The Family Experiment
A Novel
-
-
4.2 • 48 Ratings
-
-
- $14.99
Publisher Description
From the acclaimed author of The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and brilliant speculative thriller about families: real and virtual.
Some families are virtually perfect…
The world's population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, the breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families, let alone raise them.
But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality TV show called The Substitute. It will follow ten couples as they raise a virtual child from birth to the age of eighteen but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child, or risk it all for the chance of a real baby…
Set in the same universe as John Marrs's bestselling novel The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and twisted thriller about the ultimate Tamagotchi—a virtual baby.
Don't miss other suspenseful reads from John Marrs (you'll never see the twists coming!): The Marriage Act The Vacation The Family Experiment The One
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This dystopian thriller touches on so many hot topics, you may break a sweat. In a near-future world where economic inequality has gotten so bad that only the most wealthy can afford to have children, a new reality show debuts. Six sets of parents raise lifelike AI babies, programmed to age from birth to 18 in a nine-month period. The winners will get to either keep their humanlike AI child or take home enough prize money to afford a child of their own. Naturally, each of the couples (and one single dad) have horrifying secrets, sociopathic tendencies, or both. Author John Marrs has a brilliant sense of pacing and a knack for didn’t-see-that-coming plot twists that repeatedly knocked us sideways. The Family Experiment is a thoughtful and unsettling listen that will linger in your thoughts.
