From the bestselling author of THE ONE, now an eight part NETFLIX series. Set in the same world as THE ONE, THE MARRIAGE ACT is a dark, high concept thriller.
‘One of the most exciting original thriller writers’ Simon Kernick
What if marriage was the law? Dare you disobey?
Britain. The near future. A right wing government believes it has the answer to society’s ills – the Sanctity of Marriage Act which actively encourages marriage as the norm, punishing those who choose to remain single.
But four couples are about to discover just how impossible relationships can be when the government is monitoring every aspect of our personal lives, monitoring every word, every minor disagreement…And it will use every tool in its arsenal to ensure everyone will love, honour and obey!
BLACK MIRROR meets thriller with a dash of Naomi Alderman’s THE POWER.
Book information: Print Length: 400 pages. Publisher: Macmillan. Publication Date: 19 January 2023
John Marrs is the author of #1 Best Sellers The One, The Good Samaritan, When You Disappeared, The Vacation, Her Last Move, The Passengers, The Minders and What Lies Between Us. Keep It In The Family and The Marriage Act are released soon.
What Lies won the International Thriller Writers’ Best Paperback of 2021 award.
The One has been translated into 30 different languages and is to be turned into an eight-part Netflix series starting in autumn 2020.
After working as a journalist for 25-years interviewing celebrities from the world of television, film and music for national newspapers and magazines, he is now a full-time writer.
Follow him on Twitter @johnmarrs1 Facebook: @johnmarrsauthor Instagram: @johnmarrs.author website: johnmarrsauthor.co.uk
My Review:
It’s no secret that I am a huge fan of John Marr’s writing and that I have followed his career for years as a reader and friend, so when he asked me to read his latest book The Marriage Act prior to final edits and proofing as usual I jumped with joy and said “Yes, please!”.
John Marrs’ books are all standalones and fit within the genres of pyschological thrillers or speculative fiction. The Marriage Act is his latest novel which sits firmly in the speculative fiction category, but as with his other books in this genre, The One and The Passengers, this story could be a scary glimpse into the not-too-distant future.
Set in the same world as The One, the government believes in “Marriage” and has passed laws to encourage couples to sign up to The Marriage Act. These couples are offered huge tax benefits, jobs, security, homes and healthcare as long as they live by The Marriage Act’s very strict rules and regulations.
One of these rules includes having a device called The Audite in your home which listens to everything you say and decides if your marriage needs outside help. The interventions come in stages and if the goverment think your marriage is in trouble they send in the professionals (Marital First Responders) to help save or dissolve your marriage.
As you would expect from John Marrs, the story is cleverly plotted with some frightening realistic scenarios and some brilliant characters. This story might be speculative fiction, but it’s also thought-provoking. We follow 4 very different couples as they try to live under The Marriage Act.
I would 100% recommend this book if you loved The One, and I can definitely see this being made into another Netflix drama and in my opinion, this is his BEST book yet in the speculative fiction genre.
