A review by enmcurrie
The One by John Marrs

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

3.0

Confused as to why this book has such positive reviews .. it isn’t totally awful - the concept is so interesting, hence why I wanted to read it in the first place, and it felt very Black Mirror which is one of my favourite shows ever. The idea of a scientific ‘soulmate’ is so curious to me and it makes you consider what you would do in such a world.

However, personally I hated the fact that it’s made up of incredibly short chapters and like 5 different POVs. It just felt clunky and distracting and when something interesting happened at the end of one chapter it was slightly frustrating to have to wait for 4 more POVs before you got back to it. I think the author is over-reliant on using short and mysterious one liner cliff hangers at the end of each chapter to get you to continue reading it. Additionally, this book is riddled with cliches. Like sooooooo many. I appreciate a good twist here and there but it just felt comical and unbelievable at a point to be honest.

If I could sum it up I would say it’s one of the silliest and yet most addictive books I’ve read. It was definitely a page-turner but I genuinely wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone other than people that struggle to enjoy reading/are in a slump. The whole thing just felt slightly cringey. While it is a more ‘dystopian’ book, I think it’s important to keep it at least somewhat realistic at times, rather than just throwing a bunch of twists in there for the sake of it. 

I think the concept and the tension was absolutely fantastic - the execution was just disappointing.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings