Skip to main content

 

The One: The million-copy International Bestseller – now with five chapters of exclusive bonus content!The One: The million-copy International Bestseller – now with five chapters of exclusive bonus content! by John Marrs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Ultimate Match: My Review of 'The One' by John Marrs
Would you do it? Would you spit into a plastic tube, send your DNA off to a lab, and let a geneticist tell you exactly who your perfect soulmate is?

It’s the terrifyingly brilliant premise behind John Marrs’ The One. It got me thinking about DNA tests in general. Would I ever take one to track my ancestors? It’s a thought. Would I find a link to someone infamous like Jack the Ripper? Well, no, because unless you believe the royal conspiracy theories, we still have no clue who he was! (Personally, my money is on a surgeon with power and knowledge). But back to the fiction: just how close are real-world geneticists to finding a "perfect match" for everyone? It’s a fascinating subject that will tantalise writers and us "lesser mortals" for years to come.

As for me? My answer to taking the test is a resounding no.

Genetics have come an incredible way since Watson, Crick, and Rosalind Franklin first unravelled the gene code, but human nature is far too messy for an algorithm.

The Characters: A Fast-Track of Emotion
The novel follows several characters at a blistering pace. Almost all of them are endearing—except for Christopher. Thanks to this book (and The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards), I’ve discovered a great deal about psychopathy. It makes you absolutely thirsty for more books along these dark lines! If you’ve read John’s other work, you can definitely see the fascinating comparisons between Christopher and the infamous Laura from his other books.

A Deeply Personal Connection
On a personal level, this book hit my grief buttons much higher than I ever expected. It has been two years and five months since I lost my own loved one, and seeing that finality written with such incredible strength and compassion pulled me right back into that room. There is truly nothing like that moment—it is heartbreaking, but there is also a profound, quiet beauty to it. John handles it with absolute perfection.

The Verdict
Swiftly moving past the tears, The One delivers plenty of cringe moments, audible gasps, and one brilliant moment where I burst out laughing at the sheer unexpectedness of it all.

If you have never read any of John Marrs’ books, this is the one for you. As one of his earlier works, it perfectly paves the way into his genre and gives you a magnificent taste of the powerhouse author he would become. Out of the three of his I have read, this is officially my favourite. It is, quite literally, The One.

View all my reviews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Happy Family (The Hunt Family, Book 3)

  The Happy Family by Daniel Hurst My rating: 5 of 5 stars Book Review: The Happy Family (The Hunt Family, Book 3) Author: Daniel Hurst Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (A "Sitting-on-the-edge-of-your-seat" Masterclass) If life were a game of poker, Daniel Hurst just cleared the table. The Happy Family is the explosive finale to the Hunt Family saga, and let me tell you, the cards were stacked in the writer’s favor from the very first page. I usually pride myself on spotting a twist from a mile away, but Hurst threw down a trope I simply did not see coming. The Tension: From the Sofa to the Taxi This was the fastest I have ever devours a book. From the start, the tension is cranked to the absolute limit. Because there are children involved, the stakes feel agonizingly high—you don't just want to keep reading; you have to. There were moments of temporary heartbreak that hit me unexpectedly; at one point, I found myself thinking of my own Mum, and that’s when you know a thriller has crosse...
Post a Comment
Read more

Betting Against the Master: A Review of "I Stole Your Family"

Betting Against the Master: A Review of "I Stole Your Family" I Stole Your Family by Daniel Hurst My rating: ★★★★★ (5 of 5 stars) I’ve just finished Daniel Hurst's latest, and once again, I am blown away by his writing style. He plays his cards so well that I honestly wouldn’t ever want to play a game of poker against him! This story is incredibly tense, largely because there are children involved. While they are physically safe, they are being emotionally torn apart, which is almost harder to read. If you’ve read book one, I Want Your Family , then you’ll know that Book Two is all about the "paving stones." It’s paving the way for the chaos to come, but the ground feels like it’s at a 15-degree tilt—that lingering sense of vertigo where you know things are about to slide. The whole point of a series is to let the narrative unravel slowly, and Daniel is a master of the slow burn. Your heart is in ...
Post a Comment
Read more
The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwards My rating: 5 of 5 stars A Review of The Wasp Trap written by Mark Edwards I have never read a book that gripped me quite the way The Wasp Trap did. At first, I wondered: Shouldn't it be the Honey Trap? I read the blurb and thought, Hmm, sounds like an Agatha Christie novel. You know the one—ten people go to dinner—only it wasn't called that when I had my copy, and I certainly won't repeat the original title here! I was intrigued. What could possibly happen to a group of students returning for a dinner party after 25 years? The premise immediately took me back to my own student days. It made me wonder: if I were invited to a specific reunion by one of them, would I go? After reading this book, the answer is a resounding no . I’d blame Mark Edwards for my non-attendance! I knew something was up when one of the characters couldn't even go into the yard to vape. It reminded me of when smoking was seen as a vice and we were all told to ...
Post a Comment
Read more