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?

Paperback | 416 pages

Publisher: Del Ray (30th May 2019)

I’ve been dying to read this since I first saw it popping up all over Instagram and I was lucky enough to get it for Christmas. From the first page I knew I was onto a corker and the first few chapters flew by as I devoured the words. Cor, this is a gripping story.

I found this easy to read. The story was very compelling and hooked me in. It took me 6 hours to read. I read at a steady pace and took in all aspects of the story.

There were so many characters in this book and so many avenues to explore but I don’t want to run the risk of accidentally spoiling anything, so my focus will be on Libby.

I feel like Libby pushed me down an incomplete rollercoaster because I felt a mired of emotions while reading this and had a million thoughts about us humans and the path we’re on.

Libby presented herself as perfectly ordinary but the role chosen for her character fit so perfectly that I wonder about Marr’s creation of her. She was the character that made sense in a pool of confusion and distrust.

I always felt like she was being genuine and that her responses to what was happening were real and relatable.

Once all was said and done, I still found her character relatable and someone I could connect to. Her trajectory – out of all the characters – felt the most honest and I was happy to see her story conclude in a positive light.

This was easy to visualise as the story is so gripping that it completely sucks you in and visualisation becomes the reality as you read.

‘One of the most exciting, original thriller writers’ Simon Kernick is what is ays on the front of the book and I find myself agreeing wholeheartedly with that statement. I haven’t read a book that has lingered with me so much since reading Laura Purcell’s ‘The Corset’, but this book has made me think about humans and our relationship with technology in ways I wasn’t expecting. This near-future was terrifying in so many ways but it made for an epic read!

I loved this. I had my doubts when I saw how big the book was on how well it would hold my attention but there was no reason to worry, because this book was truly phenomenal.