Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The One by John Marrs

58 reviews

knitdyeread's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, and Pregnancy

pages_of_gray's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Cancer, Infidelity, and Miscarriage

cady_sass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

What a spectacular, brilliantly creative piece of writing. I couldn’t put it down and fell asleep reading it after keeping myself up way too late on a work night, that good. There are a multitude of storylines for varying characters and relationships, all centering around the universal “truth” that, in this world, there is one perfect match for everyone on earth and it’s genetically determined. Just send in a DNA sample and await your results. Simple, right? Far, far from it. Absolutely riveting, I will be thinking about this one for a long time.

Edited to add: this is sci-fi, and the science written here is obviously not sound. If you’ll be bothered by the scientific inaccuracies of the central element here then skip this, otherwise have fun pretending it’s real :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Biphobia, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Vomit, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, and Alcohol

marareading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

An amazing thriller! Imagine a company exists that has created a DNA match test to ensure that every person is matched with the ONE person on earth who is perfect for them, but only if you choose to find them. I'm this book there are multiple POVs. One of them is a serial killer. The twists had me floored. I was actually speechless. I will recommend this book from now on. I enjoyed it so much! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Gaslighting

vereadsbooks's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 Rating ★★★★☆

“If you’ve got the opportunity to love someone as much as they love you, then grab it with both hands and hold on to it for dear life.”

This is my third book on my journey to read 5 books to see if I can trust gabby tastes. A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab and soon you’ll be matched with your perfect partner the one you are genetically made for.

That’s the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Since then, millions of people around the world have been matched. But the discovery has its downsides: test results have led to the breakup of countless relationships and upended the traditional ideas of dating, romance and love.

Now five very different people have received the notification that they’ve been “Matched.” They’re each about to meet their one true love. But “happily ever after” isn’t guaranteed for everyone. Because even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking than others…


“We have roughly 100 trillion cells in our bodies and inside each of them are two metres of DNA – if you unravelled them all, they’d stretch to the sun and back a hundred times.”

Sometimes a book catches my attention because it has a good concept. But it isn't well executed. That was my fear with this book. However, John Marrs manages to execute this concept very well.


The book seems like a collection of short stories surrounding the same theme: What if a DNA test could tell you who your soulmate is?

“It’s that feeling you don’t get when you’re around anyone else, like nobody in the world matters when you’re in their company. Like you and them are this one, solitary...thing... And no matter what crap the world throws at you, you can get through it because you have them on your side.”

The book intersperses 5 points of view that show us how this DNA test affects the lives of each of the characters, generating different and unique stories that explore all the what if...

“What if it turns out our DNA doesn’t Match?” “Then we’ll be mindful that maybe we’ll need to put more effort into our relationship. Like John Lennon said, ‘All You Need Is Love.’” “Yes, but he also said, ‘I Am The Walrus,’ so let’s not hold too much credence to his pearls of wisdom.”

The One explores the negative side of science and technology applied to relationships in the best Black Mirror style. If you have any experience with this tv show, you will know that the endings are not exactly happy.


Some points of view caught me from the beginning, and others gained strength towards the end. But each story left me thinking about how science and technology affect our way of interacting and relating.

“Maybe when you took it back to basics, that’s what love really was: just being there for someone when the sun rises and sets.”

An engaging psychological thriller with short chapters that favor reading fluency and brings to the table discussions about technology, love, relationships, and especially one of the moral dilemmas of science: Is it okay to play God?



Can I trust gabby tastes on thrillers?

Rock Paper Scissors ★★★☆☆
The Silent Patient ★★★★ ½
The One ★★★★☆ 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

lavendar_fr0g's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse, Genocide, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, and Kidnapping

Minor: Incest, Sexual content, Grief, and Stalking

tenasadie's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infertility, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Chronic illness, Gore, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Car accident, and Toxic friendship

jessicohen15's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Loved this quick read! Once you catch onto the five different plot lines that don’t really intersect and keep them straight in your head - it took me 1/3 the way through to get a good rhythm - it’s an exciting page-turner until the end.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

nabaraditi's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

 This book started off as all inventions begin: as a boon. But every invention has two sides of a coin and so did Match Your DNA(MYD). And the book was brilliant. The whole time i was reading this book I was hoping that it gets turned into either a series or a movie. (P.S. It already is and I didn't know until I was done reading the book) 

I stayed up last night till 1.30am to finish the book. Its un-put-down-able!!!!! 

Firstly going through 5 different characters was a good move because we could see how MYD affects different people instead of just one character. Adding serial killer and he finding love was the cherry on top. That got intrigued in the book in the beginning. 

While reading the book, I couldn’t stop but wonder how I’d feel if MYD was a real thing in our world. I had mixed feelings about it. I think it would save us so much effort and time (and even trauma in some cases). But this effort and time that we normally put into dating and meeting and dealing with different kinds of people, kissing different frogs changes us (for good or bad depending on the individual). We learn and experience so much. We learn so much about ourselves as well. But with MYD this won’t happen as we’ll just jump to the happily ever after. (other than the whole fiasco that happens in the book cause of human mind and behaviour) 

While reading the book, I also thought that as so much weightage is given to the Matches that believe blindly believe it, then there could be placebo effect taking place.

And I’m happy to see the book talk about it

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Cancer, Miscarriage, Grief, and Pregnancy

taria's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Gaslighting