Thom reviewed One by John Marrs
Review of 'One' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
This book is 5 disconnected short stories shuffled into a deck of 100 chapters with an increasingly annoying cliffhanger at the end of each chapter.
The big idea is that there is a single genetic "match" for each person on the planet. The five stories are about this match (or mis-match) with plot twists. The science behind this is presented with a hand-wave, so some suspension of disbelief is required.
I think it would have read fine as 5 individual stories, with a few less cliffhangers. When you aren't interested in a story (or part of it - I could say that with all of them at some point), they feel like a chore you must read through to get back to what you want. It also adds to the page count - this book was over 400 for a reason. There characters were mostly one dimensional, the dialog mostly …
This book is 5 disconnected short stories shuffled into a deck of 100 chapters with an increasingly annoying cliffhanger at the end of each chapter.
The big idea is that there is a single genetic "match" for each person on the planet. The five stories are about this match (or mis-match) with plot twists. The science behind this is presented with a hand-wave, so some suspension of disbelief is required.
I think it would have read fine as 5 individual stories, with a few less cliffhangers. When you aren't interested in a story (or part of it - I could say that with all of them at some point), they feel like a chore you must read through to get back to what you want. It also adds to the page count - this book was over 400 for a reason. There characters were mostly one dimensional, the dialog mostly mundane. This is more of a domestic drama or romance novel than the science fiction or thriller it was billed as. For me, this was definitely not a "match".