The Passengers
You’re riding in your self-driving car when suddenly the doors lock, the route changes and you have lost all control. Then, a mysterious voice tells you, “You are going to die.”
Just as self-driving cars become the trusted, safer norm, eight people find themselves in this terrifying situation, including a faded TV star, a pregnant young woman, an abused wife fleeing her husband, an undocumented immigrant, a husband and wife, and a suicidal man.
From cameras hidden in their cars, their panic is broadcast to millions of people around the world. But the public will show their true colors when they are asked, "Which of these people should we save?...And who should we kill first?"
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Community Reviews
So, first and foremost, I have to say that I may need to rethink my previous opinion on John Marrs. This is the fourth book of his that I have read, and after the last two (both 1star reviews), I declared that I would not be reading anymore of his stuff. Then I came across this one that was the December group read for the Crime, Mysteries and Thrillers group it sounded interesting and I decided to check it out. My love of wild and crazy stories has me really enjoying this story. However, there are so many parts of this story that are so freaking scary!!!
On that note, the book summary lays out the whole primary storyline. What the book summary doesn’t mention is the storyline around a woman named Libby, a mental health nurse. Libby has been selected for the internal jury duty panel where the panel reviews car accidents and deaths involving driverless cars. The panel is run by a senior executive and he makes sure (through threats and intimidation) that the panel ultimately always rules in favor of the car company not being at fault.
On another note, Libby hates driverless cars, doesn’t trust them and won’t ride them. Six months earlier, Libby randomly met a man at a bar, who also hates the driverless cars too, because he worked in the automotive industry until the driverless cars came out and he lost his career. She became infatuated with him but got separated from him at some point during the night. She spent six months looking for him again and hasn’t found him until today.
I’m not going to get into the eight individual storylines of the targeted passengers other than to say that the hacker makes sure that they are presented in the way that he believes they should be, which is not the full picture for any of them. The story flips back and forth between news flashes, the eight passengers, and the jury panel who are also held hostage just as much as the passengers are. The jury panel and passengers are mostly able to hear and see each other and interact with each other, at least as much as the hacker allows them.
The character development for Libby and some of the passengers was pretty good, and kind of thin for the rest of the passengers, which was by design. The pacing was steady to fast and the storyline very interesting. I started cracking up at the mentions of a premise of being matched to the one perfect person for you, which was the premise of another Marrs book (The One), and the only other one I actually liked. The writing was really good and was the best I’ve read in the four books of Marrs that I have read. I’m looking at an overall rating of 4.4 that I’ll be rounding down to a 4star review.
I do feel compelled to repeat something that I have said so many times before. If you are the kind of reader whose enjoyment of a fictitious story is contingent on the story’s level of believability, then this is probably not a story that you would enjoy. Fortunately for me, I LOVE wild and wacked out stories. The crazier the better for me!!!
On that note, the book summary lays out the whole primary storyline. What the book summary doesn’t mention is the storyline around a woman named Libby, a mental health nurse. Libby has been selected for the internal jury duty panel where the panel reviews car accidents and deaths involving driverless cars. The panel is run by a senior executive and he makes sure (through threats and intimidation) that the panel ultimately always rules in favor of the car company not being at fault.
On another note, Libby hates driverless cars, doesn’t trust them and won’t ride them. Six months earlier, Libby randomly met a man at a bar, who also hates the driverless cars too, because he worked in the automotive industry until the driverless cars came out and he lost his career. She became infatuated with him but got separated from him at some point during the night. She spent six months looking for him again and hasn’t found him until today.
I’m not going to get into the eight individual storylines of the targeted passengers other than to say that the hacker makes sure that they are presented in the way that he believes they should be, which is not the full picture for any of them. The story flips back and forth between news flashes, the eight passengers, and the jury panel who are also held hostage just as much as the passengers are. The jury panel and passengers are mostly able to hear and see each other and interact with each other, at least as much as the hacker allows them.
The character development for Libby and some of the passengers was pretty good, and kind of thin for the rest of the passengers, which was by design. The pacing was steady to fast and the storyline very interesting. I started cracking up at the mentions of a premise of being matched to the one perfect person for you, which was the premise of another Marrs book (The One), and the only other one I actually liked. The writing was really good and was the best I’ve read in the four books of Marrs that I have read. I’m looking at an overall rating of 4.4 that I’ll be rounding down to a 4star review.
I do feel compelled to repeat something that I have said so many times before. If you are the kind of reader whose enjoyment of a fictitious story is contingent on the story’s level of believability, then this is probably not a story that you would enjoy. Fortunately for me, I LOVE wild and wacked out stories. The crazier the better for me!!!