Jul 28, 2025
New Listen
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New Listen
Would you ever own a self driving car?
Yes! I've been in one and loved it
Yes! One could really help with my situation
Yes! Self driving cars are the future
No! I want control of the vehicle at all times
No! I don't live in an area where we need cars, anyway
No! I just can't trust it
Yes - for other reason(s)
No - for other reason(s)
Maybe. I don't know yet
Answers
November song of the day
Just finished Dead In The Water by John Marrs and OHMYGODDDDD!! The character cross overs from two of his other books!!?!!! The gasp I gusped
“People talk about how they’d do things differently if they could go back to a time of their choosing. But I’m not sure I could do any better the second time around. We are who we are destined to be. No matter what decision I made or path I took, I’d have ended up here in this moment.”
Keep it in the Family / John Marrs
The Marriage Act by John Marrs
The Marriage Act has a genuinely compelling premise with little conviction in actually exploring the ramifications of its world. Instead, it leans hard into the thriller tropes of Marrs' preferred toolbox, resulting in a story with big ideas and surprisingly little interest in the people most affected by them.
The five POV threads range from solid to outright frustrating. Anthony’s arc is by far the strongest, offering the closest thing to moral depth as he confronts the consequences of building the technology that props up the Act. Arthur’s storyline contains real emotional potential, but it’s too short and melodramatically handled to land with the weight it deserves. Roxi’s sections, meanwhile, read like a caricature of influencer culture, and her foster care background is used as a thin justification for shallow motivations that never meaningfully evolve. Corinne’s arc is a mix of political melodrama and contrivance, with little emotional grounding.
Then there is the serial killer Jeffrey, who consumes so much narrative space that the book’s social commentary ends up orbiting him, not the institution he exploits. It’s a strange choice for a dystopia centered on the oppression of single people that the only meaningful “single” POV is a (of course) bisexual predator, while the widower’s arc ends abruptly the moment his position as an actual vulnerable person in the system has begun.
Throughout, the novel gestures toward thorny issues — class, disability, loneliness, eugenics, propaganda, systemic cruelty, but rarely follows those threads long enough to say anything substantial. Amatonormativity, which you would think might be a major element considering the premise, is entirely absent.
The result is a story that seems more invested in the misery and melodrama of largely upwardly mobile middle class, upper middle class, and wealthy Smart Marriage families than in examining the broader social harm its own premise implies.
There are strong moments scattered throughout, but the book ultimately prioritizes twists over depth, spectacle over theme, and shock over substance.
Break my heart. Break it a thousand times if you like. It was only ever yours to break anyway.
-The One
Book review time. Just finished The Marriage Act by John Marrs. This is the third book I've read by him, and all three are, frankly, just shit. I don't want to be rude to anyone who does enjoy his work but I honestly can't understand how. Similarly I don't understand how anyone enjoys black olives or jazz. Just not for me.
Every book he writes has a great concept, fascinating idea that i want to see explored. Except his writing falls flat, his plots aren't compelling, and his endings are fucking awful. Every book has a Big Twist Ending which completely rug-pulls the entire plot. It's like the ending of How I Met Your Mother in book form. Total waste of everyone's time.
Don't even get me started on his characterisation. I'm pretty sure John Marrs has never actually spoken to a woman in real life. Any woman, ever.
Save your time, avoid this writer.