I’m not a fast reader, but every once in a while I come across a book that I get so engrossed in that I manage to finish it in day or two. Such was the case with The One by John Marrs.
Sometimes I come across a book I just can’t put down. I find myself rushing home from work, longing to pick up where I left off and find out what happens next. With all the reading I do, you’d think I often experience those can’t-put-it-down books, but alas, such experiences are few and far between. Perhaps that is what allows us to enjoy those books that much more when they do come along.
Over the Easter weekend I finished the second book in The Naturalist series by Andrew Mayne and needed something new to read. I had The One by John Marrs on my To Read-list and had seen it mentioned here and there. Seeing that it had such high ratings, I decided to give it a try.
And less than 24 hours later, I had finished it.
Imagine a simple DNA test being the key to finding your perfect partner, the one. For the past ten years, Match Your DNA has made it possible, following the discovery of the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Now, millions of people around the world have been matched with their true love. Match Your DNA is predicted to eliminate divorce and heart break, allowing every person in the world to live happily ever after. But the discovery doesn’t have a happy ending for everyone – Matches have led to the breakup of relationships worldwide and tangled the ideas of dating, romance and love that we are used to.
In The One, five different people have got the awaited notification that they have been “Matched”. But as they meet and get to know each other, complications lead to their relationships not being the “happily ever after” they expected – because even soul mates have secrets, and some a more shocking than others.
The One is definitely what I would call an unputdownable psychological thriller. Each chapter ends on such a tense and dramatic note that you’re forced to keep reading. There’s a sense of reality to the story, the advancements in science and technology that are depicted in the novel are ones that you’d almost expect to see within our lifetime. And it highlights the complications and consequences of discoveries that we primarily see no fault in.
