted into television series. It brings the same off-kilter mood as Dark Matter to the story of Secret Service agent Ethan Burke, who comes to in a hospital in the small town of Wayward Pines, a place that seems just a bit…off. Burke’s investigation keeps turning up dead ends, and his attempts to contact the outside world keep hitting brick walls. If you thought the ending of Dark Matter was unexpected, just wait until you get to the end of this series—or, heck, through the first book.

Brilliance, by Marcus Sakey
In Sakey’s universe, less than 1 percent of the population is made up of Brilliants—people with incredible mental or physical abilities. Some Brilliants use their abilities selfishly, destabilizing society. Nick Cooper is a Brilliant who works to track and defeat those who are terrorists, and the story focuses in on his attempts to defeat one of them. The story zigs and zags, finally dropping the bottom out from under the reader in a flurry of twists that leave you with that “Crouch feeling”—a sense that the world around you can no longer be trusted.

The Breach, by Patrick Lee
Lee’s bestselling thriller has it all: inscrutable technology, inter-dimensional holes in reality, horrific events, and apocalyptic possibilities. Travis Chase stumbles onto a downed plane in the Alaskan wilderness, filled with soldiers and high-ranking government figures. Yet no rescue is underway—and soon Chase is drafted into a world turned sideways by The Breach, a rift in space/time that has been “leaking” incredibly advanced technology for decades. Some of the gadgets it provides seem to do nothing; others have ghastly effects; and others are incredibly powerful—and often wind up in the wrong hands. What ensues is a mind-bending adventure that continuously one-ups itself, finding increasingly clever ways to introduce these gadgets in unexpected ways. If you loved Dark Matter but felt like it needed even more insane sci-fi technology, The Breach was written for you.

The Fold, by Peter Clines
Clines’ novel has a fundamental twist at its center that essentially requires you read it twice. The first time through, this story of a teleportation device that works perfectly, save for the seemingly random times it doesn’t, is intriguing. When the twist hits, your perception of the story fundamentally changes, and a second reading is required if you want to follow the subtle trail of breadcrumbs Clines litters across the first half. The second half is a fast-paced maelstrom of action, doom, and crises of identity fans of Dark Matter will devour.

The Boys of Summer, by Richard Cox
Cox’s latest novel is a slow-burning mind-bender that builds and builds and builds its mystery, until you’re ready to burst in anticipation of the reveal. And that reveal doesn’t disappoint, landing in your brain like a seed that will take root and continue to grow and change long after you’ve finished the book. When a deadly tornado hits the small town of Wichita Falls, the lives of four young boys are forever changed in different ways. When another killer storm threatens the town in 2008, the now-grown men are drawn home to confront their childhood crimes and face down the reason they’ve all experienced flashes of other realities. Be careful: reading this one right after Dark Matter might result in a condition scientists call “Permanent Freak Out.