Not John Marrs' best work, but entertaining

Usually I love a John Marrs book and know I will be hopelessly lost in it until the end. This one though, predictable plot and a bit blah. If you have not read John Marrs other works "The One" or "Passengers" then I suggest you read those before reading this book, as the plot refers to the concepts explored in each of those earlier works and contains some spoilers.

This novel explores "Synesthesia" which is a condition that results in a joining or merging of senses that aren’t normally connected. Synesthetes may “see” music as colours when they hear it, and “taste” textures like “round” or “pointy” when they eat foods, or associate days of the week with a particular colour or smell.

There are five Synesthetes, who after passing an online 'test' are recruited by the government and used as supposedly unhackable storage devices for sensitive information, however using humans for such work is predictably fallible.

The story follows each of the five of them switching points of view in each chapter. First up, is Emilia, who woke up with amnesia, and then was taken home by her husband but she has absolutely no memory of him or their life before her amnesia. Flick, once ran a successful restaurant but then became reclusive when she found out her match "The One" was a serial killer. Charlie is depressed after feeling left behind by his friends as they all found their "The One" matches and he hadn't been matched. Sinead, trapped in an emotionally abusive and controlling marriage by her husband and finally, Bruno, a single father with anger issues, to his autistic son.

I read somewhere that "an average Marrs book is still better than most authors at their best" and I have to agree. Not his best work, but still worth a credit.

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Interesting

I found it hard to get into at first with all the different point of views but it got easier as the story went on. It was a bit slow and it was hard to stay interested but it did pick up more towards the end. Narration was good besides a few muffled moments on the females recording

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Clever - inventive, cerebral.

If you love books that tread the line between science fact and science fiction, you'll love this....which is less science fiction than part political drama, part relationships, part mystery and a whole lot of thriller.

Loved it, and the solution at the end was unguessable, a huge plus for me. I appreciate the satisfying tying up of ends, and I love really inventive, creative storylines that make me think, HARD. Above all it was entertaining.
Loved it.

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Still not totally sure…

It took a good…35 chapters before I even vaguely knew what was happening in this book. I remain however, a John Marra fan.

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It was fine…

This would have been a DNF for me if I didn’t want to read the family experiment. It just didn’t really feel like there was any purpose to the story, and somewhat gratuitous death.

The novel is fundamentally sound, regarding syntax, easily digestible writing style and a near future setting. I feel like the author is making multiple social commentaries but lacks the sophistication to execute them properly, but I felt that a lot more in passengers than minders.

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