THE MINDERS by John Marrs – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Minders by John Marrs
Published by Berkley on February 16 2021
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 416
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: The Minders had lots of potential, but too many silly plot points and unlikeable characters made this a miss for me.

I think your enjoyment of The Minders is going to hinge on whether or not you can get past some of the ridiculous plot elements, at least that was my experience. The Minders is set in the same world as Marrs’ The Passengers and The One and builds on some of the details in those books. Saying that, it isn’t really necessary to read either one first. For example, I’ve read The Passengers but not The One, and I had no trouble following along. The books take place in a futuristic UK, and each addresses an interesting bit of future technology. The Passengers focuses on the dangers of self-driving cars, The One revolves around a matchmaking system involving DNA matching, and now with The Minders, Marrs delves into the world of data hacking and ways to prevent that from happening.

The story focuses on five main characters who have all been selected to participate in a secret government program. The UK has recently been attacked by a group of cyber criminals called the Hacking Collective, a fringe group who aim to interfere with the country’s cyber safety protocols by hacking into secure online files and causing havoc and even death. Due to the recent failure of the British government choosing to hide volatile government secrets inside moving vehicles—yep, you guessed it, the Hacking Collective took them down—they have decided instead to store these secrets inside the human brain. Because humans can’t be hacked, right? 

These “Minders,” as they are called, have been carefully selected because of certain physiological traits, one of those being that all the Minders have some form of synesthesia. Specially trained by the government and given strict rules for the next five years of their lives, the five Minders each have an information-filled capsule implanted into their brains and are instructed to leave their friends and family behind, move to a remote location (a location known by only one man, their “handler”) and lie low as much as possible. In return, the government will pay for anything they might need, and of course there is a big payout once the five years are up.

But shortly after all five Minders are happily settled into their new homes, things start to go wrong. The classified information stored in their brains is slowly leaking through, and now they have access to these secrets. Even worse, someone is after them, someone dangerous who wants them dead. And there is nowhere to run…

I’m honestly baffled by all the high ratings for this book on Goodreads. And we’re talking almost 1,500 ratings of what look to be mostly four and five stars. Unfortunately, I found The Minders to be full of silly coincidences, over-the-top characters and a completely unbelievable premise. I want to talk about the characters first, because while they were certainly entertaining, they were some of the stupidest characters I’ve ever run across before. If you’re going to choose five people in all of Great Britain to be the keepers of the biggest government secrets ever, wouldn’t you choose a little more carefully? Instead, Bruno, Sinéad, Charlie, Flick and Emelia are chosen based on a computer quiz, which confirms that they all have synesthesia. Apparently, this condition is all that’s required to be a good fit. However, we soon meet all five characters and trust me, they are not good fits at all. Now I’m aware that Marrs was going for pure entertainment and shock value, and that’s exactly what he achieved.

But here, judge for yourself: First we have Flick, a sad sad woman who discovered that her DNA Match turned out to be a notorious serial killer. Now she lives in a state of depression, convinced she’ll never meet the love of her life. Sinéad’s husband is a narcissist and has been gaslighting her for years. He’s convinced her that she’s ugly, fat and useless, and Sinéad believes him. It isn’t until she passes the quiz that she has the strength to get up and leave him for good. Bruno is the single father of an autistic boy who requires constant care. It turns out his wife Zoe was cheating on him, but she and her lover died in a car crash when their self driving car was hacked. Cheated out of a settlement from Zoe’s death, Bruno is now a bitter man who has only one thing on his mind: revenge. Charlie was also involved in a self-driving car mishap and now he’s completely alone and friendless because of it. Last is Emelia, the biggest mystery of all. Emelia wakes up in a hospital and can’t remember anything: who she is, how she got there, and worst of all, the man who claims to be her husband and wants to take her home. It isn’t until much later in the story that Emelia’s secrets are revealed. Now seriously, would you choose these people to protect your county’s most highly sensitive secrets? Me either.

The more I learned about the characters, the more I disliked them. In addition to making terrible choices along the way, we learn that each one went through intensive government training (which is never explained), and now they all have crazy ninja skills that seem to kick in just when they need them most, i.e. whenever they are being threatened. There’s also the issue of those secrets that are stored inside their brains, secrets that are leaking out, which means they aren’t secret anymore. Now it’s up to a bunch of depressed, mentally unstable citizens to keep those secrets, even if they’re dying to tell someone. I read science fiction and fantasy all day long, so I’ve learned how to suspend my disbelief when needed. But sometimes an author just goes too far into “unbelievable” territory and I have a tough time rolling with it, and this is one of those cases.

The only character I really liked was Emelia, whose story is actually very well done. Marrs is really good at misdirection, and I was honestly surprised by some of the twists involving Emelia and her husband. If only the other characters’ stories had been half as well developed, I think I would have enjoyed this much more.

The plot itself is a bit of a mess, and the author seems determined to throw in every outlandish trick in the book to shock his audience. The Minders is also a fairly violent story, and I’m not sure why I’m surprised because The Passengers was violent as well. One of the characters goes on a killing spree, and how he got away with all those murders is anyone’s guess, lol. Get ready for a huge body count, and be careful who you get attached to, just saying.

And while I’ll admit this was a page-turner and there were some genuinely exciting scenes, it just wasn’t enough for me to give this a higher rating. I’ve come to the conclusion that John Marrs might not be for me, and as curious as I am to go back and read The One, I think I’ll pass for now.

Thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

Read my review of The Passengers