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A review by pagesplotsandpints
The Family Experiment by John Marrs
3.75
<b>Read Completed 7/14/24 |</b> 3.75 stars rounded up, I think. I reserve the right to change this later.
This was probably my least favorite John Marrs book. It had all the good bones, and maybe this was a "me" problem, but I just had a really hard time getting into it. I was not in the mood to keep track of everyone and everything that was going on. This is not news -- all of his books set in this speculative fiction universe always have a large cast of characters, often coupled up, and I've struggled the last two books to really care in the beginning who they are and try to keep them straight. I think it distracted me more the past couple books because there ARE references to the previous books and I got mad when I didn't remember who people were and what happened so I just gave up and stopped trying to pay attention to that part.
I did like the concept, I was still entertained and things got much better as the book went on and we focused on a few core couples. I didn't know in the beginning who was going to be more important and why they would be, so it was just disorienting for a while trying to keep up with these characters while everything else was going on.
I think part of my issue was that I genuinely didn't like a lot of the couples. Some were annoying and some were supposed to be terrible people but I just wanted someone to root for. I don't know, maybe I was just in the wrong mood to read this, but I just really had a hard time wanting to read about some of these characters. I seem to like John Marrs' previous books a bit more because even though they still have a large cast of characters and POVs, it's still more from one person at a time in THE ONE and THE PASSENGERS, even though they're being paired off and often have stories about their time as a partnership/couple. THE MINDERS I loved and was a bit more action-based. THE MARRIAGE ACT and THE FAMILY EXPERIMENT had a lot of moving pieces with these couples and now we've also introduced kids that I had to keep track of too. I also got sick of the cliffhanger chapters. It got frustrated to keep doing that all the time and then we would go a few chapters without seeing that person/couple and once we started up again, I'd have to remember who the people were AND what happened when we left them behind. Wrapping it up inside the chapter probably would have actually helped me connect to them a bit more because then I'd have a story attached to them.
The interludes and asides were very entertaining and I loved the world-building and perspective they brought to the book! There were some fun mixed media vibes/concepts with some sound effects and the multiple narrators of the audiobook were helpful, of course. I also didn't like some of the sound quality of some of the audiobook narration and that also didn't help. Some were a little muffled and it was different switching back and forth from one person to the next.
There were a lot of good reveals in the end and I liked how things came back to tie in to other important pieces, but there was a moment that felt like the tipping point and then we still had so much book left! I felt like the book was about to end and I still had multiple hours left in the audiobook. Some of the pacing was just a bit off as well.
Another "me" problem is that I probably overhyped this for myself. It's been five books and I thought this was going to be incredible, especially after starting and stopping a lot of books being in a fickle mood. I thought this would fix my problem and I struggled with this one too.
This was probably my least favorite John Marrs book. It had all the good bones, and maybe this was a "me" problem, but I just had a really hard time getting into it. I was not in the mood to keep track of everyone and everything that was going on. This is not news -- all of his books set in this speculative fiction universe always have a large cast of characters, often coupled up, and I've struggled the last two books to really care in the beginning who they are and try to keep them straight. I think it distracted me more the past couple books because there ARE references to the previous books and I got mad when I didn't remember who people were and what happened so I just gave up and stopped trying to pay attention to that part.
I did like the concept, I was still entertained and things got much better as the book went on and we focused on a few core couples. I didn't know in the beginning who was going to be more important and why they would be, so it was just disorienting for a while trying to keep up with these characters while everything else was going on.
I think part of my issue was that I genuinely didn't like a lot of the couples. Some were annoying and some were supposed to be terrible people but I just wanted someone to root for. I don't know, maybe I was just in the wrong mood to read this, but I just really had a hard time wanting to read about some of these characters. I seem to like John Marrs' previous books a bit more because even though they still have a large cast of characters and POVs, it's still more from one person at a time in THE ONE and THE PASSENGERS, even though they're being paired off and often have stories about their time as a partnership/couple. THE MINDERS I loved and was a bit more action-based. THE MARRIAGE ACT and THE FAMILY EXPERIMENT had a lot of moving pieces with these couples and now we've also introduced kids that I had to keep track of too. I also got sick of the cliffhanger chapters. It got frustrated to keep doing that all the time and then we would go a few chapters without seeing that person/couple and once we started up again, I'd have to remember who the people were AND what happened when we left them behind. Wrapping it up inside the chapter probably would have actually helped me connect to them a bit more because then I'd have a story attached to them.
The interludes and asides were very entertaining and I loved the world-building and perspective they brought to the book! There were some fun mixed media vibes/concepts with some sound effects and the multiple narrators of the audiobook were helpful, of course. I also didn't like some of the sound quality of some of the audiobook narration and that also didn't help. Some were a little muffled and it was different switching back and forth from one person to the next.
There were a lot of good reveals in the end and I liked how things came back to tie in to other important pieces, but there was a moment that felt like the tipping point and then we still had so much book left! I felt like the book was about to end and I still had multiple hours left in the audiobook. Some of the pacing was just a bit off as well.
Another "me" problem is that I probably overhyped this for myself. It's been five books and I thought this was going to be incredible, especially after starting and stopping a lot of books being in a fickle mood. I thought this would fix my problem and I struggled with this one too.