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A review by scrollingbooks
The Marriage Act by John Marrs
4.0
John Marrs is back on form.
The Marriage Act is literally a 'page-turner'.
Set in the near future, the government identifies married people are healthier, more productive, and less of a drain on the state. With the economy in meltdown after the recent pandemic, the solution is to incentivize marriage with tax breaks, cheap housing, and other perks. So far...not so bad...or so you might think.
But this is marriage where divorce is failure and must be prevented at all costs. This means listening devices in all homes, to identify when couples have cross words. And then a relationship counselor may be parachuted in to put remedial actions in place. But while the councilor watches...who is watching them?
And not everyone is happy with the new rules where the newly bereaved are expected to remarry within 6 months, and jobs are withheld from new graduates unless they get engaged.
And when a breakaway group of widows, singletons, and cohabiting couples form the Freedom for All party, the state must discredit them to protect what they have created.
This is a clever book. The story is truly chilling, with a Margaret Attwood-esque quality. All the elements are already in place and in theory, this dystopian future is only an election away. The individual stories were engrossing and I made the schoolgirl error of having to read just one more page... If you felt John Marrs had gone off the boil, think again...he's back and better than ever.
The Marriage Act is literally a 'page-turner'.
Set in the near future, the government identifies married people are healthier, more productive, and less of a drain on the state. With the economy in meltdown after the recent pandemic, the solution is to incentivize marriage with tax breaks, cheap housing, and other perks. So far...not so bad...or so you might think.
But this is marriage where divorce is failure and must be prevented at all costs. This means listening devices in all homes, to identify when couples have cross words. And then a relationship counselor may be parachuted in to put remedial actions in place. But while the councilor watches...who is watching them?
And not everyone is happy with the new rules where the newly bereaved are expected to remarry within 6 months, and jobs are withheld from new graduates unless they get engaged.
And when a breakaway group of widows, singletons, and cohabiting couples form the Freedom for All party, the state must discredit them to protect what they have created.
This is a clever book. The story is truly chilling, with a Margaret Attwood-esque quality. All the elements are already in place and in theory, this dystopian future is only an election away. The individual stories were engrossing and I made the schoolgirl error of having to read just one more page... If you felt John Marrs had gone off the boil, think again...he's back and better than ever.