The One
Ratings233
Average rating4
That was incredibly disappointing. The best thing about it was that the chapters were short so it was easy to make progress and get through it.
I picked this up as a break from two long anthologies I'm reading and there was so much buzz about it. Ultimately it is the poster child for melodrama. I don't really like when people are seemingly driven to extreme measures, or choose to do so in what seems a cheap and easy manner. Ultimately I only cared about one of the characters. This is the kind of book that promotes “mean world” syndrome where everyone lies or is a psychopath or manipulator or strives to outdo others in reprehensible behavior.
I should have known when the selling points for the book were about the premise of the DNA Matching and the next thing someone would say would be “and someone is matched with a serial killer, and one man is matched with another.” I guess that is the literary equivalent of liking to play Cards Against Humanity.
This was a kind of exercise with a fun concept that was handled well from start to finish and managed to build a decent feeling of story arc despite the disparate casts of characters.
There were a lot of characters but very relatable. The last half of book was
This was very interesting to read, I feel like with the technology we have today, someday there might be an actual version of matchyourdna.com.
Read this if you love
-multiple povs( I think it was 5 characters if im not mistaken)
-VERY short chapters(this was a 400+ page book but it was so easy to fly thru it coz of the short chapters)
-Cliffhanger endings on abt 3/4 of chapters and since we followed each character in order I was just flipping pages trying to find out what happened to each character.
-Characters with dark secrets
-Black mirror-esque (I couldn't continue the full series after the 1 ep. The 1 ep of black mirror scarred me for life,but I saw many ppl saying it was similar so thought I shud mention it)
I loved how the book showed us the dangers of online dating, coz who knows what ppl hide.
At times the book did feel a bit slow/boring coz we had been following the same characters lives and it felt like the same thing being repeated over and over again but other than this I really enjoyed reading it:)
If you asked me to pick a favorite “match” couple, its Nick's one no doubt abt that.The last para in the last chap with him left a HUUGEE smile on my face!!
Trigger Warnings ⚠️
Violence, death, illness, miscarriage.
3.5. I felt like there were too many perspectives and by the time I'd care about someone we'd be off to the next one and I'd forgotten about the other person by the time we got back to them.
it was a little bit boring in some parts and i think it should be shorter but the constant plot twists, good characters and short chapters made it very enjoyable and quick to read. overall i liked it alot and my fav pov was deff Nick
This was one of the quickest reads in a while for me (just forgot to update on Goodreads
..kinda half-baked? chapters were too short for the amount of things happening within them, which made it harder to connect with characters & their stories. the thing is that all of them were interesting enough to deserve more attention and development and instead they all felt too rushed like there was a page limit for the author..
A very gripping story-line with a set of tales centralizing over the concept of having your one true soulmate or your ‘match'.
Each character presented a unique perspective and personality while exploring the concept of having a dna match, where science seems to take the upper-hand and plays god in an otherwise normal world.
Overall, an interesting, suspenseful read
Haven't finished a book this fast in a long time. Twists at the end of every chapter that kept you wanting to go on! Marrs does such an amazing job at creating characters and connecting them to you. He somehow blended every genre perfectly into this novel, and you feel every heartbreak and happy moment. Can't even pick my favorite storyline cause they were all so enthralling.
tl;dr Enjoyed it, would receommend.
I can certainly see why its so popular. I wouldn't call it SciFi though. The initial premise might be, and it is forward/present looking, but thats as close to science fiction as it gets.
I really enjoyed this book. I picked it up from the library on a complete whim. It sounded cool, and I thought I remember the premise on netflix (I later did learn that yes, it is a series). I'm not normally a fan of the story split up characters point of view. It often feels disjointed. But honestly I don't think this book would have worked any other way. There's so many twists and unexpected turns, if it just focused on one character, or even worse one then the next, it wouldn't work, and wouldn't be suspenseful.
If anything I could have done with one less character, just so the rest got more fleshed out, but honestly I wouldn't want to nix any of them, I liked all of them.
I loved this book. It was full of twists and turns! So many surprises. I was really satisfied with the ending. Such a good read. I'm interested to see how the Netflix series compares to the book.
After reading John Marrs' novel What Lies Between Us, I knew it was only a matter of time before I picked up The One and let me tell you, I was not disappointed. The book started a little too slow for my liking but then it picked up and the ending really just sealed the deal for me. John Marrs remains an auto-buy author for me and I will be picking up all his other works eventually, that is for sure.
To begin with, The One is about a matching service of the future, a potential love interests' DNA is looked at to find the one little bit that perfectly coincides with another person's DNA and that is your perfect match. This is a love like no other you will ever experience and five people are about to find out just how life changing finding “the one” is for them and the lives they have constructed so carefully. I freaking loved the premise of this book and the plot is downright genius. How the author came up with this is beyond me and the book deserves all the hype it has gotten, that is for sure. I loved how we followed five different people as they discovered who their matches were and then followed them as their lives completely turned upside down. Even though it wasn't the traditional thriller right off the bat, once I got into all the different characters, I had no problem getting through the rest of the book. Amazing premise!
Secondly, the characterization in this book is excellent. I love dark and messed up people doing dark and messed up things and that's just what I got. The author did not play it safe and I found myself stressing along with the characters, afraid of what would happen to them next. There was definitely the fear factor of being matched and how it caused seemingly normal people to do things they would have never imagined doing in their lives up to that point. The characters were very flawed and it was amazing to see them going through these insane circumstances and they were very relatable because they acted out of an irrational place, which made sense considering the circumstances surrounding them. Loved it!
Finally, the writing was precise and to the point, which I find very enjoyable in John Marrs' novels. It made it a lot easier to get into the book and keep going, without having to go back and reread parts of it. I also loved that the chapters were so short because that kind of format is my favorite and makes me want to get through the book even faster.
In conclusion, even though this is not your typical thriller, once you get into it, it's really hard to put it down because you will want to find out what is going to happen to the five different characters that the book is centered around. I would recommend it to anyone who likes dark and twisted novels, with a hint of mystery to it that's not revealed until the very end. I would definitely recommend you give this book a try, it's not like anything I've ever read before!
One sentence synopsis... What begins as a very ‘Black Mirror' premise- what if there was a DNA test that could find your perfect match- goes off the rails for five strangers. .
Read it if you like... page-turning, fun thrillers. I read it in one sitting thanks to the super short, character jumping chapters. The original premise is ‘Black Mirror' but the insane twists are straight out of ‘Riverdale'. .
Dream casting... The book was picked up and production was set to begin this summer... but since that's likely delayed I'll offer my casting advice to Netflix free of charge. John Boyega as Nick, a young man who just got engaged to the woman of his dreams.. but before they walk down the aisle his fiancé wants to get tested and confirm their Match. Shailene Woodley as Ellie, a workaholic who has push aside her emotions for years until her Match shows up. Jessica Barden as Jade, a young woman in crisis who travels across the globe to meet her Match.
The One by John Marrs is an interesting look at love in the digital age and the power of suggestion. In another sense, it's also about what lengths people will go to in the name of the ends justifying the means, and also profits. The book is told through the story lines of several different characters, most of which never really intersect expect in that they all take place in the same world and revolve around the MatchYourDNA service. Some of the plots were pretty interesting, but overall the book didn't have quite enough special sauce for me. I'm not sure this one is really greater than the sum of its parts. Although the story line and premise is interesting, I feel like being told who to love has been a recurring theme in dystopian fiction. So while the premise is tried and true to the point of questioning why we need another such story, the interesting part about The One is that it's ultimately imposed simply by consumerism and social pressure, there is no totalitarian entity dictating what anyone has to do. The book paints an all too plausible picture of the influence major corporations have on people's lives, and asks the question of what the nature of love is? It also questions the faith many have placed in big business, and forces the reader to consider how technology and systems designed to prefect the human experience, may ultimately hinder it. It was a good read, but not a capital G great one. 3.5/5
The more I think on this the more I did not fully enjoy it. While the writing was good and engaging the end kind of ruined it for me. I'm all about the pay off of a novel and this one did not have a good pay off at all.
I'll still be trying this author's other novel though because the mix of scifi/thriller + some commentary on society was good.
Updated: March 2022. This book and the story stuck with me throughout the years so I'm bumping this up to 4 stars. The more I sit with this story the more I think this book is a must read
Recensie van het audioboek
Fantastisch boek! Fantastisch concept! Fantastisch geschreven! Een absoluut briljant verhaal, met zo'n unieke perspectieven en een perfect einde. Schitterend.
I have been sitting with my thoughts on this one for a few days to decide how I wanted to rate it and I think I have to give it 5 stars. Every single story could have been its own separate book. I definitely will look for more John Marrs stuff in the future because The One was such a unique and interesting read.
Definitely requires some suspension of disbelief regarding the genetic science part (which is left deliberately vague, and that's probably for the best) and you need to buy into the premise that there's one specific person who is your best fit; but as long as you can get past that, it's an interesting read. How would society actually change if you could be matched to one specific person? And how would different people handle the knowledge? A fun read.
An easy read with fun twists and turns. Looking forward to The Netflix series.
