Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The One by John Marrs

108 reviews

atalea's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I loved this book so much, I read it in a day! The book felt like it could have been a Black Mirror episode which is one of my favourite tv series of all time.

The book follows 5 different individuals in various stages of their lives as they decide to use their DNA in order to find their soulmate. The multiple PVO's led to various explorations of this topic and the consequences it had on their respective lives. The chapters were short which meant you were never too long with one POV and made for an addictive read.

If you're a fan of Black Mirror or just speculative fiction in general, I can highly recommend this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Pregnancy, and Infidelity

Moderate: Kidnapping, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Minor: Suicide attempt, Violence, and Miscarriage

rachelkreadsbookz's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

Graphic: Gun violence, Torture, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Vomit and Miscarriage

Minor: Child death

effy's review against another edition

4.25

I found it a little difficult to get into this book at first because there are quite a few POVs and they all follow very different narratives that don't really cross-over. Once I got a handle on each storyline and the narratives connected with them, I really started to enjoy this book and was really, really hooked.

The multiple POVs did a really good job of building tension and keeping me itching to pick this book up. They were also really good at showing a variety of scenarios where Match Your DNA could impact people's lives.

I quite enjoyed that a number of the plotlines seemed somewhat open endings but in a way that felt like the natural conclusion to their stories, if that makes sense? The twist

that the system was hacked to create deliberate mismatches throws the rest of the story into an interesting light and I enjoyed that it was up to the reader to decide who were genuine matches.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Emotional abuse, Murder, Infidelity, and Cancer

ruthypoo2's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

What a unique premise: a little sci-fi mixed with romance and murder... YES! In The One, author John Marrs really digs deep into the psyche of how several people react emotionally and morally when matched by genetics to the person with whom they are most compatible and have undeniable physical chemistry. But is knowing who your one true match is a blessing or a curse? According to this book, it could go either way.

The story is told from multiple perspectives, and each has a very different and personal experience. I found all of them to be interesting, and their actions I found relatable as honest-to-goodness human behavior. The book moves at a pretty quick pace with each chapter dedicated to one character at a time, and there's often a little cliffhanger, including an eventual twist or two, to conclude the chapters. It was most definitely a page-turner for me. The conclusion of the story was very satisfying and just a gratifying ending for the book.

NOTE: I watched the Netflix series after reading the book, and while the short series is a good story, in a few ways it's very different from the book and a lot more time with less emotional investment expected from the viewer. I recommend reading the book first because it's a lot deeper, more complex, and the characters so much richer.

I listened to the audiobook and having a cast perform the narration was fantastic. There are a lot of personalities, and it helped me get to know them by having narrators bring to the reading different voices, vocal inflections, and emotions. I'd say audio really did enhance my experience with this story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Kidnapping

readsbymoonlight's review against another edition

emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

This book was crazy banana pants but I ate it up! Never read a book before in which every chapter ended in a cliffhanger and had my jaw dropping as all this messy drama unfolded. Hopefully, the Netflix show improves on a few of the storylines and it will be entertaining as heck. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Cancer, Death, Pregnancy, and Terminal illness

Minor: Miscarriage, Infertility, Infidelity, and Kidnapping

astroerica's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Grief, Pregnancy, and Murder

Minor: Kidnapping and Suicidal thoughts

dazzle_spider_reader_1212's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage and Murder

Moderate: Stalking

Minor: Infidelity, Blood, Body shaming, Car accident, Child death, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Dementia, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, Cancer, Medical content, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Alcohol, Death of parent, Mental illness, and Suicide attempt

chloestansifer's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Death, Cancer, and Mental illness

Moderate: Cancer and Kidnapping

Minor: Alcoholism, Miscarriage, Alcohol, Stalking, and Domestic abuse

cady_sass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

What a spectacular, brilliantly creative piece of writing. I couldn’t put it down and fell asleep reading it after keeping myself up way too late on a work night, that good. There are a multitude of storylines for varying characters and relationships, all centering around the universal “truth” that, in this world, there is one perfect match for everyone on earth and it’s genetically determined. Just send in a DNA sample and await your results. Simple, right? Far, far from it. Absolutely riveting, I will be thinking about this one for a long time.

Edited to add: this is sci-fi, and the science written here is obviously not sound. If you’ll be bothered by the scientific inaccuracies of the central element here then skip this, otherwise have fun pretending it’s real :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Blood, Death, Grief, Terminal illness, Cancer, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Cursing, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Murder, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Infidelity, Homophobia, Abortion, Infertility, Miscarriage, Car accident, Biphobia, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Vomit, Medical content, and Medical trauma

komaedacoffee's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Yeeeesss

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Abortion, Acephobia/Arophobia, Child death, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Suicide attempt, Stalking, and Suicidal thoughts