The One

What if your soulmate could be found with a simple DNA test? That’s the high-concept hook behind 2017’s The One, a fast-moving British thriller that fuses speculative science fiction with a dozen shades of psychological suspense. Marrs, a journalist turned novelist, imagines a near-future world where a company called Match Your DNA promises genetic certainty in love and then shows how that certainty detonates lives like hand grenades.

Marrs runs the story through multiple point-of-view characters, each with a “perfect match” that turns out to be anything but. There’s the lonely tech CEO who falls for a charming everyman, the guy who takes the test despite being in a committed relationship, and the woman whose “soulmate” is half a world away. Most interesting to Paperback Warrior readers will be Christopher, a London serial killer trying to break Jack the Ripper’s record. His match? A London police officer. Every chapter ends like a commercial break cliffhanger, pushing you to read just one more. The short chapters, alternating POVs, and cruel little reversals make this a straight shot of page-turning dopamine. 

Unlike most thrillers that hang everything on one big twist, The One delivers a dozen small detonations that build to a chilling moral: biology might find you the right partner, but it can’t fix what’s broken inside. This all leads to a giant twist that will leave your jaw on the floor. Marrs writes with the clean efficiency of a crime reporter and the dark curiosity of a pulp novelist. If Black Mirror spawned a relationship-drama baby, it would look a lot like this book. There are logic problems with the premise and plot holes you could drive a truck through, but if you turn off your brain and enjoy the ride, the payoffs are there.

Amazon classifies The One as the first book in his “Dark Future” series, but it’s not a series as much as three independent novels taking place in the same broad literary universe. Originally published in the U.K., The One was adapted into a poorly-reviewed Netflix miniseries in 2021. Don’t bother with the adaptation. The book remains the sharper weapon. For readers who like their speculative fiction spiked with graphic murders, forbidden romantic obsession, and ironic social satire, John Marrs’ The One is a modern-era pulp paperback worth your time. Match with this one HERE.