Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The One by John Marrs

23 reviews

vivisms_82's review

dark mysterious reflective tense

4.0

Firstly, what a treat for an audiobook - five narrators! And they were terrific.

I like a book that brings to the table a premise that does not exist in our current world, but is put together well enough to make you think "what if this happened?" This book does that. As we discover page 1 (or within 15 seconds of the audiobook) a simple DNA test can match you with your ideal mate. We are introduced to several characters and how this new science does/does not change how they feel about current, past and future romantic relationships. This new way of knowing who your "perfect match" is, makes for thrilling reading and will no doubt cause much debate in bookclubs! I definitely made some audible gasps whilst reading/listening to this book :) Always a good thing.

The characters/I needed to get this off my chest(!!):

1. Ellie - ethically immoral or scientific genius? Hasn't some science and medicine in our modern world had some shady origins? Wouldn't modern science and medicine be behind without it? 2. Tim/Matthew's parents were victims of this illegal obtaining of dna - were his revenge actions then justified? 3. Jade and Kevin were an interesting couple for me - I get why Kevin did what he did for his dying brother, but can a relationship survive if you've been lying to the person you love since the beginning? Even if said person is your DNA match? 4. I found Mandy the least interesting character and frankly annoying. 5. Psychotic Pat was a curious take on the desperate, barren woman. 6. Christopher being matched with Amy, a police woman initially made my eyes roll until I thought "wait, this could get juicey!" And it did. Getting into Christopher's mind and even having a serial killer in the mix was (I thought) clever of the author. That couple made me think a lot. 7. And the scenario that made me the most invested in was Nick and Alex. It also made me the most disappointed - mainly because I think it had potential to be teased out further and parts felt lazy compared to the rest of the writing. Deepak's wife happening to work with his match - yes out of all the millions of options on the planet she is 2 degrees of separation - was one of the few things in this book that made me wanna scream - why do author's do this? It's flippin preposterous and your reader will always be unimpressed. Sally dying (for me) was too neat; means she doesn’t have to deal with the consequences of her and Deepaks scheming - this could have been less tidy if she had survived and more satisfying. Withholding this important information is fucking selfish and I wish that was explored further. Sally pushing her bf to do the test. Then Sally became a goddam hypocrite. What did she think was gonna happen when a mixed race kid came out? Essentially is still an affair whether she is your match or not. Manipulation. And poor, little Dylan. Rejected by Deepak and Sumaira!! Nick was rightly disgusted. 2 wrongs do not make a right but geesh. Yes that last scenario made feel like I got a cake without the icing. I wanted more dammit and he had set it up beautifully to be more!

Overall I enjoyed this book and all the teasing out of scenarios was intriguing. The questions it raises if such science does become available was thought provoking, reflective and marvellous. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Cancer, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Abortion, and Fire/Fire injury

*Some scenes, I found quite gory

The detail of what Christopher did to some of his victims made me nauseous. I get it kinda had to be there but ewww.

mal_reads_books's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

This was an entertaining read and easy to get into. I enjoyed the twists. The cliffhangers at the end of each chapter kept me flipping for more. Out of the 5 storylines, my favorite was Christopher’s: psychopathic serial killer matches with police officer and tries to balance dating life with his murder challenge.

I would’ve preferred the book focus on each storyline from start to finish, or at least make the chapters longer, instead of jumping between each one every 3-4 pages. The rotation being in order, however, made it at least easier to follow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Miscarriage, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Cancer and Infidelity

natashalg's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.5

The story was well-written and definitely a page turner. I loved seeing how each characters story unfolded and the book explored some deep and unsettling themes. However, I don't know if I love the ending for a couple of characters

(Mandy - this is creepy to me, Ellie - is everything she learned about opening up just forgotten?)

I also wish the science was explored more especially about genes being passed down/sharing genes with someone (think about twins - how would their matches work?), but I understand this was just a story and not everything has to be 100% logical and fact based. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Dementia, Car accident, and Abortion

mairi99's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Death, Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Pedophilia

lucyyybee's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

4.5

Definitely a page turner with a lot of surprises. I enjoyed it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexual content, and Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Cursing, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Sexism, and Death of parent

themoodreader's review against another edition

dark 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

roseschlumpf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Mental illness, and Murder

readingwithmeredith's review against another edition

Unexpected gore and detailed serial killer info, couldn’t push through because it was too graphic. Should have read the TW before reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Torture, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

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