Dare to Know

For what is supposed to be a Sci-Fi Thriller, Dare to Know was underwhelming...for me anyway.

I really loved the idea of this one and was hoping for more on the “when you die” scenario. Instead that is more background noise and what we get is really the life of the narrator as he learns the algorithm that will help him pinpoint when people die, and begins to utilize it. We also get glimpses into that narrator's life, both past and present, told in jumping around flashbacks.

This is not thrilling in the sense that you are on the edge of your seat or are in a rush to pick this up and keep going. This is a slow read, packed to the brim with scientific jargon and a lot of time spent inside the narrator's head. The ending was the best part for me.

While I did enjoy this one, I didn't fully love it. I would say this is more for those who love a slower type Sci-Fi that has a lot of thinking behind the story.

I sincerely appreciate Quirk Books for providing me with a review copy. All opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone.

Dnfed sorta?
I loved the premise, a disgruntled employee/secret genius who didn't reach his perceived potential gets in a crash and it's confronted by the possibility of knowing his death date (which happens to be his trade anyway)
Commentary about how the younger generation is perceived as imprecise, as not caring for details, as instantaneous; commentary about regrets in paths chosen, and the philosophy of what would you do if you knew how long you had and would that change anything and would you want to know.
Problem is... I found it very boring. The book doesn't start until about a third of it. And even then, there is a journey, in which the MC (let's call him unreliable, but then maybe he isn't and I just wasn't following?) starts reminiscing (but like in present tense a little) and going back to now and forth. So, exhausted and whiplashed and determined to know where it went.. Admittedly... I sorta skimmed.
And at some point... Unpleasant stuff hit the fan and it became weird? That is quite a mild way of putting it, unfollowable is more like it. Either he went of the rails or the world did, but it became a different book.
And if you were in it for the premise, well, that wasn't where it started at all, it was like a long half of one book, and a short third act of another.
And then it ends. But it continues. And ends again. And again. Always sorta open-ended, but honestly I was never aware of what was happening. After about the third of those, i stopped altogether. So maybe there was more to explore and i dnfed about 97% mark.
If this review is confusing, so was i, i can't even rate it.