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Thank-you to @netgalley and @panmacmillan for allowing me access to this review in exchange for an honest review!

I was so excited to read this book! I love John Marrs as an author and I could not wait to read this! And it did not disappoint! 😍 this book is set up as a TV documentary around being a parent in a Metaverse using AI. This was certainly a very bizarre read but this had me finishing chapters with so many gasps and the ending was a complete shock! 😳 this is an absolute must read! 😍

⭐ BOOK RELEASES 9TH MAY 2024 ⭐

I really like the ideas John Marrs creates and the notion that our future could look like this is scary! A great, gripping read

John Marrs is certainly a master at writing dystopian novels - I really enjoyed 'The One' so was excited to read this book. And it did not disappoint.

The premise is that AI has developed sufficiently that people can interact with avatars in the metaverse to the extent that an 'experiment' is set up with couples to have a child in the metaverse, watch it develop to adulthood over 9 months but they are watched by the audience, who will vote on what trials they should undergo and who should eventually be the winner of a prize - to keep their avatar or to take money to be able to afford IVF for their own child.

The book has a back story which becomes very significant as the tale develops. The result is a gripping read as you follow these couples and begin to understand what is motivating them.

Its cleverly written (a little reminiscent of Stephen King's work such as 'The Long Walk', which is a great compliment from me), with great characters and a twisty plot. I did feel towards the end the author almost didn't want to stop writing, so kept adding bits about the characters to ensure everyone's story was fully told, but other than that minor point I really enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoy John Marrs' books and this is no exception. The book is set in the not too distant future where AI is a very powerful addition to life and 11 people - 5 couples and 1 single male - are given the opportunity to bring up an AI child in an accelerated timeframe and the winner voted for by the public has the opportunity to be able to keep their child or leave with the prize of £250k to start their own family. As with all John's books the ride is never smooth and this book introduces us to all the characters and as time goes on we find out that their lives are never as straightforward as we are led to believe. I love the way this is written and the alternating chapters between characters, I did find it a little confusing to start with but once you slip into the world this inhabits it's very hard to put down and you are drawn to the cataclysmic conclusion! I would recommend this book and if you are a fan of John Marrs you won't need to read this review as you'll be too busy reading this book!

Wow, this was good addictive fiction. John Marrs dystopian fictions are just close enough to reality to be believable ant this makes them all the more terrifying. Each of the families have something to hide which made the story rich and the characters were written in such detail that they could have been real. I thought that it was too convenient that EVERY one had something to hide but realised why once the big reveal came. I especially liked the chapters after the end of the competition , no loose ends here, with a touch of hope at the end. Loved it.

John Marrs does it again! I really enjoyed this read, it’s not my normal genre but it was so well written and captivating. I love the futuristic style of John’s books and it’s terrifying that his concepts are based on things that could well happen in our near future. The characters were mainly all very unlikable but there was plot twist after plot twist. Would highly recommend!

Another very clever book from John Marrs which also includes nods to his previous dystopian novels. Initially I found the number of characters confusing but this soon resolved and I was engrossed in the developing story. The inclusion of the social media posts is an astute way of demonstrating the power of public perception and the whole premise is so close to real life that it never feels outlandish. The excellent ending is the icing on the cake! Brilliant!

Set in the same world as The One, The Passengers and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment packed a punch and I loved it! This dystopian story is an absolute must-read for fans of Black Mirror. Despite there being several characters throughout the story, each of them were well developed and all harboured their own secrets and motives for wanting to win the competition. With plenty of twists and surprises, this kept me guessing until the end - this was very easy to give a 5 star review to!

Thank you to NetGallery and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

The really was an experiment- with great shifts between voice and perspective. Thoroughly enjoyable novel, with a twist of modern media with dystopian ideas, that will leave you shocked, horrified and desperate to intervene. Original idea, well worth a read.

John Marrs - this was incredible !!

I love your more crime thrillers normally but was totally blown away by this I’m actually looking forward to the audio to see how it’s I bought to life - I’d give you 10 stars if I could 🫶🫶 as a man imagine if I could have had the opportunity to win a perfect baby …. Personally I love my kids imperfections BUT. Let’s face it for some this idea is exactly what they want …

Bravo x

4.25-4.5⭐️

Another speculative fiction book set in the same world as The One and The Marriage Act. Here parents who can not afford to have children are given the chance to enter a reality competition where they raise a virtual baby through to adulthood but in a condensed time frame. The winners can either keep the ‘meta child’ or have the money to have a real child.
There are 6 individual families, various ages, sexes and a single parent.

Each parental unit have their own problems and agendas which w🗡️are gradually revealed. All are desperate to win, as the others lose their meta child at the end of the competition.
We get short chapters from each of the family units, ending in mini cliff hangers before moving on to the next family giving it drama and pace.

I love this authors imagination, his speculative books are my favourite. There are plenty of twists and reveals. Overall I loved it. There were a couple of things that I don’t think were needed at the end, it dragged it out a bit for me.

I absolutely loved this - couldn’t put it down!

Although at the beginning there were a lot of characters and points of view, once I was able to separate them it was a lot easier to keep up.

Even though it’s a standalone, I do wish I’d read The Passengers, The One and The Marriage Act first as they were mentioned a couple of times throughout.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

John Marrs does it again! I absolutely love his speculative thrillers and this one didn’t disappoint.

Marrs tends to include a lot of characters, but makes it easy to keep up with who’s who by telling you their different secrets 👀 the secrets in this one were so interesting, and the relationships shown in each chapter were all different.

His speculative thrillers are so intriguing because of the topics that they’re about. I’ve only read The one, which was about love, relationships, and if ‘the one’ exists. This book focuses on the topic of children, in a not far distant future where people in the UK can’t afford to have children anymore. This leads to a company trying to make an AI world where you can have an AI child, which also leads to some debates in the book as to how AI children and people should be treated, and if laws should extend to them.

Overall, this was an amazing concept with great twists and secrets. The only critique I had was that the final chapter seemed a bit pointless, but other than that all of the story was gripping.

John Marrs delivers another tale in his near-future world. It has all the usual ingredients. There are short chapters each dealing with a specific character or couple that often end with a cliffhanger. There are twists and turns that you don't see coming and the end is (I suppose) satisfying, However, this story didn't grab me like the previous ones and left me thinking it was just the wrong side of plausible. Regardless, I look forward to the next book by John Marrs.

I tend to enjoy John Marrs' writing, but there is no doubt that especially his speculative/dystopian thrillers stand out for me. While they are all technically stand-alones, they are set in the same near future dystopian world and I've enjoyed every single one so far... So it's easy to understand why I've been looking forward to tackle The Family Experiment. The blurb of this newest addition is absolutely fascinating, and I loved the sound of the reality TV show mixed with the AI angle... And while it's not my absolute favorite of the bunch, I still very much enjoyed my time reading it!

Like I said before, The Family Experiment is technically a stand-alone, but it is set in that same dystopian near future world as his previous speculative thrillers. There are also some clear references made to the majority of the books (The One, The Passengers, The Marriage Act), so I would personally still recommend reading them in order. That said, it's mostly background information that you will be missing out on, and it won't hinder you from understanding the plot itself. The Family Experiment focuses on a whole new concept, and it's a fascinating one at that.

I always have a weak spot for a reality TV angle in my stories, and The Family Experiment show was such a clever way to introduce the whole MetaBaby concept. It also made it easier to introduce all the different characters in play, and it's also easy to understand why so many people would want to watch it... I mean, it's basically a trainwreck in the making, and people just can't seem to resist tuning in to see just how bad things are going to go, or am I wrong? Anyhow, while I would personally never watch such a show, I somehow really enjoyed reading about it.

The Family Experiment uses a multiple POV structure, and there are a LOT of different characters in play. It took me a little while to properly keep them apart, although the fact that they mostly come in pairs does help a lot. There are also flashbacks to the past with another character, and I found those to be particularly fascinating (and heartbreaking). It was so interesting to see everything slowly come together, and I never guessed the full truth behind it all! The building up of suspense, plot twists and secrets is without doubt very well handled.

I do have to say that basically most of the characters are not likeable at all, and it made it harder to care about what happened to them. Some were worse than others, but it was still very hard or almost impossible to find a team to properly root for. I get that they all have secrets and that it's part of the plot and twists, but still... I would have liked to have at least a character or two without a huge secret or unlikeable character trait.

Despite a few minor niggles and a slightly slower pace than expected, I can't deny that I was still very much hooked by The Family Experiment and everything that happened along the way. It's yet another successful speculative/dystopian thriller and I wouldn't mind returning to the same world again in the future!

Another brilliant concept book by John Marrs. Cleverly it relates to his previous novels set in the future though all are stand alone reads.
I thought the use of 'posts' was an good way of conveying public reactions whilst interspersing between chapters added an interesting break.
There was several twists,which were quite inspired. Whilst not foreseen,they were quite believable and cleverly conceived.
The only criticism I have was with the summary. It seemed laborious, dealt in a monologue which was in long paragraphs.After what had been a race along read,it was rather a heavy handed approach.

This is the first book of John Marrs I've read. I had very high expectation going into it. And glad to say I was not disappointed. Much deserved five-star. I absolutely adore his writing style and the thrill was just amazing. Love it. Definitely gonna read his other works.

Absolutely loved this book, I loved the forward thinking of the subject matter and what the future could look like with AI. The story was not only interesting but I felt like I was taking in a journey in the future and the consequences of modern technology. There was also a mystery to it and with the duel timeline I was completely hook from start to finish.

Wow what an amazing book , not the type of book I normally read but so glad I did . I think I’m going to have to take a look at other books by this author . The family experiment in a reality show really got me thinking . Not being able to have children myself it really makes you think . I loved reading about how things could possibly be in the future and I’m glad I probably won’t be here to experience it . I cannot rate this book enough , going to be the book of the year I think . Great story, well written, complex characters and a twist at the end what more could you want . I will definitely recommend this book . 5 stars from me

Another John Marrs brilliant read.

I love the books written by John Marrs as they are on the edge of reality. He writes about things that happen in the future, but given the advances in our technology, could actually become a reality.

The Family Experiment does not disappoint, it's a reality show where people compete by bringing up a digital child with the hope of winning the show to either keep the digital version of the child in the Metaverse or win cash to put towards having a real child. We are introduced to a number of contestants each very different and just like reality TV the reader (and audience) tend to make decisions on whether you support them or not.

The story unfolds, secrets are revealed and readers are taken on a journey.

A great book, with Black Mirror vibes. I loved the nods to previous John Marrs books, The One, The Marriage Act and The Passengers - which don't need to be read before this. But I would recommend you read them if you haven't!

Already looking forward to the next John Marrs book!

Thanks to #NetGalley, the publisher and author for an ARC of this book.