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2025 Dublin Literary Award (longlist)
From the bestselling author of The One, the BookTok sensation now re-released with exclusive content in The One Expanded Edition, The Family Experiment is a dark and twisted speculative thriller set in the same universe as John Marrs's bestselling novel The One and The Marriage Act, about the ultimate "tamagotchi"—a virtual baby.
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!):
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
Genre: Science Fiction
Praise for this book
"John Marrs is a writer at the top of his game and The Family Experiment is his best yet. Frighteningly plausible, gripping, dark, and so clever." - Claire Douglas
"The King of near-future what ifs." - Ellery Lloyd
"If you love Black Mirror you have to read John Marrs. The Family Experiment is chilling, inventive, horribly plausible and brilliantly addictive." - C J Tudor
"The King of near-future what ifs." - Ellery Lloyd
"If you love Black Mirror you have to read John Marrs. The Family Experiment is chilling, inventive, horribly plausible and brilliantly addictive." - C J Tudor
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Used availability for John Marrs's The Family Experiment