Reviews with content warning for Suicide - The Marriage Act

Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Marriage Act by John Marrs

49 reviews

planky's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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killmoore_'s review against another edition

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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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corkycheyenne's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? No

3.75

Not as good as ‘The One’ but definitely still worth the read. John’s brain is weird & wild (&scary).

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misha_ali's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I find I enjoy a lot of John Marrs' books. They're a bit absurdist in that the premise is unlikely to actually come to pass, as opposed to some dystopian premises that are clearly a step or two away from our current reality, but they're really fun and examined from several different angles.

This book is about legislation that governs marriages (lower taxes, prices on things, faster access to public services, etc. if you are part of a "Smart Marriage" as opposed to the old kind) with the caveat that the government installs devices that record ten minutes random of your discussion during the day with your spouse to make sure your marriage is "on track". If not, you're assigned mandatory reminders and tips to improve the marriage and a relationship counsellor if things don't improve with a final review by the courts that could mandate a divorce irrespective of the wishes of the people married.

Initially, I found the multiple point-of-view chapters a bit hard to follow because there is so much variety but this quickly evens out with a few reveals and things swiftly escalate towards conclusions for each of the storylines. I appreciate the rich diversity of people we follow, from a retired fireman dealing with a spouse with dementia but reluctant to let her be taken away as per the dictates of the Smart Marriage, a woman secretly working with the group opposed to Smart Marriage and trying to leave her Smart Marriage, a Smart Marriage therapist, a social media obsessed woman who takes on a controversial stance just to gain followers, and others. I appreciate when dystopian stories have that kind of coverage and have different people at various levels with their own agendas.

I don't know if I can say much about this without spoiling the plot but I enjoyed the ride and the conclusion was quite satisfying.

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taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

2.75

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ricardo_sb's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I have never read a book before that has genuinely made me so furious with how much potential it could have but then just do NOTHING.

The main thing that this book suffers from is that the author keeps using shock value as a way to (try) keep the reader engaged but when genuine twists happen, they fall flat because the they are used to the “twists” at that point. Also, NONE of the characters actually feel like people, I did not care what happened to them and where they were at the end of the story. One final thing, the plot twist concerning Jem Jones? Absolutely insane. And not in the good way.

However, I will say ONE positive thing about this book. The premise of being forced to marry is a smart idea, I just wished it was better written.

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