Reviews with content warning for Grief - The One

Atmosphere 👍: Very much in the characters' heads and seeing the world through their eyes. Create imaginings without risk of the author destroying it later. The settings is varied throughout the UK and Australia depending on which character we are following.

Main POVs: 5 people who have recently received a notification they have a DNA match. They all choose to pay for access to their match's contact deets.
-A slightly naive, single adult who is close to their family but yearning for a relationship, children, and to settle down into family life
-A single adult that has been communicating on a shallow basis with their match online and is kind of in a rut. Their friends are urging them to take things to the next level (YOLO).
-An obsessive, self-described single sociopath and serial dater preying on people using "traditional" online dating apps. They are curious about if their DNA match could ever match up to them.
-A powerful, wealthy, dedicated single CEO and entrepreneur. They are hopeful but skeptical that their DNA match will be able to see beyond their wealth.
-A happily engaged adult told by their suddenly insecure fiancé to go meet their DNA match so it isn't the elephant in the room of their marriage.

Cred Rating 🤓👩‍🔬: Realistic in the narrative world and plausible in ours. Except for a nerd alert moment (see Growls and Howls).

Growls and Howls 🐺: The math and biology doesn't add up for ONE gene to be mutated to such an extent that only 2 people have the matching (or antisense matching) copy and relatives are never matched (yikes). I got around it by mentally adding an "s" to "gene", and pretending that the company developed a scientifically based algorithm for matching specific genomic sequences to find best matches. Similar to how ancestry predictions work at present.

Reading Journey 👍: Roller coaster meets monorail. Sight-seeing with twisty ups and downs.

Great match if you like:
-Not-too-distant future or alt-history (depending how you read this, it's flexible)
-Techno thrillers with utopian vibes
-Realistic sci-fi energy
-Relationship and romance dramas
-Thought-provoking commentary on how we define love and how relationships are shaped by our society and peers (include tech as a peer!)
-Does tech hurt people, or do people hurt people?
-Twisty, unpredictable plots and character studies

Vibes: 🤯🥺🥰

Format: Kindle Unlimited

Content Warnings

atalea's review against another edition

Go to review page

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!

Content Warnings