Upgrade

Author: Blake Crouch

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Length: 352 Pages

Release Date: July 12, 2022

Blake Crouch never disappoints with his mind-bending thrillers!

Logan Ramsay works for the gene protection agency (GPA) to thwart the plans of scientists who intend to modify genes for personal gain.  Logan’s mother was the matriarch of gene research and modification before her life’s work to end world hunger turned into the “Great Starvation” causing a sizeable part of the world’s population to die off.  One night at a raid in Denver, he triggers an IED in a house’s basement that was packed with a gene modifier.  At first everything comes back clean, but before long, Logan starts to notice that his intelligence is enhancing as is his body structure.  Logan knows that if the GPA finds out that his genome has been modified, he will be isolated and studied until they are confident they can contain what he will become.  But Logan also learns that what happened to him is just the first step in someone’s attempt to upgrade the human race so that they don’t face extinction in the future. 

If you pick up a Blake Crouch book, you know that you are going to be in for a wild ride that will likely result in sleepless nights while reading the book and after reading the book because you keep thinking about it for months.  Upgrade was no exception to his formula.  However, he changed tactics a bit and strayed from his usual focus on quantum entanglement to human gene modification.  He has also moved from being more current day to a time of a dystopian world after disasters. 

If you’ve researched much into genetics, you will find quite a bit of the same acronyms show up in his book.  Even if you haven’t, Crouch does a great job of giving readers just enough information to follow the technical jargon without having to have a biomedical degree just to keep up.  He never gets into the weeds, but makes it feel like you are reading a medical thriller.  The suspense is always top notch and its easy to connect with the main protagonist from the beginning.  I always look forward to his books.

There is quite a bit of foul language (understandable from the characters) but doesn’t take away from the storyline at all.  If you love suspense thrillers that will leave you thinking for weeks to months afterwards, Upgrade should be on your shelf!