First time visiting BookBrowse? Get a free copy of our member's ezine today.

Book Summary and Reviews of The Marriage Act by John Marrs

The Marriage Act by John Marrs

The Marriage Act

A Novel

by John Marrs

  • Published:
  • May 2023, 432 pages
  • Rate this book

  • Buy This Book

About this book

Book Summary

What if marriage was the law? Dare you disobey? Black Mirror meets thriller with a dash of Naomi Alderman's The Power in this dark, high-concept novel by the bestselling author of The One.

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 will use every tool in its arsenal to ensure everyone will love, honor and obey.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"[A] smart Orwellian thriller set in a near-future U.K. where the financial impact of several pandemics has led to drastic measures... Marrs builds on techno-dystopian ideas explored in prior books to craft a scarily plausible world. Readers will be riveted." —Publishers Weekly

"The king of near-future what-ifs is back with a smart and chilling page-turner. Twisty, unsettling, scarily believable and thought provoking, this is his best yet." —Ellery Lloyd, author of The Club

"A scarily plausible alternative future with a truly twisted narrative. Tensely plotted and terrifyingly imagined." —Harriet Tyce, bestselling author of Blood Orange

"Clever, compelling and terrifyingly plausible. A near future nightmare that grips from the first page and never lets go. The Marriage Act is a brilliant examination of relationships and the power we let others have over us. And talk about a page-turner. This one will leave you with paper cuts!" —C. J. Tudor, author of The Chalk Man

"An absolute blinder of a book… Another gripping page-turner." —Claire Allan, author of The Liar's Daughter

This information about The Marriage Act was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

John Marrs

John Marrs is an author and former journalist based in London and Northamptonshire. After spending his career interviewing celebrities from the worlds of television, film and music for numerous national newspapers and magazines, he is now a full-time author. His books include No1 bestseller and Netflix series The One, The Passengers, award winning What Lies Between Us and The Good Samaritan. Follow him at www.johnmarrsauthor.co.uk, on Twitter @johnmarrs1, on Instagram @johnmarrs.author and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/johnmarrsauthor.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more fantasy, sci-fi, speculative, alt. history...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket
    The Most
    by Jessica Anthony
    In November 1957, Kathleen and Virgil Beckett are living at Acropolis Place, an apartment complex in...
  • Book Jacket: Pink Slime
    Pink Slime
    by Fernanda Trias
    Unsurprisingly, the 21st century has been something of a boom time for environmental disaster in ...
  • Book Jacket: Becoming Earth
    Becoming Earth
    by Ferris Jabr
    The idea of Earth as one living, breathing organism is an age-old one, found in belief systems all ...
  • Book Jacket: Long Island Compromise
    Long Island Compromise
    by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
    Taffy Brodesser-Akner's second novel, Long Island Compromise, is centered around the Fletchers, a ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
The Story Collector
by Evie Woods
From the international bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop!

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    We'll Prescribe You a Cat
    by Syou Ishida

    Discover the bestselling Japanese novel celebrating the healing power of cats.

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

K U with T J

and be entered to win..

Book Club Giveaway!
Win Before the Mango Ripens

Before the Mango Ripens by Afabwaje Kurian

Both epic and intimate, this debut announces a brilliant new talent for readers of Imbolo Mbue and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Enter

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.