The One: Now a major Netflix series!
£0.90
NOW A MAJOR NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES
HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO FIND THE ONE?
A No. 1 ebook bestseller and featured on Simon Mayo’s Radio 2 book club. Perfect for fans of BEHIND HER EYES and BLACK MIRROR.
One simple mouth swab is all it takes. A quick DNA test to find your perfect partner – the one you’re genetically made for.
A decade after scientists discover everyone has a gene they share with just one other person, millions have taken the test, desperate to find true love. Now, five more people meet their Match. But even soul mates have secrets. And some are more shocking – and deadlier – than others…
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With over 3000 5* reviews, this is what real readers are saying about this addictive, page-turning thriller:
‘I just couldn’t stop reading’
‘Brilliant twists that I didn’t see coming’
‘One of the most gripping stories I’ve read for a long while’
‘I was hooked and didn’t want it to end’
(Note: Previously published as A Thousand Small Explosions)
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Additional information
| Publisher | Cornerstone Digital, 1st edition (30 Jan. 2020) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 7821 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 418 pages |
| Page numbers source ISBN | 1785035622 |
by Lauren H
Good book, read in about 2/3 days.
Easy read and kept me wanting to know more till the end.
Happy with my purchase.
by Wendy
As one who is an avid reader, this is one of the best books I have read in ages. A real page turner and the ending was unreal. Storyline was just brilliant, really enjoyed it.
by gp
Plausible and thrilling. I felt like I was part of the lives of each of the characters, with the twists shocking me as much as them. Great work.
GD Parker – Author
by Spicewalker
Never having been interested in close human entanglement, I’ve often wondered how anyone can declare they have found their ‘soul mate’ or ‘the love of their life’ unless they had met absolutely every person on the planet. What if there was another ‘one’ out there? How can you possibly know. You’ve simply met the most compatible ‘one’ of all the people you had met up until that particular point in your existence surely? Do go and meet the remaining several billion people on the planet and prove me wrong by all means… Yes folks. I’m truly as romantic as herpes.
So… This book takes all of my cynicism regarding love and kicks it up a notch (apparently that is possible). The result is a book which is often humorous, sometimes poignant, occasionally cloying (romance – yuk), tense, thrilling and completely and utterly compelling.
I listened to this book in a single day. Centred around several singletons and even some couples, this is what the world would look like if Match.com and Amazon got married, cross bred and had lots of little internet-dating/world-dominating genetically engineered babies. Some bright spark has identified a genetic marker which signifies a couple as being the perfect pair, the ones who are meant to be together, revolutionising not only internet dating but the whole concept of love as we know it. Causing rifts in seemingly perfect families and matching complete strangers from across the globe, it is almost taboo to be in a relationship which has not been genetically engineered. And here is where our story begins.
From the woman who finds her perfect match only to have her dreams crushed by tragedy, to the couple who are certain they are meant to be and yet are not genetically matched, even down to the text sharing lovers separated by the entire globe, there is no denying the power of finding ‘the one’. There is no pairing too taboo, no boundary, either religious or financial which cannot be transcended, and the evidence for the success of this genetic matching is compelling. And yet not everyone is happy. Is it truly possible that relationships are based purely on nature and not nurture?
Perhaps part social commentary on the need for perfection in everything in life, it is certainly a concept which takes the challenge and uncertainty out of dating, that opens up the door for the ‘less desirable’ in life to find their dream match, however seemingly unlikely. But would it remove the fun too? If you know you are meant to be together because your genes dictate it. Is not the fun in the chase, the uncertainty and the steady blossoming of a fledgling romance?
Don’t be fooled by the premise of the story. This is not all blind romance and gushing luvviness. There is a lot of tragedy within too, as well as deception galore. No matter what genetics dictates, this is a story of human beings after all and lord know we’re a race that excels at conning and controlling each other. Some deception is with the purest of motives, some by misguided love and some, worst of all, by the need for revenge. Along side all of the relationship drama, a rumbling undercurrent of unease, the certainty that something is not quite as it seems, keeps the interest levels high, for me at least.
This is a very clever book. Perhaps not for all, but I loved the writing style and to be honest the story definitely lends itself to the audio format. All of the disclaimers read out relating to the things that the company ‘Match Your DNA’ could not be held accountable for which were read out at the beginning set the tone of the rest of the book and certainly meant I left the end of my street already with a smile on my face. From moments of great tension as the story wound to it’s conclusion, the satisfaction of guessing what one of the characters nefarious intent was, to the need for one of the most star-crossed pairings to finally get their happy ending, it had everything I needed in a book. Yes – I got a bit mushy with that last one. I’m anti-relationship for me, I’m not inhuman. Everyone had to at least want that one to work out. I can’t tell you why but I really did like Nick and hoped he got his happy ending.
And then there was Christopher. Now what to say about Christopher. He was probably the most and yet least likely person you would expect to see on this particular dating app and if you read the book you’ll understand why. Now don’t shout at me for this, the guy is not someone you should really like, and I don’t really know why but of all the characters, I really did like him. Perhaps because his inclusion is so out there compared to the other stories of people looking for love but then his match is just so ironically amusing that it makes you smile. The guy is twisted but if the concept of ‘the one’ is correct, there really is someone for everyone, no matter how wrong they may be. And this pairing is so tantalisingly incompatible and completely wrong that it is also very, very right.
Loved this book. Loved the styling. Loved the audio. Go on and try it. You might like it.
by Clairey ????
I debated on whether or not I would leave a review on this book. Before I give my review I do want to say that I love John Marrs books, and this is the first I’ve read of his that I really struggled with.
The book really had the potential to be a 5star read for me, but the characters were so flat, and one dimensional. There are a ton of twists in the book, but I feel like I could see most of them coming from super early on in each separate story line.
As much as I love John Marrs’ writing, this one just wasn’t it for me.
by Mrs Helen S Leecy
Loved this book, it was fast paced and kept you wanting to read the next chapter. Each chapter was by a different character, spanning five characters, so it alternated, but at the end of each characters chapter, there was always a mini-cliffhanger so you would have to wait for five chapters to find out what was going on.
There was a bit of everything romance, horror, suspense drama. It was brilliant. I didn’t see all of the twists coming, and once the twists and unravelling started near the end, it didn’t stop it just kept hitting you bam bam bam!
And then the end…. I just sat and stared at the last page for ages grinding my teeth!
Update March 2021
So, I needed to reread this after just watching the programme that was just released.
I first read this in 2018, and my memory is awful as I could hardly remember any of the characters or details. All I remembered was the concept, ending and Christopher (who I kept thinking was called Charlie!)
I was really excited about the series as I had loved this book when I read it, and I recommend it to everyone that loves reading! However, once I started watching it, none of the characters seemed familiar, nor the storyline. I thought maybe this was just my memory, but when I started telling my husband about it, he confirmed it is nothing like the book. I wasn’t going mad! The main concept is there, and I’d say Rebecca and Ellie have a lot of similar traits. However, the main storyline and all the other characters bare no resemblance to the book.
I am so glad I watched the programme though, and if you try not to compare it to the book, it is a very enjoyable show. It was also the catalyst for me to reread the book, so I could write a proper review to jog my memory in the future.
The book is just as gripping the second time around. I found myself staying awake until 2 am once again so that I could devour it. This was exactly how I had been the first time.
So, we follow five characters, Mandy, Christopher, Jade, Nick and Ellie. Each gets a chapter, and once we reach the end of all characters, we start with the first again. Many of the chapters have mini cliffhangers meaning you have to read four more before finding out what was going on. The chapters are really small, which makes it easy for you to really rush through this book.
Mandy is excited to have met her match, Richard. She wants to settle down, get married and have babies. She is extremely jealous of her siblings that have found this already with their matches. However, not everything is at it seems when she finds out some tragic news about her match.
Christopher is a fantastic character. So complex, and his story could be incorporated into the series. I was actually surprised it wasn’t. I was expecting his gruesome acts to be the main focus. His match, Amy, a police officer, may be represented in the programme as Kate, but she has a completely different path to Amy.
Jade lives a quiet and mundane life. She is in a bit of a rut and needs some adventure in her life. Her match lives on the other side of the world in Australia. She has to make a big leap of faith to meet him, but once again, everything is not how it should be when she does.
Nick is in love with his fiancé Sally and is looking forward to getting married in a few months until Sally suggests finding out if they are the perfect match. Nick’s like gets turned upside down in a way he could never have imagined.
Finally, Ellie meets her match after years of there not being one for her. She has a deep secret that she only shares once she feels comfortable. However, her world is about to be turned on its head when she is betrayed. Like I have said, her aloofness and harshness are very similar to Rebecca’s on the show, but her story is very different.
I can never understand why producers change so much about a book when turning it into a show or movie. This one literally only has the main concept of finding one’s match via DNA as the constant. Everything else is different. So if you have read the book and want to watch the show, I’d say do it but don’t expect to recognise the characters. Watch it as something completely separate from this book.
Once again, this book was utterly fantastic, and it holds on firm to the five stars I awarded it back in 2018.