The One

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.

INCROYABLE

i was initially pissed by the structure of the book, namely the back to back switch between many characters, felt like i would never be able to remember shit about them. oh boy was i wrong

absolutely loved the different plots, the twists and turns were so subtle yet effective. most chapters were short and ended with a cliffhanger, which made me even more excited to know wtf is going on

some happy endings, some less happy ones but overall a really really really interesting & well written book

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.

I started reading this a few days ago but put it down again in favour of my library books. I picked it up again yesterday because I didn't have another book right there and finished it in one sitting. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. It follows the very different fates of several characters who all decide to take a DNA test to find ‘the One', their guaranteed partner for life.I just thought it was a brilliant idea although it was a little predictable in some places but that didn't detract from my enjoyment. 

I really enjoyed this book from the get go. It has a cast of varied and interesting characters and the central concept is genuinely thought provoking. It inevitably got a little more predictable towards the end but for most of the book it was a real page turner. The short ‘chapters' also made it the perfect ‘pick up if you have 5 minutes' book.

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

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.

This book was wild. The best parts of this for me wass just exploring a ‘what if' situation. What if we were destined to have a soulmate? Who would that be, and what would the ramifications be? I love these kinds of philsophical questions and Marrs explored the answer in this book. I felt uncomfortable near the end, waiting for the impending doom, and for a book to evoke that, it must have been doing something right.

The One
by John Marrs published by Harlequin (US & Canada) Hanover Square Press has to be one of my favorite books that I have read by an author new to me this year. It was one that I couldn't put down even though I am so late on writing this review. I am thankful to Netgalley and all parties involved for receiving this arc. The review below is my honest opinion. Living in 2018 many of us know that there are more dating sites then we know what to do with. Yet we all try to find that perfect match. This book uniquely explores the concept of love that is matched by your DNA. What could go wrong right???? Here is the catch, your DNA match could live on the other side of the world, or be decades older than you, or already married, or even the same gender as you. It may not matter, you are made for each other.
Now what hooked me... The original writing the short chapters and fast paced story line. Every character has its own personality and you connect with each one even the strange ones and there are a couple of them I promise. I think that everyone is interested in finding “The One” and being perfectly suited that they sometimes get lost in the bigger picture. If you like Psychological Thrillers this is “The One” for you.

this is a fun book because of the twists, some of which i found obvious and others genuinely caught me off guard, but its a one time read which kind of ruins it a little... i dont think rereading it would be fun because without the shock of the twists theres not much going for it, i dont think it's a very good story without them... also yes nick's story was my favorite

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!