Review: The Passengers

The Passengers by John Marrs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Self driving cars are now the rule, not the exception. Britain's roads are full of them. Traffic jams are a thing of the past, pollution is down, people are calmer...it's all good, right?

Apart from the eight people who have found themselves trapped in their car, unable to control the course, unable to communicate with anyone. They are unwilling victims of Hackers determined to prove that cars are not as safe as they're claimed to be. And the public will have to choose; which one will survive, and which ones will die? They're on a collision course, quite literally...


I've read one other John Marrs book, The OneThe One, which is referenced a couple of times in this one. They're both very effective thrillers with multiple POVs. John is very skilled at projecting technology a couple of decades into the future and imagining what it will be like - this one is set sometime after the 2020s, but if there's a more specific time than that I missed it. I wouldn't be surprised, I was reading very quickly trying to find out what would happen. He's very good at making you feel one way about a character, then revealing something that makes you feel another.

I'll be watching out for more John Marrs books in the future, I'd definitely enjoy visiting this world again.



Panic rose inside Shabana in the same way it did when she heard Vihaan slamming the front door after a night out. If he was drunk, he was angry. And if he was angry, he was going to release his aggression upon his wife by doing what he wanted to her while she laid still, eyes closed and fists balled, dreaming of a better life.
Other voices began to fill her car, more words and languages that she didn’t understand, along with haunting cries, shouting and people in distress. ‘What is happening ?’ she pleaded aloud. ‘I don’t like this, please, can you make the car stop? I would like to get out.’ She pushed a button on the door hoping it would open, but nothing happened.
She looked at the phone Reyansh had given her and pressed the green button, holding it to her ear. ‘Reyansh ?’ she asked. ‘Reyansh, son, can you hear me? Are you there? Please?’
But there was no reply. Shabana had a feeling the new life she dared to dream of was already slipping from her grasp.

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