Eight self-drive cars set on a collision course. Who lives, who dies? You decide.
When someone hacks into the systems of eight self-drive cars, their passengers are set on a fatal collision course.
The passengers are: a TV star, a pregnant young woman, a disabled war hero, an abused wife fleeing her husband, an illegal immigrant, a husband and wife - and parents of two - who are travelling in separate vehicles and a suicidal man. Now the public have to judge who should survive but are the passengers all that they first seem?
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I've read a couple of different books by John Marrs in my reading career. A few years ago, I read The One and thought it was absolutely incredible. Earlier this year, I read What Lies Between Us, which I also flew through. I think it's hard to write a thriller that can really stand out, and I know that John Marrs can do that, so when I was able to get my hands on The Passengers, I was so excited.
I thought the concept sounded so interesting, and had the potential to be an exciting and very unique story. And it definitely lived up to my expectations! The story had so many different layers, and the characters were diverse and intriguing. I wish the ending had felt more cohesive with the rest of the story, but altogether this was a fantastic read.
Rating: ✫✫✫✫
The Story
As soon as I saw the idea for this story, I knew it had the potential to be really good. One of the things I love most about this author is their ability to craft intricate and truly unique plots that really make you think. I especially liked the way this story played on humanity and morality. Choosing who to send to their death is an enormous decision, and watching that morality come out in certain characters is such a fascinating thing to read about.
The plot itself is so full of different layers that it's actually quite remarkable. We are immediately given the context of the driverless cars that had proved so contentious to the government, and that sets the tone for the rest of the story. Just how far can technology go? And how much human error can truly be eradicated? This itself makes for a really credible plot, but Marrs pushes it even further. In order to really hammer these questions home, we see many civilians taken hostage in their vehicles, and reliant on strangers to save them. I'm not entirely sure all this fits in naturally with the whole social media voting over who should live, or the darkness of the deep secrets that are revealed. However, I can totally appreciate that these thriller-esque undertones are what John Marrs does best, and I was more than happy to go along with their insertion.
All these different layers to the plot are aided by the characters themselves, who were varied and intriguing. The story has two sides: the passengers, stuck in their cars and with secrets they don't want to reveal, and the jury who are responsible for their fates. I liked the way the story focused on all of them in turn, and we get to know lots about them.
This being said, I do think I would like to have seen a little more focus on the morality of the decisions made by the characters. It's touched upon, but there was so much more potential for growing these themes that I was left a little disappointed that they didn't feature more heavily. I also thought the ending could have been a little more cohesive with the rest of the story; it felt a little bit detached from all that had come before. And when you're putting so much effort into creating such a great story, you should really capitalise on all that!
The Verdict
I had really high expectations for this book, and it certainly didn't let me down.
I thought the idea for the plot was fantastic, and this was carried through with a story that had so many different layers to it - so many details and twists - that I was kept on my toes and constantly excited to see what would happen next. I wish this had stayed so cohesive right to the very end of the novel, but the way the characters provided such depth to the story really sustained the book nonetheless.
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