The Passengers by John Marrs

The Passengers by John Marrs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 400

Publisher - Ebury Digital

Source - Netgalley

Blurb from Goodreads

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?


My Review

A jury, carefully selected with a government official and members of the public having to take their turn to "vote" on who is at fault in car accident. Set in the not to distance future we have level five cars, they control everything and the driver can just relax, as a passenger. When one of the meetings is interrupted by a hacker who has taken control of eight of these cars and advising in two and a half hours they will die. Tempers flare, emotions are high, the public will get a say in the votes, eight seemingly innocent people's lives hang by a madman's decision, who will survive.

So we hear a wee bit about the passengers, the government official is warned there will be consequences for failure to comply. The public and watching and voting, the poor people are trapped in their cars and chapter after chapter the tension is building. Just when you think you have it sussed where the book is gone the author flings a curve ball, you know nothing, only what the hacker chooses.

Corruption, lack of morality, trial by public, life and death, lies, destruction, love and absolute anarchy. The tension builds up quickly and keeps you hooked, you just want to see what is coming next, who will be next, will anyone survive. The book also lets you look at the darker side of humanity, yes it is a fiction book but go onto almost any social media and look at the comments. You could easily see this being a reality and I think that is what is scary about this book, the potential. We see how dark humans can go, how fast technology is developing and how much humans rely on it, but when it goes wrong.....fantastic read. This wasn't my first by Marrs and it won't be my last 4/5 for me this time.

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