Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Marriage Act by John Marrs

10 reviews

valzsc's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This is so tragic and plausible it’s scary.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Classism

butkerfingers's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Mediocre writing and editing, unrealistic conversations, and some plot points not fully thought out. Despite all that, I did find myself having trouble putting it down by the end.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, and Terminal illness

Minor: Sexual assault and Pandemic/Epidemic

killmoore_'s review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It's hard to be disappointed with a Marrs novel, but when I say I was MAD and a little terrified by the end of this.. lol

I started the marriage act after getting about 50 pages into the Family Experiment and I'm really glad I did. Talk about infuriating though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Dementia, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Cancer, Gore, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, and Alcohol

Minor: Child death, Cursing, Drug use, Fatphobia, Infertility, Self harm, and Fire/Fire injury

emma6544's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Sexual violence, and Violence

Minor: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, and Sexual assault

yvo_about_books's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

3.75

 Finished reading: March 20th 2024

"In the end, it didn’t matter, because she couldn’t rewrite the past. She could only ensure she didn’t repeat her mistakes."

It's no secret that I consider John Marrs to be one of my favorite thriller authors, and I've read and loved the majority of his books. It's true that I tend to enjoy his dystopian/speculative thrillers most though... The Marriage Act is a stand-alone set in the same alternate near future as for example The One and The Passengers. I'm still not sure why I hadn't read it until now considering it was a most anticipated release last year... But since I was approved for the ARC of his newest story set in the same universe, I decided to play catch-up and read The Marriage Act first. It's true that each book can be read as a stand-alone, but there are some references to the previous books that you might not pick up otherwise. I have to say that this author is SO exceptional at creating extremely plausible and basically terrifying alternate futures... And this story is no different. The concept behind The Marriage Act is no less than brilliant, and its premise blew me away. Why not give it the full five stars then? This mostly had to do with the multiple POV structure slowing down the pace considerably, and the POV switches were too frequent as well. It took a little while to successfully keep all the characters apart, although I can't deny that the way the different POVs start connecting is very clever. What also put a minor damper on things was the fact that the majority of the characters are extremely unlikeable and flawed, and this made it hard to start rooting for them. The Marriage Act can get pretty dark and a lot of unpleasant secrets and trigger warning worthy topics are incorporated along the way... Some was used to show just how corrupt and terrifying this alternate future was, but still. There is no denying that the story as a whole will stay with me for quite some time though, and it's another successful speculative thriller that makes you wonder if things could really escalate to that level. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

naereads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

boop123's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Terminal illness, Dementia, Car accident, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent and Pandemic/Epidemic

effy's review against another edition

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...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Car accident, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

stacey_reads_books's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I quite enjoyed this book. It was that kind of satirical, dystopian fiction where it's not too much of a push to imagine that this could happen in the not too distant future of society. It held my interest and there were a few twists that I didn't see coming but I did have difficulty connecting with some of the characters, at times they felt a bit 2D. Possibly that is because there were many different characters and the book rotates between the POV of a few of them. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury