John Marrs


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John Marrs

Goodreads Author


Born
in Northamptonshire, The United Kingdom
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Member Since
September 2013

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John Marrs is an internationally bestselling author of psychological thrillers and speculative fiction. Before becoming a full‑time writer, he spent more than two decades as a freelance journalist interviewing celebrities for national publications.

He self‑published his early novels while commuting to work, building a passionate readership through social media that helped attract Amazon Publishing and Penguin Random House.

His breakout book, The One, became a No. 1 Netflix series, has sold over a million copies, and is published in 35 languages. His other bestselling titles include The Good Samaritan, What Lies Between Us, The Passengers, The Marriage Act, and The Stranger in Her House.

John continues to explore the darker sides of human natur
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Popular Answered Questions

John Marrs A light application of lipstick should be suffice. I think that I have just as many male readers, but they aren’t as prolific on social media.
John Marrs Yes, as of 15 months ago, I started writing full time. I've just finished my seventh book and am starting work next week on my eighth. Thanks for your…moreYes, as of 15 months ago, I started writing full time. I've just finished my seventh book and am starting work next week on my eighth. Thanks for your kind words!(less)
Average rating: 4.02 · 1,351,000 ratings · 137,214 reviews · 29 distinct worksSimilar authors
The One

4.09 avg rating — 323,364 ratings — published 2016 — 102 editions
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Keep It in the Family

4.07 avg rating — 241,366 ratings — published 2022 — 21 editions
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What Lies Between Us

4.01 avg rating — 214,298 ratings — published 2020 — 36 editions
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You Killed Me First

3.96 avg rating — 99,284 ratings — published 2025 — 8 editions
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The Good Samaritan

4.06 avg rating — 81,706 ratings — published 2017 — 25 editions
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When You Disappeared

3.92 avg rating — 75,167 ratings — published 2013 — 27 editions
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The Passengers

4.06 avg rating — 70,650 ratings — published 2019 — 45 editions
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The Family Experiment

4.03 avg rating — 57,707 ratings — published 2024 — 16 editions
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The Stranger in Her House

3.94 avg rating — 48,099 ratings — published 2024 — 12 editions
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The Marriage Act

3.79 avg rating — 48,717 ratings — published 2023 — 26 editions
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Dead In The Water Is Officially Out!

Today is the day - publication day for Dead In The Water. Book fourteen has finally sailed out into the world.

This book started with a single line that popped into my head about three years ago. I quickly dictated it into the Notes app on my phone:
“Man drowns, sees his life flashing before his eyes — along with a boy being killed that he doesn’t remember.”

And then I left it there. Forgotten. Unti Read more of this blog post »
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Published on January 20, 2026 06:48
The One The Passengers The Minders The Marriage Act The Family Experiment
(5 books)
by
4.04 avg rating — 517,865 ratings

Related News

Good news, bookworms! Our annual Big Books of Spring collection returns for 2025 with a particularly good lineup of incoming titles....
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My Husband's Wife
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by Alice Feeney (Goodreads Author)
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The Killer in Room Five by Sam  Holland
The Killer in Room Five
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Find Me by Holly Craig
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Wonderful by Louise Beech
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Culpability by Bruce Holsinger
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The Names by Florence Knapp
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Quotes by John Marrs  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“If you’ve got the opportunity to love someone as much as they love you, then grab it with both hands and hold on to it for dear life.”
John Marrs, The One

“Maybe when you took it back to the basics, that's what love really was: just being there for someone when the sun rises and sets.- Jade”
John Marrs, The One

“Maybe when you took it back to basics, that’s what love really was: just being there for someone when the sun rises and sets.”
John Marrs, The One

Polls

What would you like to read this summer? (Likely June/July depending on votes) Please ONLY vote if you WILL return to discuss, to be fair to those who participate. Otherwise, feel free to join us anytime.

The Passengers by John Marrs

4.07 stars, 2019, 400 pages
At the library, $5.99 Kindle, $16.74 paper.


"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?"
 
  12 votes, 33.3%

The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey

4.19 stars, 2024, 422 pages
At the library, $14.99 Kindle, $19.99 paperback.


"A spectacular new space opera that sees humanity fighting for its survival in a war as old as the universe itself.

How humanity came to the planet called Anjiin is lost in the fog of history, but that history is about to end. The Carryx – part empire, part hive – have waged wars of conquest for centuries, destroying or enslaving species across the galaxy. Now, they are facing a great and deathless enemy. The key to their survival may rest with the humans of Anjiin. Caught up in academic intrigue and affairs of the heart, Dafyd Alkhor is pleased just to be an assistant to a brilliant scientist and his celebrated research team. Then the Carryx ships descend, decimating the human population and taking the best and brightest of Anjiin society away to serve on the Carryx homeworld, and Dafyd is swept along with them. They are dropped in the middle of a struggle they barely understand, set in a competition against the other captive species with extinction as the price of failure. Only Dafyd and a handful of his companions see past the Darwinian contest to the deeper game that they must play to learning to understand – and manipulate – the Carryx themselves. With a noble but suicidal human rebellion on one hand and strange and murderous enemies on the other, the team pays a terrible price to become the trusted servants of their new rulers. Dafyd Alkhor is a simple man swept up in events that are beyond his control and more vast than his imagination. He will become the champion of humanity and its betrayer, the most hated man in history and the guardian of his people. This is where his story begins."
 
  8 votes, 22.2%

The Future by Naomi Alderman

3.85 stars, 2023, 432pages
At the library, $14.99 Kindle, $13.89 hardcover.


"When Martha Einkorn fled her father’s isolated compound in Oregon, she never expected to find herself working for a powerful social media mogul hell-bent on controlling everything. Now she’s surrounded by mega-rich companies designing private weather, predictive analytics, and covert weaponry, while spouting technological prophecy. Martha may have left the cult, but if the apocalyptic warnings in her father’s fox and rabbit sermon—once a parable to her—are starting to come true, how much future is actually left?

Across the world, in a mall in Singapore, Lai Zhen, an internet-famous survivalist, flees from an assassin. She’s cornered, desperate and—worst of all—might die without ever knowing what's going on. Suddenly, a remarkable piece of software appears on her phone telling her exactly how to escape. Who made it? What is it really for? And if those behind it can save her from danger, what do they want from her, and what else do they know about the future?

Martha and Zhen’s worlds are about to collide. An explosive chain of events is set in motion. While a few billionaires assured of their own safety lead the world to destruction, Martha’s relentless drive and Zhen’s insatiable curiosity could lead to something beautiful or the cataclysmic end of civilization."
 
  7 votes, 19.4%

After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall by Nancy Kress

3.48 stars, 2012, 189 pages
At the library, $9.99 Kindle, $13.50 paperback.


"The year is 2035. After ecological disasters nearly destroyed the Earth, 26 survivors—the last of humanity—are trapped by an alien race in a sterile enclosure known as the Shell.

Fifteen-year-old Pete is one of the Six—children who were born deformed or sterile and raised in the Shell. As, one by one, the survivors grow sick and die, Pete and the Six struggle to put aside their anger at the alien Tesslies in order to find the means to rebuild the earth together. Their only hope lies within brief time-portals into the recent past, where they bring back children to replenish their disappearing gene pool.

Meanwhile, in 2013, brilliant mathematician Julie Kahn works with the FBI to solve a series of inexplicable kidnappings. Suddenly her predictive algorithms begin to reveal more than just criminal activity. As she begins to realize her role in the impending catastrophe, simultaneously affecting the Earth and the Shell, Julie closes in on the truth. She and Pete are converging in time upon the future of humanity—a future which might never unfold.

Weaving three consecutive time lines to unravel both the mystery of the Earth's destruction and the key to its salvation, this taut post-apocalyptic thriller offers a topical plot with a satisfying twist."
 
  5 votes, 13.9%

The Purple Cloud by M.P. Shiel

3.38 stars, 1901, 296 pages
At the library, $10.99 Kindle, $7.25 and up paper.


"If now a swell from the Deep has swept over this planetary ship of earth, and I, who alone chanced to find myself in the furthest stern, as the sole survivor of her crew . . . What then, my God, shall I do?" The Purple Cloud is widely hailed as a masterpiece of science fiction and one of the best "last man" novels ever written. A deadly purple vapor passes over the world and annihilates all living creatures except one man, Adam Jeffson. He embarks on an epic journey across a silent and devastated planet, an apocalyptic Robinson Crusoe putting together the semblance of a normal life from the flotsam and jetsam of his former existence. As he descends into madness over the years, he becomes increasingly aware that his survival was no accident and that his destiny—and the fate of the human race—are part of a profound, cosmological plan."
 
  4 votes, 11.1%

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