Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The One by John Marrs

29 reviews

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

atlas_shruggs's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

 Another decidedly OK book for this year. The plot was decent, I'll give it that, and some of the characters were pretty interesting. The Novum was cool, with the whole DNA Matching, but I just didn't feel particularly invested in any of the characters and their stories. In the beginning I found Christopher's chapters to be the most entertaining, but during the end I was looking forward to Nick's chapters more than anything. I kind of felt like this book was just five books all mashed together, since they didn't really overlap at all, and some of them felt way too different from the other ones. If you made me read one of Jade's chapters and then one of Christopher's and told me they were from the same book, I would think you were lying. I'm not sure if this is because I'm not used to reading adult thrillers, but I had to make an index of the characters and their main plot points so I wouldn't get too confused.
Over all I think I just didn't really mesh with the writing style, so it was pretty average for me.
Also like, all the trigger warnings for this book, jesus. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Stalking, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, and Panic attacks/disorders

house_of_hannah's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I am actually quite surprised with how entertaining this read was in the end. The writing is simple and bland, especially for an adult novel, so I was nervous that it might end up being a DNF. However, I did find each scenario to be intriguing, and I wanted to know what happened to the characters. 

This book follows five characters/couples, which I do think is too many, as most situations stay pretty surface level. We go through each character a chapter at a time, and then that repeats until the end of the book. The characters stay in the same order throughout the entire story (Mandy, Christopher, Jade, Nick, Ellie), which I do appreciate, because it was very easy to forget who was who. The chapters are really short though, so it was a revolving door of plotlines. 

I thought the concept of the story was interesting, and as this is a thriller expect a helping of twists and turns. Most of the characters are just terrible people though, so it was honestly hard to find someone to root for. This is also more of a "tell" instead of "show" book, since the chapters are such bite size pieces, and the book itself isn't that long. 

My four star rating is just for the entertainment value I got out of this. I don't believe this is an author I would seek out. However, if you're looking for a quick and easy thriller with some romance for Valentine's Day, then this would be a safe bet. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Medical content, and Kidnapping

Minor: Homophobia, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, and Abortion

rooroo_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

This book took me in directions that I was never expecting. It was dark, it was twisted, and it was just so darn good. I loved that there were so many perspectives being followed to show the real impact of the Match Your DNA test, and the way that everyone was so different gave it dimension. At first, I really hated that we got such short chapters for everyone and that the chapter would end right as something was happening, but towards the middle and end of the book I started to appreciate the anticipation that the shorter chapters were able to create, so the next time we met that particular character there was a bigger impact from whatever was happening.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Medical content, Car accident, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

laurmich's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Kidnapping, Abortion, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Infertility, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Stalking, and Pregnancy

t_scottreviews's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

4 Stars
CAWPILE = 7.29

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Suicide, Terminal illness, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Infidelity and Kidnapping

Minor: Mental illness, Miscarriage, and Abortion

effys's review against another edition

challenging inspiring tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

I loved reading this book, I started of super interested in Nick and Christopher’s stories as they stood out as the most intriguing but each characters story gripped me throughout and made me want to know where all of them were going.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Blood, Medical content, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Abortion

wild_night_in's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

zombiezami's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I read this because I started watching the Netflix adaptation and heard that it was based on this book. I like the Netflix adaptation more overall, but I did like that this book had more worldbuilding in terms of what the geopolitical ramifications of gene matching like this would cause. Even so, I wish there was more showing, rather than telling. The twists were quite wild, but it was overall an intriguing story that made me want to know what was going to happen next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Death, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Biphobia, Body shaming, Child death, Cursing, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Car accident, and Acephobia/Arophobia

Minor: Domestic abuse and Genocide