Reviews with content warning for Cancer - The One

Atmosphere 👍: Very much in the characters' heads and seeing the world through their eyes. Create imaginings without risk of the author destroying it later. The settings is varied throughout the UK and Australia depending on which character we are following.

Main POVs: 5 people who have recently received a notification they have a DNA match. They all choose to pay for access to their match's contact deets.
-A slightly naive, single adult who is close to their family but yearning for a relationship, children, and to settle down into family life
-A single adult that has been communicating on a shallow basis with their match online and is kind of in a rut. Their friends are urging them to take things to the next level (YOLO).
-An obsessive, self-described single sociopath and serial dater preying on people using "traditional" online dating apps. They are curious about if their DNA match could ever match up to them.
-A powerful, wealthy, dedicated single CEO and entrepreneur. They are hopeful but skeptical that their DNA match will be able to see beyond their wealth.
-A happily engaged adult told by their suddenly insecure fiancé to go meet their DNA match so it isn't the elephant in the room of their marriage.

Cred Rating 🤓👩‍🔬: Realistic in the narrative world and plausible in ours. Except for a nerd alert moment (see Growls and Howls).

Growls and Howls 🐺: The math and biology doesn't add up for ONE gene to be mutated to such an extent that only 2 people have the matching (or antisense matching) copy and relatives are never matched (yikes). I got around it by mentally adding an "s" to "gene", and pretending that the company developed a scientifically based algorithm for matching specific genomic sequences to find best matches. Similar to how ancestry predictions work at present.

Reading Journey 👍: Roller coaster meets monorail. Sight-seeing with twisty ups and downs.

Great match if you like:
-Not-too-distant future or alt-history (depending how you read this, it's flexible)
-Techno thrillers with utopian vibes
-Realistic sci-fi energy
-Relationship and romance dramas
-Thought-provoking commentary on how we define love and how relationships are shaped by our society and peers (include tech as a peer!)
-Does tech hurt people, or do people hurt people?
-Twisty, unpredictable plots and character studies

Vibes: 🤯🥺🥰

Format: Kindle Unlimited

Content Warnings

roseschlumpf's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

3.0

Content Warnings

effy's review against another edition

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4.25

I found it a little difficult to get into this book at first because there are quite a few POVs and they all follow very different narratives that don't really cross-over. Once I got a handle on each storyline and the narratives connected with them, I really started to enjoy this book and was really, really hooked.

The multiple POVs did a really good job of building tension and keeping me itching to pick this book up. They were also really good at showing a variety of scenarios where Match Your DNA could impact people's lives.

I quite enjoyed that a number of the plotlines seemed somewhat open endings but in a way that felt like the natural conclusion to their stories, if that makes sense? The twist

that the system was hacked to create deliberate mismatches throws the rest of the story into an interesting light and I enjoyed that it was up to the reader to decide who were genuine matches.

Content Warnings

frolickingandfantasy's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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frantically's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This made me root for a serial killer — make of that what you will.

I received "The One" years ago as a birthday present and picked it up again on a whim. At first I was a bit hesitant. There are five stories, that interact very very little until the end.

But after a few 100 pages or so, I'd really gotten invested in 4/5 stories and wanted to see them continue. There were really surprising twists, that I didn't anticipate at all and towards the end, all the already short chapters (my fav) ended cliffhanger-ish and I couldn't put the book down anymore. Definitely one of my new favourite thrillers!

Content Warnings

triple_m's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

A really fun concept, and with such short chapters will cliff hanger endings it was a fast and entertaining read.

Of course, following five people, not all of the characters are going to be likable and the stories aren’t equally interesting. My least favorite to read about was Mandy.

I predicted like 90% of the “twists” but I still enjoyed the ride.

Really weird anti-abortion sentiment in the middle?????? The fuck was that about?

P.S. I would never in a million years consider this a romance and I’m annoyed that it’s categorized as one on here.

Content Warnings

reesespuff6's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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