Book Review: Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Let me establish my credentials as a Blake Crouch fan before I do this: Dark Matter got five stars from me. So did Pines and Wayward. Recursion got four. I tell you this up front so you know exactly how much goodwill Upgrade was working with when it missed.

The spoiler-free premise: a genetics-crimes agent gets hacked at the genome level (upgraded, you might say) and starts becoming something more than human. A classic Crouch big swing.

What I Loved About Upgrade by Blake Crouch

The concept, full stop. Nobody in commercial fiction swings at giant what-ifs like Crouch does, and “what if the next hacking target is your own DNA” is a great one. I’m a huge fan of this writer precisely because he commits to ideas this size, and the ambition here is real.

What I Didn’t Love About Upgrade

Two craft problems drained the emotional teeth out of this one for me. First, there’s no true villain. I harp on passive protagonists all the time, but the mirror-image problem is a story with nobody to push against, and without a real antagonist the premise never builds the pressure it needs.

Second, the main characters run cold, and their coldness is contagious. Crouch’s signature trick is being fast and emotional at the same time (it’s why Dark Matter is an all-timer for me), and this one is fast and chilly. By the time the ending arrives, it feels like an inevitability instead of a victory.

Final Thoughts on Upgrade

Not a bad book — a middle-of-the-shelf one from a writer whose best work I’ll never stop recommending. Crouch’s other books are simply better, and life is short.

My final score: 3 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Do I recommend this book? ❌ Skip it unless you’re a Crouch completionist (I clearly am one). Start with the Wayward Pines series, then finish up with Recursion.

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