Netflix loves a good story— the type of tale prone to promoting negligence in those who are supposed to be doing something productive over the course of an 8 to 12 hour period. So it’s no wonder the streaming superpower decided to adapt Blake Crouch’s new novel, Recursion, nine months before it ever even hit the shelf. Fresh off his New York Times bestseller Dark Matter (also being turned into a movie), Crouch continues his revved-up, heart palpitating wordsmithing with Recursion. With the upcoming Recursion universe (planned film and subsequent series), Netflix has decided to take full advantage of Crouch’s cinematic flair and rising fan base. Here are 5 reasons why Recursion will rock our screens.
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5 Reasons Recursion Rocks
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It's romantic in a surreal way.
The best romances are the ones you don't see coming. They blindside you and then stay with you long after the first kiss or that last longing look. Crouch's book does this in a way that will surprise you; Recursion covers multiple lifetimes of love, laughter, and exhaustion — sometimes retreading familiar territory and other times showing you something completely different. With limitless narrative options, Netflix should have no problem exploring every nook and cranny of Crouch's novel: a novel that is arguably about serenity, love, and finding your place in the world.
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Prozac prescriptions will sell like hot cakes.
Recursion is about an impossible situation peppered with a dash of hope and marinated in dread. There are nuclear apocalypses (yeah, plural), kidnappings, gunfights, and car accidents involved. This is the type of tale where no one is ever safe. When it's all said and done, this is the type of story that leaves you feeling a little bit better about your own circumstances. As the characters conquer, fail, and ultimately make peace with their subsequent realities, so do we.
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It's cinematic yet still original.
Large. Thought-provoking. Similarly to how Christopher Nolan brought us mind-benders like Memento, The Prestige, Inception and Interstellar, Blake Crouch created Recursion. He had a thought: we essentially live in our memories—past and present. What if we were to alter the way in which our brain processes and remembers reality? The result is a high-stakes and surprisingly organic story with characters the reader cares about: an NYPD detective and a scientist who's devoted her life to Alzheimer's research and experimentation.
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It's bingeable AF.
As previously mentioned, the cornerstone of Netflix's money bin is the binge. Recursion is one of those stories that demands to be consumed immediately. We need to know what happens before, after, and during all at once. It's a true vision-blurring read.
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You must be at least this tall to ride this ride.
The story's momentum builds much in the same way as a roller coaster — a panic-inducing and exhilarating roller coaster. At the beginning, the book follows Barry, an NYPD officer trying to talk a woman out of jumping to her death. The woman suffers from a worldwide pandemic known as False Memory Syndrome (FMS), a condition where the inflicted remember whole other lives that they supposedly never had. Just when Recursion has you believing you know where the story is going, you lose your footing.
