This is a fast paced ride of a read! It starts out with a bang and continues it's twists and turns until the very last page. It keeps you on the edge of your seat as secrets continue to be revealed and as you realize just how much of your personal information is out there, waiting to be grabbed by others, via cameras, electronic messaging, records that are easily hacked, etc.
The novel has a huge moral conundrum surrounding it in regards to who is worthy of flourishing in the world and who might be considered "disposable". It shows a sad depiction of social media, which unfortunately is probably spot on.
I tore through the novel in two days, forgoing other needed things such as food and sleep....... and it was worth it.
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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 illegal 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?"
- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Berkley (August 27, 2019)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1984806971
- ISBN-13: 978-1984806970
A
Conversation with
John
Marrs, author of
THE
PASSENGERS
How would
you describe THE PASSENGERS?
I’d describe it as five minutes in the future,
speculative fiction. It follows five people from different walks of life who
climb into their driverless cars one morning and are warned their vehicles have
been hacked. In two hours time, they are set to collide head-on in front of a
global audience of millions. It’s up to social media and a selected panel of
experts to decide which of them should survive. The book has been described as Speed meets Hunger Games with a Black
Mirror twist. Praise doesn’t get much better than that!
What
influenced this book?
A conversation with my former editor about
driverless vehicles led to it. We were discussing my previous book, The One, when she suddenly asked if
there was anything that could be done with autonomous vehicles in a novel? I
loved the idea and two weeks later, I sent her a four-page outline of the
story. She was immediately onboard.
What sort
of research did you do while writing THE PASSENGERS?
Setting a book in the near future means looking
forward to the technology we might soon be using. Everything from how we access
the Internet to how our mobile devices might look. And of course, what
driverless cars will look like and how they will operate. So with the help of
my husband, we researched all we could about these vehicles, how they operated,
how they made life or death decisions, the ethics behind them and even what
they might look like inside and out. We also travelled to Switzerland to the
Geneva Motor Show to look at the vehicles of the near future, some of which
were autonomous ones. It was fascinating.
Which one
of the characters did you enjoy writing the most?
I enjoyed writing Sophia Bradbury the most.
She’s a working actress in her seventies whose career is winding down, albeit
reluctantly. When she finds herself trapped in a driverless car and broadcast
to millions, she thinks she is in a reality TV show. She’s camp and unwittingly
funny but hides some very dark secrets. I based some of her mannerisms and
sense of entitlement on a character played by a British actress in 1980s soap Dynasty.
Social
media plays a significant role in THE PASSENGERS, how do you see it shaping
where we are now? Are you on social media?
Yes, I am on social media— probably too much! I
have my own Facebook page, an author one, I use Twitter and I have two Instagram
accounts, one primarily for posting images of books, my own and other novels
that I’m reading. Social media can be brilliant and do so much good, but can
also be an awful place for some people. I know that if I were being picked on
or trolled, I would not remain a part of it. Life is too short to be dragged
down by negativity. I don’t involve myself in online spats, I’d rather argue
with people I know in the real world than people I’m never likely to meet!
However I’ve been fortunate. Social media has been a fantastic way for me to
interact with my readers. I try and answer each of their messages or Tweets;
they’ve been kind enough to purchase and read my books and given me a career,
so it’s only right that I try and respond if they get in touch.
What challenges
did you face while writing THE PASSENGERS?
The biggest challenge was finding the balance
between including the technology used for driverless cars but without
overloading the reader with facts and figures and having it come at the expense
of pace and plot. Then on a personal level, my mum was diagnosed with bowel
cancer during the writing of this book. During the four-week run up to her
operation, we spent a lot of time in specialists’ waiting rooms. And when she
was in different clinics facing a barrage of tests, I brought with me a
rucksack full of printouts to proof read and edit until she returned.
Discussing the plot and characters with her during these long waits also took
both of our minds off what was to come. Thankfully, mum’s a survivor and her
cancer had not spread. After an operation, she has fully recovered. But even
now, almost a year later, when I re-read selected parts of THE PASSENGERS, I can still recall exactly which hospital waiting
room I was in and what tests she was having done when I wrote them.
Tell us
about your literary influences. Who are
your favorite writers and what kind of books do you love to read?
As a boy, I grew up obsessed with The Hardy
Boys books, and wanted to write like their author, Franklin W. Dixon. It was
only as an adult that I learned he didn’t exist; he was a conglomerate of
writers. Nowadays, I am a huge fan of Peter Swanson. No two books of his are
alike. He is not afraid to take risks, explore the darker side of human nature
yet makes his characters relatable. And for me, Gillian Flynn is a fearless and
innovative writer. Her stories both fascinate and scare the living daylights
out of me. I’ve recently become obsessed with Irish writer John Boyne and am
working my way through his back catalogue, devouring his every word.
###
THE
PASSENGERS
by John
Marrs
Berkley Hardcover (978-1-984-80697-0)
On-sale: August 27, 2019