John Marrs does it again. Another captivating thriller with a plot twist I didn't see coming. Not his best but not his worst either. I totally recommend.

This is the type of book that I need more of. This book was an absolute page Turner. I was on my toes the whole time. I loved the story plot and the characters. Diving into this world was something that I thoroughly enjoyed!

The Minders by John Marrs started off with a bang! I was instantly hooked and had high hopes this would be another five star read like The Passengers. Told through multiple POVs, The Minders follows five people who’ve been implanted with England’s most guarded secrets and intelligence.

Parts of the story were slightly confusing due to the multiple POVs and I found myself becoming a little bored while reading at times. The few twists within this one saved it from being a total bomb for me. This one gets 🌟🌟🌟💫

Not sure how to write a review without completely spoiling the book. This book follows the POV of 5 characters classified as The Minders. They are selected due to the capabilities of their brains and are the saving grace to the security of their countries most precious data. The system seems fool proof... or is it?? This book combines sci-fi, thriller, and suspense to complete an action packed book. If you read The One, you will notice some cross over themes as well

For me, this book just did not hit well. I found myself getting bored with the sci-fi parts but loving the thrill. I really enjoyed The One but this one was not my cup of tea

“You are here because you don't want to remain trapped in a world of uncertainty”

It would strongly help you to read both The One and The Passengers before picking up The Minders

Within the last year, I have fallen down the John Marrs rabbit hole and have so much fun reading his compelling and interesting sci-fi novels. With his usually short chapters, multiple character perspectives, and intense stakes/cliffhangers, his books are typically very bingeable. However, while I did have fun with The Minders, there was much more of a disconnect for me then with his other books.

Taking place shortly after the events of The Passengers, The Minders centralizes on the UK government as they attempt to develop a method of keeping British secrets from the elusive hacking community that threatens to extort countries with their information. Taking the perspective of five strangers who have elected to start their lives over and carry this information in their heads, we witness as each one begins to lose their sanity in their attempts protect their information.

I wanted to like this book so much, but I had so many problems with the action and character development. In The Minders, things just felt so forced to me. Characters happened to meet someone important to them, they'd be put into a situation that didn't make sense, or they'd respond in a way that was confusing.

There was also so much happening that by the end of the book, I just didn't really care about our characters. Characters would make an unexplainably bad decision and then get into trouble and I couldn't get over why this was happening. I did think the story was super fast paced and the trouble that happened contributed to that, but it felt like it was happening just to happen.

If these books all do become part of a shared universe, I do see the potential that the Hacking Collective could introduce. The Minders just didn't live up to and utilize them well enough. However, I will continue to be a fan and read from John Marrs and I hope to see the idea of The Minders utilized his next book.

The Minders by John Marrs is a superb and engrossing read which will keep you reading until the end. Well worth the read!

This book was a fast paced tech thriller which I really enjoyed. I haven't previously read any of John Marrs works, but now have him on my radar. I quickly picked up his book The One after reading this one and can say I am enjoying that one just as much!

Have you read THE ONE by John Marrs? - Well, then you know Marrs writes books that are hard to put down.
What about THE PASSERNGERS by John Marrs? - Great! In this one, Marrs nudges us out of our comfort zones and asks a very ethical question about A.I.

If you have read both books, then THE MINDERS is an absolute must-read for you.
In his latest work, John Marrs skilfully builds a bridge and connects the two stories of THE ONE and THE PASSENGERS.

It comes with great bitterness that the government had to learn their top secrets are not safe anymore. A revolutionary medical procedure promises hope: a group of people has been identified to carry the government secrets via an implant, in their heads. In return, they get the offer of their lives - to be able to start afresh, leaving their old identity, all the pain and hardships behind.

What sounds promising as a theoretical idea, comes with its downsides as the members of this group carry their very own secrets as well.
Told from multiple perspectives and playing with unreliable narrators (who can you trust?), I would call his latest novel a very typical John Marrs novel. His gift to cleverly compose a story which combines sci-fi genre with thriller elements makes THE MINDERS an absolute read-worthy experience, in particular for fans of Black Mirror.

*Note to the Publisher:*
Thank you! for providing me with the opportunity to read the e-book of THE MINDERS by John Marrs.
I have truly enjoyed his new novel & can't wait what he will be releasing next.

3.5 rounded down to 3...

Please learn from my mistake and do not read this before reading Passengers or The One unless you want some serious spoilers for those!

I go into most of my thrillers blind, I requested this one based on reading What Lies Between Us (my first John Marrs) last year and loving it! This was a time going in blind burnt me. Because, had I read about this one, I would have known it contained spoilers on his other books I have, but still haven’t read.

This ended up being a bit out of my comfort zone. If you aren’t someone who enjoys keeping up with various characters I wouldn’t recommend this to you. I had a hard time keeping up with the five main characters, and then with the side characters as well. I found myself really wanting to DNF this one around 40%, but I stuck through it. I just wasn’t that into the story at that point, but I am happy I didn’t quit. I liked the female characters in this book, but felt the male characters to be forgettable. I like the way this book wrapped up at the end. It made sense and was something I felt like I could have guessed, but didn’t. If you are into sci-fi thrillers that take place in the future, you will love this one!

Thanks to @berkleypub for the opportunity to read this one. This one is available now!

As with every single John Marrs book I have read, this one is no different. Fantastic! Only John Marrs can use my most loathed trope and still end up with a five star rating in the end. As with all of his books, this one is fast paced, leaving you saying “just one more chapter” many times over. My only caveat is that you read The One (and possibly The Passengers) before this one, as it would make part of the storyline a little more hard-hitting. I absolutely loved this one and will definitely be recommending it to my friends whom I have already turned into John Marrs fans! Thank you for another fantastic book! I can’t wait to read more of your work.

Thank you NetGalley, Berkley Publishing, and John Marrs for an advanced reader's copy of this book. I read this in exchange for my honest opinion.

John Marrs has done it again. His books have such unique plots, characters you come to love, characters you hate, characters that do a 180 right at the end. In this story, five individuals are entrusted with all of their government's top secrets due to the threat of ransomware hackers affecting computer data systems. These secrets are implanted into each of "The Minders" brains - crazy! However, the implanted information may have very different effects on each of our 5 main characters.

I love the way that this book is divided as well. Short chapters that are fast-paced and leave mini cliffhangers at the end. This book was absolutely fantastic. There were nods to The One and Passengers in here and that was fun little bits for readers of his previous works.

Overall, highly recommend any of his books and this one is no different!

And yet again, John Marrs has blown my mind. This story was complex and wonderful, yet horrifying and cringe worthy. I loved the complexity of how the characters story lines intertwined, but were easy to follow, and the plot line took me by surprise at the end. It made my head spin.

The thought of five individuals holding all the secrets of the government in their heads is so out there, but yet so real and close. But secrets don't stay buried for long. In a turn of events, the secret of the secret holders is exposed and one by one, they are being hunted down. How will it all end? You will have to read The Minders to find out.

My Review will go live on my blog, Book Confessions on March 17th.

John Marrs is one of my all time favorite authors. It's so rare that I've now read 6 of his books and every single one of them has been 5 stars. What can I say, I'm fascinated with his mind. He is a genius and noone can tell me different. With The Minders, he brings yet another scary situation where some very special people get classified governmental information implanted into their minds. SAY WHAT.
One thing that I absolutely love is when an author references his other books. There's that FEELING you get when recognize these and in The Minders, he definitely gives a nod to his other books - mostly with The One and Passengers and I couldn't have been happier to see that! But fear not, you can read this just fine without having read those, though I highly recommend you go back because they're freaking amazing.

I'm not going to bore you with the endless things I loved about this read. I'll just say that you'll want to read this. Chock full of twisty little moments and (some) characters I hope to see again, this is a full on win and the best way to end my February reads.

Mr. Marrs - you have a fan in me and I can't wait to see what else you bring to the table. I would love to pick your mind someday.

Readers - if you haven't read any of his work, I implore you to do so now.

The premise of the book is simple: when anything can be hacked, what do you do with important information? You take it offline, at least temporarily. But the problem with taking something offline is that then you’re leaving it in the hands of humans, who are fueled by emotions and agendas, rather than logic. This is generalizing it, but this is basically the driving premise of The Minders.

It takes place in what seems to be the not-too-distant future. In the early pages of the novel, we’re given descriptions of serious protocols for security-based jobs that involve what sounds like smart glasses. And there’s the note in a meeting that “two and a half years ago” an event happened that was worse than the “coronavirus pandemic of 2020”; it also notes the two World Wars having happened 100 years ago. All of that to say that I kept thinking this book takes place in 2045 as a frame of reference.

The pacing is incredibly well done. The book has 87 chapters, four parts, and an epilogue, which sounds daunting but it’s so fast paced and the chapters fairly short that it won’t take that long to read at all. Of course, you won’t have a chance to be bored, either. Early on we’re introduced to Flick, Sinéad, Bruno, Charlie, and Emilia: five characters with five very different back stories and situations. What sets Emilia apart from the rest is the fact that she can’t remember hers, but even with the others we’re only given enough information at first to introduce them – we get to know them more later on.

Check out the rest of my review over on The Girly Book Club!

This third book in this thriller series is set in the future where information and secrets must be hidden from the Hacking Collective. Many methods to hide this sensitive data have failed and governments are being held hostage to the Collective. Britain has, so far, resisted all blackmail efforts by creating a fantastical way to implant all of this protected confidential knowledge into the DNA of human beings. The first order of business, however, is to find 5 people who will accept the implant, follow the rules of the program, and keep the country's cover-ups etc. out of the electronic devices, data banks, and cloud services. Those selected have a certain ability - synaesthesia - most commonly the type that enables personification of numbers, letters, and days of the week. This group of enhanced individuals come to be known as "The Minders" and after their procedure, extensive training, and plenty of funds for expenses, they are sent off to hide in plain sight until a certain period of time has passed. The caveat for their patriotism is that they must leave all friends and family behind without contact until they are recalled.

The 5 Minders go their separate ways and try to establish themselves in small towns, living quietly without electronics or any type of online presence so they can't be tracked or found. The narrative shifts as each Minder shares his/her experience. Existence for the Minders is not as pleasant as anticipated and soon all are running for their lives. NO SPOILERS.

I've read the previous related books -- THE ONE and also THE PASSENGERS -- so was expecting another mind blowing read. For some reason, the alternating points of view and the first parts of the book were hard to follow and not as engrossing as hoped. I couldn't develop any sense of empathy for the characters, didn't really know who the good guys were, and definitely was unable to relate to any of them. They all seemed kind of a nasty bunch. The climax and reveal were disappointing and the conclusion left me feeling quite unfulfilled. There was lots of action so it should have moved faster, but it took me days to finish this as I felt no compulsion to get back to it. I liked it well enough and am glad I finished it, but it's definitely my least favorite of the 3. The premise drew me in but I was a bit disappointed with the direction the story took and the conclusion.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for this e-book ARC to read and review.

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to preview The Minders by John Marrs. This may be part of a series, but it is my first read by John Marrs. I don't think you have to read previous books, but i think it would give perspective.
This is more scy-fi nove - fast paced and intriguing.
3 stars.

I have to confess I’m not much of a sci-fi reader but every once in a while I dip my toe into the genre. This is the third of John Marrs’ books I’ve read and I think I will always read his latest offering. They are entertaining, relatable (ok that might be a stretch) and believable enough to draw me along for the thrilling ride. So, all that said, I decided early on to just sit back and watch the story unfold. It’s one of those that a character list and brief description helped me keep things straight. Still I had to pause occasionally to think about what was going on. Confusing? At times. Enjoyable? To the extent that I’m not a fan of violent acts in my reading, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this book. It’s extremely violent in parts and quite tender in some. All in all, I enjoyed it but be warned that this will fool with your mind – what’s real and what is created to seem read?

The Minders may not a sequel to The One, but perhaps a spinoff. In this story, a British government project basically turns 5 people into walking zip drives, holding deep dark secrets to be kept from hackers. It's a decent book, nothing very deep, memorable, or emotional, but decent nonetheless.

I really enjoyed John Marrs' The One and The Passengers, so I was excited to read The Minders...and it did not disappoint! I liked that the book referred to things that happened in the previous Marrs novels I've read, and just like those, The Minders was incredibly hard to put down. Marrs has a knack for writing books that are like nothing I've read before, and that's something I really appreciate. You don't have to read The One and The Passengers to enjoy this book, but I'm glad I did because it made The Minders even more enjoyable for me. Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for giving me the opportunity to read and review a new book by an amazing author. : )

"Fast paced and shocking, The Minders is a book you won’t be able to put down!"

My full review can be found on FreshFiction.com by clicking on the link below. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title!