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lovelymisanthrope's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I received this book as a gift.
"The Marriage Act" takes place in a near future world in which you can elect to upgrade your marriage to a Smart Marriage. Doing this means that you and your spouse will be monitored 24/7, but you do gain access to all the best housing, hospitals, and more. This story follows four different couples who are having their own struggles, and questioning if the government should really be this involved in their personal lives.
I thought this was a really interesting concept, and highlighted technology that is not too far off from existing. In a world where our devices are already always listening, it seems pretty plausible that Alexa could just as easily listen to our interactions and provide feedback on how to improve our relationships.
The couple in particular that really struck a chord with me was Arthur and his wife. Devastatingly, Arthur's wife passed away, but he did not want to notify the government of that because he did not want them to take her body away. They had a long and happy marriage, but because they were in a Smart Marriage, Arthur made some poor decisions that put a target on his back. In order to not lose everything, the entire life he worked so hard to build, he had to find a new wife quickly, which seems absolutely bonkers. This is a prime example as to why the government should not be involved in people's personal lives.
There was a subplot about deep fakes in this story that I think is very timely and everyone should take the time to become more aware of. It is so easy to be fooled by what you see online, and AI is advancing at such a rapid pace that you really never know if something is truly authentic.
I really enjoyed this book, and I am looking forward to reading more from John Marrs in the future.
"The Marriage Act" takes place in a near future world in which you can elect to upgrade your marriage to a Smart Marriage. Doing this means that you and your spouse will be monitored 24/7, but you do gain access to all the best housing, hospitals, and more. This story follows four different couples who are having their own struggles, and questioning if the government should really be this involved in their personal lives.
I thought this was a really interesting concept, and highlighted technology that is not too far off from existing. In a world where our devices are already always listening, it seems pretty plausible that Alexa could just as easily listen to our interactions and provide feedback on how to improve our relationships.
The couple in particular that really struck a chord with me was Arthur and his wife. Devastatingly, Arthur's wife passed away, but he did not want to notify the government of that because he did not want them to take her body away. They had a long and happy marriage, but because they were in a Smart Marriage, Arthur made some poor decisions that put a target on his back. In order to not lose everything, the entire life he worked so hard to build, he had to find a new wife quickly, which seems absolutely bonkers. This is a prime example as to why the government should not be involved in people's personal lives.
There was a subplot about deep fakes in this story that I think is very timely and everyone should take the time to become more aware of. It is so easy to be fooled by what you see online, and AI is advancing at such a rapid pace that you really never know if something is truly authentic.
I really enjoyed this book, and I am looking forward to reading more from John Marrs in the future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Murder, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Domestic abuse
nerdyprettythings's review
dark
tense
3.5
Set in the future of the world from The One (which I really loved!), this one was a little bit of a miss for me. I still really enjoyed some of the thriller aspects, but this one is much more BLEAK y’all! I feel like The One was already pretty heavy in parts, but ultimately hopeful. There are very few characters to root for here, and at the center of the story is a cartoonish government conspiracy with one shadowy main figure. I just don’t think the world was as thought through, or maybe it reflects like tech-fear headlines that are outdated now.
Also, it’s a super conservative future world where staying married is cynically the goal because it’s best for the economy - but then people say things like “body shaming is a thought crime.” So whose totalitarian future are we in? These sort of random “oh that’s illegal now” felt anachronistic.
Definitely check the TWs on this one, basically all the bad stuff happens and a lot of things are described graphically
Also, it’s a super conservative future world where staying married is cynically the goal because it’s best for the economy - but then people say things like “body shaming is a thought crime.” So whose totalitarian future are we in? These sort of random “oh that’s illegal now” felt anachronistic.
Definitely check the TWs on this one, basically all the bad stuff happens and a lot of things are described graphically
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Suicide, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Domestic abuse, and Violence
effy's review
4.25
The multiple POVs in this book meant that it took me a minute to get into this book but once I did I really enjoyed it. This was a welcome return to form for Marrs as he was completely unafraid to go as dark and twisted as the story demanded. The concept of the "Smart Marriage" was a really interesting one and the direction that it went essentially asking whether a government that was comfortable with monitoring that aspect of the population's lives would stop there.
This book was full of quite a satisfying number of twists and turns that left me audibly gasping as they were revealed. Whilst all of Marr's speculative works do have quite a Black Mirror feel to them, this was probably the book that felt most like an episode of Black Mirror and I was so here for it!
I feel quite emotional about the fact that finishing this book means that for now, my journey with John Marrs is at an end but I know that this is just a temporary break of journey until the next book comes out because Marrs is now one of my favourite authors whether he is writing thrillers or speculative fiction. Until next time...
This book was full of quite a satisfying number of twists and turns that left me audibly gasping as they were revealed. Whilst all of Marr's speculative works do have quite a Black Mirror feel to them, this was probably the book that felt most like an episode of Black Mirror and I was so here for it!
I feel quite emotional about the fact that finishing this book means that for now, my journey with John Marrs is at an end but I know that this is just a temporary break of journey until the next book comes out because Marrs is now one of my favourite authors whether he is writing thrillers or speculative fiction. Until next time...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Grief, Death, Domestic abuse, Car accident, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Mental illness, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
just_a_bibliophile's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
This was quite frankly terrifying. It felt scarily realistic. Once you get over the sort of initial sense of implausability, it makes an incredible read.
The Marriage Act is set in a world where marriage is so immensely encouraged by the government that couples who 'upgrade' to these 'smart marriages' receive benefits such as tax incentives, better healthcare, better neighbourhoods, and the list goes on. Upon signing up to this act, couples would also, essentially, give up their freedom of speech in having a device called the Audite (think the future of Amazon Alexas) monitoring their conversations to keep their marriage on track.
I really got invested in the story and the characters straight away, and it genuinely felt nightmarish. Parts of it were, undoubtedly, highly implausible and a little ridiculous, but I think for me I was too invested in it to bother with these overly ridiculous aspects. Even if the world felt a little too unbelievable at points, the situations that the characters were in felt 100% scarily real. From the toxicity of social media, to where we're heading with AI technology today, to the choices that people were forced to make, it genuinely felt like parts of the storyline could have been very much real.
My one tiny little complaint putting me off giving this the full 5 stars is just the fact that there was so many perspectives to keep up with. With the five different characters we had perspectives from, it was a little difficult to keep up with and remember who was who at the beginning. Also, I kind of wish the characters had some sort of link with each other instead of them all being completely separate from each other for the vast majority of the story.
Other than the little confusion at the start, I thought the characters' perspectives were really cleverly written. I liked how there were characters of all ages and genders and situations - it definitely made it a lot more intriguing to see how the act impacted all sorts of people. What was interesting to note was that none of the characters were particularly likeable per se - the majority of them were highly detestable - and yet the story worked really well with this.
While maybe not being the best for those who can't stand a slightly unrealistic story, I was absolutely hooked to it and would definitely recommend - I'm intrigued to read some of the author's other works.
Rating: 4.5 stars
The Marriage Act is set in a world where marriage is so immensely encouraged by the government that couples who 'upgrade' to these 'smart marriages' receive benefits such as tax incentives, better healthcare, better neighbourhoods, and the list goes on. Upon signing up to this act, couples would also, essentially, give up their freedom of speech in having a device called the Audite (think the future of Amazon Alexas) monitoring their conversations to keep their marriage on track.
I really got invested in the story and the characters straight away, and it genuinely felt nightmarish. Parts of it were, undoubtedly, highly implausible and a little ridiculous, but I think for me I was too invested in it to bother with these overly ridiculous aspects. Even if the world felt a little too unbelievable at points, the situations that the characters were in felt 100% scarily real. From the toxicity of social media, to where we're heading with AI technology today, to the choices that people were forced to make, it genuinely felt like parts of the storyline could have been very much real.
My one tiny little complaint putting me off giving this the full 5 stars is just the fact that there was so many perspectives to keep up with. With the five different characters we had perspectives from, it was a little difficult to keep up with and remember who was who at the beginning. Also, I kind of wish the characters had some sort of link with each other instead of them all being completely separate from each other for the vast majority of the story.
Other than the little confusion at the start, I thought the characters' perspectives were really cleverly written. I liked how there were characters of all ages and genders and situations - it definitely made it a lot more intriguing to see how the act impacted all sorts of people. What was interesting to note was that none of the characters were particularly likeable per se - the majority of them were highly detestable - and yet the story worked really well with this.
While maybe not being the best for those who can't stand a slightly unrealistic story, I was absolutely hooked to it and would definitely recommend - I'm intrigued to read some of the author's other works.
Rating: 4.5 stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Gore
Moderate: Dementia
Minor: Domestic abuse and Death of parent
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