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bluestjuice's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
taleofabibliophile's review
2.75
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
daniallreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
What if artificial intelligence had the ability to help your marriage be happier and healthier? What if being married was the only way for you to benefit from the comforts of life? What if you were punished for being single? These are all the questions that John Marrs explores in "The Marriage Act" through the points of views of a wide variety of characters. A relationship responder, an influencer, a woman that is part of the movement to take down the government pushing AI to control marriages, a man that works deep within the government and a man who is hiding behind his marriage.
My brain is officially knocked out of my skull. "The Marriage Act" is so thought provoking and eye opening when it comes to tons of topics from artificial intelligence, social media, influencers, government, marriage (obviously), schools, families. This book seriously packs a H U G E punch. Truthfully, Marrs depicts these futuristic worlds so well that I usually end up sitting in a pile of my melted brain cells for a week.
Every single chapter left me shocked. That's why I am SO ADDICTED to John Marrs writing. I cannot get enough of the futuristic truth bombs he drops inside each of his stories.
Ps. Thank you John Marrs for Lucas and Noah having a happy ending. I was having high doubts that this novel was going to end in only destruction.
My only complaint about this story is how detailed (minor spoiler) the rape scene was. I usually pair my books with the audiobook narration and it was very hard to get through that scene. I honestly think the details probably didn't need to be included but I will say that it did do the job of making me dislike the specific character more. Good job John... but I'll take my books with less rape.
🎧 I highly recommend all of John Marrs science fiction novel's audiobooks. They always come with a full cast which makes listening to these thought provoking stories beyond entertaining. Each narrator does a great job with their performance. Seriously, I have Z E R O reasons why you shouldn't listen to these books.
💍 Black Mirror Vibes
💍 TWISTS
💍 Thought Provoking
💍 Futuristic
💍 Technology
💍 Social Media & Influencers
💍 AI
Graphic: Death, Rape, and Murder
colechapp's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Suicide and Violence
Minor: Rape
readingtotravel's review
- 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? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death and Murder
Minor: Rape and Death of parent
carissa230's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
3.75
We follow multiple couples within The Marriage Act. Some think Smart Marriages are great, others that hate it, but want the benefits, and others that outright hate it and work with the Freedom fighers of their time. The system can choose if you stay married, if you should divorce, and it's not always about the couple. Politics of course pay a huge part in all of this.
The thing about these books is they're far fetched, but they're not. I could see people that would gladly give up their privacy for better things in life. People do it all the time on social media willingly. The problem is that freedom is important, privacy is essential. As humans you need the right and ability to make decisions for yourself.
Graphic: Rape and Blood
Moderate: Violence
yvo_about_books's review against another edition
3.75
"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.
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
auscaz's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Pedophilia, Rape, and Murder
chrleee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Graphic: Death, Rape, Suicide, and Murder
nemssr's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicide