Llegué a The Family Experiment un poco por casualidad, John Marrs no es un autor que haya pasado cerca de mi radar, algo de lo que me arrepiento porque al menos esta obra me ha cautivado. Se podría categorizar más como thriller que como ciencia ficción, pero es indudable su valor especulativo y su proyección del Reino Unido en un futuro cercano que es tan frustrante y desesperanzador como plausible.


En lo primero en que me gustaría hacer hincapié es en los extraordinarios valores de producción del audiolibro, ya que no han faltado medios para disponer de diversos narradores para cada punto de vista, e incluso hay intervalos musicales, sonidos FX y demás parafernalia para hacer de la audición una experiencia muy inmersiva.

The Family Experiment es el nombre de un nuevo reality show que ofrecerá a los participantes la oportunidad de criar un hijo virtual, con crecimiento acelerado durante los meses que dure el concurso pudiendo obtener como premio la permanencia de esa descendencia virtual o un jugoso premio económico que se podría destinar a tratamientos de fertilidad. Como en todo reality show que se precie, los concursantes pasan por un proceso de criba que busca los que mas impacto puedan causar en el espectador para conseguir la máxima audiencia posible. Hasta aquí nada nuevo.

Lo que nos ofrece Marrs es una especulación sobre los extremos a los que son capaces de llegar los humanos cuando se enfrentan a situaciones límite y, sobre todo, cuando no se cuenta con el apoyo de un Estado del bienestar que amortigüe los impactos. Como terrible trasfondo, la venta de niños hacia Europa por parte de padres desesperados que no pueden hacerse cargo de su manutención, la adicción a las drogas de diseño, la absoluta falta de moral de las empresas que desarrollan la IA con el sufrimiento humano y más y más depravaciones que resuenan en nuestro cerebro como falsas, pero creíbles. La denuncia social vestida de entretenimiento para masas es una baza que el autor de Northamptonshire utiliza de forma muy acertada.

El ritmo es excelente desde el principio, in crescendo conforme se van conociendo el pasado de los participantes, que obviamente es bastante más turbio de lo que su fachada exterior podría dar a suponer. El libro funciona como una obra de relojería, aumentando la tensión conforme van quedando menos familias en la contienda, como todo concurso de popularidad que se precie. Y hay que admitir que el autor no deja nada sin explicar, con unos capítulos finales en los que seremos testigos del modus operandi aplicado en cada caso, dando una solución tan perfecta y ajustada que la verdad, le quita un poco de alma al libro.

The Family Experiment ha sido toda una sorpresa para mí y además una muy agradable.

I should start by saying that I have loved every book by the author & went in with very high hopes this would be the same but sadly it didn’t live up to the hype.
I loved the setting, the themes coveted, the links to the one and the world it’s set in. As always it’s scary to think that some of this may be the future.

I struggled with the pace of this book, the characters whilst interesting were sometimes a little too similar to keep track of. Maybe it’s because they were couples rather than individuals? Finally, I felt like I was being told the story, rather than feeling it. I also sadly didn’t rate the ausiobook. It may be intentional but it sounded like it was read by AI voices and lacked allll emotion.

Imagine living in a metaverse with the goal of gaining a prize .
How far would you go to win the prize ?

Each section a couple disappears and we get to know each story.

Who will win the prize and survive ?

I enjoyed the book but struggled to get into it at first .

This was such a gripping read! It gave me dystopian, sci-fi, thriller vibes from start to finish. Written in the format of a reality TV show, jumping from each contestant plus using social media chat groups, it was very hard to put down! Very clever, quite scary, and really does make you question what you’d do in some situations they faced. My first book by this author and it won’t be my last!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for allowing me to read this delightful book! 😍

This compulsively readable Sci-fi thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end ! In this novel, we’re following five couples (and even one single dad) who can’t have children or want to test it out before committing to the real deal. They thus participate in a reality-TV show where they get tasked to look after a Metachild, an AI-generated child that looks and feels just like a regular child thanks to haptic suits and gloves.

The contestants are awarded £250 000 to take care of their child. They can choose how much money they allocate to school, activities, clothes, medical care… but every move is carefully observed and dissected by the viewers. They thus have to be really careful about their parenting ! Watchers around the world will decide who wins by giving red and back hearts to the players. Every bad decision leads to a black heart, and every good action leads to a red one.

The winners can decide to keep the money they have left and the child or deactivate the child and earn even more money to pursue IVF or any kind of birth method of their choosing, while losers get eliminated and their baby’s life gets terminated.

This novel magnificently critisises society and our relationship to money, social media and our virtual life. It also poses the question: Can AI have feelings ? Do metachildren have feelings, and can they be considered children, or are they just objects ready to be discarded at any moment ?

I don’t know if I can say I enjoyed this book as most of the characters are pretty unlikeable, and it gets quite dark at times, but I can safely say it will most likely make it to my top books for this year, and I have already started recommending it to clients and friends! ❤️ Now I just have to read everything else John Maars has published 😉

And finally: the twists are TWISTING.😱

First of all thank you for approving my request!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The authors writing style had me hooked throughout this book.

I didn't want it to end, a book I really couldn't put down.

Another incredible John Marrs book.
Wow, did this book make me think.
I couldn’t believe how many twists and turns I encountered. I have several ‘mouth fell open moments’.
I can’t stop talking to people about this book and all the questions about life and virtual reality it raises!

I have just spent about three days in the metaverse with eleven contestants in a reality show raising a virtual child.With Britain being in economic crisis, few people can afford to raise a child, are virtual Children the answer? The public gets to vote in monthly challenges to see how the contestants cope with the pressures of parenthood, and ultimately vote for a winner, the prize being either to keep the virtual child that they have raised for nine months, or pressing the delete button on it, and have a prize fund to raise their own human child. Which contestants are deserving? Who will the public get behind? Is this even moral?...Read it!

I love John Marrs’ dystopian books and this is another brilliant book. ‘The One’ was the first I read and is probably my favourite but ‘The Family Experiment’ is another goodie. There were plenty of twists to make this a page turner and plenty of surprises.

This book follows several couples who sign up to participate in a TV show where they raise a virtual child from birth to 18 in a condensed 9-month period. The winner can choose to keep their virtual child or take the cash prize and put it towards having a real baby.

Fantastic book with great core characters. Recommend to friends for anyone who loves this genre of book!

I've read every book in John Marrs' dystopian universe and while I think no book will ever outshine 'The One', The Family Experiment comes a close second.

If you love Black Mirror then you NEED to add this to your radar.

It follows several couples who sign up to participate in a TV show where they raise a virtual child from birth to 18 in a condensed 9-month period. The winner can choose to keep their virtual child or take the cash prize and put it towards having a real baby.

I love books featuring reality TV and interesting social commentary. There are discussions around morality and whether AI humans deserve the same rights as live humans. Poverty is also a big theme and is the main reason many couples are unable to have live children.

There were a lot of twists and turns - some of which I saw coming and others that I didn't predict.

This can be read as a standalone, however, if you haven't read the previous books, some aspects of the world-building might feel a bit jarring. e.g. it references soulmate/DNA matches and self-driving cars.

The Family Experiment by John Marrs

Set in an overcrowded future in which having a child is not a right, there is an alternative. An AI child that exists only in an alternate reality, in which the ‘parent’ can virtually live, raising that child in real time. All for the price of a monthly subscription. To launch the service, Virtual Children creates a reality series in which ten couples raise a child from baby to adulthood within a condensed period of 9 months. If you’ve read any of the author’s preceding novels – and this novel is part of that universe – then you’ll know that this is not going to end well, not least for these virtual children who grow in self-awareness and self-knowledge. These children might not be real but they can hurt. They can also be turned off. How attached does one want to get? Is the prize worth it? A powerful and disturbing SF thriller from an author who des this very well indeed.

Definitely one of my top 10 books of the year - totally unique concept, fantastic writing, and plenty of twists and turns to keep you gripped. John Marrs is quickly becoming my go to for dystopian adult fiction and I can’t recommend this one highly enough

Book review 📚
The Family Experiment by John Marrs
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Let’s be honest. It isn’t a surprise to anyone when that a John Marrs book rates 5 stars. He is deserving of every 5 star he gets and this is no different. Impeccable. Flawless. Phenomenal. Is Marrs the new King?

It is truly impossible to pick up a Marrs book and then be able to put it down before finishing. I’m in this chokehold and the book just does not ease up! It has to be finished within one sitting otherwise I will just pull my hair out trying to figure it all out.

There are a variety of characters and each of them holding their own characteristics, that bring the story to life. Some are perceived as likeable and others, not so much. But they are all relevant to the story and makes that guessing game less predictable!

The ending itself was so satisfying. There are no ways to describe the relief(?) you feel when it is done. Knowing you was so far from figuring it out but also having the answers right in front of you.

Every aspect of this book was perfect.

I always enjoy John Marrs' books and so to be given the chance to review one I was over the moon! This one was amazing, Childless couples given the chance to raise their virtual children in the meta verse as a competition, then given the chance to keep them or be given a life changing amount of money to start their own family. Like every other John marry book, I could not put this down. Amazing from start to finish and I ll be thinking of this one for a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this ARC. I have really enjoyed a lot of this author’s work so this book was a highly anticipated release. I was STOKED to receive an eARC copy!

When I say I couldn’t put this down I mean I literally couldn’t put it down. My eyes were glued to my kindle because I needed to know what would happen next. It reminded me of my experience reading The One for the first time which is one of my all time favourite thrillers. I love the dystopian twists featured in each thriller set in this world that John Marrs has created. Although it genuinely scares me at times because AI is becoming so prevalent in our society. You wonder how much of the book is how our future may actually look.

The characters were so interesting and while not all of them were particularly likeable they were unlikeable for interesting reasons. Their flaws were human and realistic. I was really rooting for some character’s success while rooting for other’s downfalls. That’s what I want when reading a thriller. I also want to be surprised by the twists and I certainly was. There were so many good ones that I did not see coming! The ending also felt satisfying. One thing I will say is it was very, VERY dark at times and there are some very dark subjects discussed so please check trigger warnings.

I definitely recommend this to thriller lovers, especially if you’re looking for something a little different and a creative spin on the reality TV trope that’s quite popular in books right now. I had a great time reading this! It was released on 9th May this year so bump it up on your TBRs!

John Marrs delivers another riveting speculative thriller with The Family Experiment. Set in a near-future world, this novel centers around Awakening Entertainment’s groundbreaking interactive show, where eleven childless British contestants compete to raise virtual children in the Metaverse over nine months.

The twist? The contestants’ virtual offspring will mature based on their parenting, and the winners can choose to either keep their virtual child or receive £250,000 to start a real family. As the contestants navigate the challenges of virtual parenting, their diverse backgrounds and personal stories enrich the narrative. Hudson, in particular, stands out as a compelling character.

Thought-provoking and occasionally chilling, The Family Experiment is an engrossing page-turner that keeps you hooked until the end.

3.5/5.

First off, I love John Marrs’ books, every single one of them. The Family Experiment doesn’t disappoint, it is a dark, disturbing vision of the future told from multiple pov.
I found it fascinating, very interesting and disturbing to read, very unsettling in places - I loved it!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy, apologies for my late review.

Unfortunately this was archived before I could download so I bought it

Wow
Wow
Wow

I love John Marrs and this book was phenomenal I have already recommended to many others. Keep.em coming

Amazing read
This whole concept and how it played out had me so hooked! Virtual children and a reality tv show - shockingly I can see how this could become reality. How John Marrs comes out with his ideas for hos speculative thrillers I don't know but am so happy he does. This is a rollercoaster ride and kept me reading many late night till the end. Well recommended and would be a great tv series too.