The Marriage Act cover art

The Marriage Act

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Marriage Act

By: John Marrs
Narrated by: Clare Corbett, David Monteith, Dugald Bruce-Lockhart, John Marrs, Joshua Riley, Nathalie Buscombe
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

From John Marrs, the bestselling author of The One. Set in the same world, and narrated by a full cast, The Marriage Act is a dark, high-concept thriller.

What if marriage was the law? Dare you disobey?

Britain. The near-future. A right-wing government believes it has the answer to society’s ills – the Sanctity of Marriage Act, which actively encourages marriage as the norm, punishing those who choose to remain single.

But four couples are about to discover just how impossible relationships can be when the government is monitoring every aspect of our personal lives, tracking every word, every minor disagreement . . . and will use every tool in its arsenal to ensure everyone will love, honour and obey.

Black Mirror meets thriller with a dash of Naomi Alderman’s The Power.

©2023 John Marrs (P)2023 Macmillan Publishers International Limited Domestic Thrillers Science Fiction Suspense Technothrillers Thriller Thriller & Suspense Fiction Marriage Emotionally Gripping Exciting Scary Marriage Thriller

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Good Samaritan cover art
The Vacation cover art
What Lies Between Us cover art
The Watchers cover art
The Lodger cover art
When You Disappeared cover art
If I Let You Go cover art
Keep It in the Family cover art
Her Last Move cover art
My Sister's Secret cover art
The Perfect Child cover art
Degrees of Guilt cover art
The Girlfriend cover art
Ransomed cover art
The Emperor's Wolves cover art
The Chronicles of Jonathan Tibbs: The Complete Trilogy cover art

Critic reviews

"One of the most exciting original thriller writers." (Simon Kernick)

"Marrs is brilliant at twists...for the addicts of adrenaline-fuelled twisty rides." (Peter James)

"Another savagely clever near-future thriller. Provocative, terrifying and compulsive. If you loved The One, you’ll love this!" (Cara Hunter)
All stars
Most relevant  
Great book, great narration- my first Audible book. The characters were likeable, chilling and relatable-love this book.

Loved this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
John Marrs is one of my favourite Autor's he is so clever with the ideas well thanks to his husband ( John ) about relationships this time he has come up with a great concept to how the future could play out for us. It gives me a shiver down my spine to think we would go this way. I love the way he has different characters all going through some sort of trauma in there lives and the different out looks they all had. Some of the characters you just love to hate but over all you are completely Consumed by their lives and how things are going to turn out for them. Fantastic loved it

Loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Twisty and turny- scarily has potential to become reality. Really enjoyed it and didn’t suspect all of the thing that happened in Act 3.

Really enjoyed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great “follow up” to the One. While these aren’t necessarily a series, I would suggest reading The One first before this and then move onto The Family Experiment to get the most out of these books.
Absolutely gripping and I binged listened to the whole book in a weekend, just like I did with The One.
John Marrs is definitely up there as one of my fave authors.

As gripping as The One

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Well worth the wait. Love speculative thrillers and John Marrs is the master of these. Great narrative and production as well made this the best so far. Brilliant.

Sensational

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I liked the interplay of the different characters and the excellent narration by multiple authors. I felt compelled to finish this so I guess it was a gripping tale. But this is not great fiction.. or even great science fiction, some of the plot is so silly that none of it feels scary in the way it really should and the main ‘punchline’ was obvious from the start, So I found it rather irritating,

Compulsive but irritating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really enjoyed and real it felt that this could all happen. Scared the life out of me to think what’s next with AI etc

Believable and scary because of that

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is my fourth John Marrs book, but by far the best one so far. Dystopian but sadly, scarily believable that it could happen. Excellent character development and the plot twists kept me guessing. Also not as frustrating/depressing as some of his other works as it ended well (well, apart from feeling sorry for the US!). Good narration.

best one so far

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Those that have read other works from this author will be familiar with the theme. Set in the near future, with technology invented to enhance our future, going awry.

I struggled initially. The chapters follow a list of characters. I struggled to keep up with who was who. Also, I didn't particularly like any of them. However, about a quarter way through, one reveals his true colours, and it started to get interesting. So a slow burner for me but worth sticking with.

Narration good for the most part, though one or two seem to think they're in a radio play and are a little 'acty' for me.

Not his best but worth a credit.

Took a while.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Shows how society can sleep walk into government control and create rifts and polarisation. Each character’s story a warning. Well written and super performances.

Great read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews