The Family Experiment
Fiction
Hanover Square Press
July 9, 2024
Hardcover/Audio
384
Purchased/Library
Some families are virtually perfect…
The world's population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, the breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families, let alone raise them.
But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality TV show called The Substitute. It will follow ten couples as they raise a Virtual Child from birth to the age of eighteen but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child, or risk it all for the chance of a real baby…
Set in the same universe as John Marrs's bestselling novel The One and The Marriage Act, The Family Experiment is a dark and twisted thriller about the ultimate Tamagotchi—a virtual baby.
My review:
I love a good speculative fiction story, and does this author ever deliver! His book The One made my favorite books list last year, and this one is set in the same universe (along with The Passengers and The Marriage Act, which I have yet to read). I'm not a fantasy reader because the world is just not something that I can relate to, but these stories are more believable to me. This one deals with AI generated babies that can be rented. When the parent puts on a virtual reality headset and a hepatic suit, they can have the full child experience without the prohibitive cost of raising an actual child. After this trend takes off, a reality tv show is created where five couples and a single dad raise their AI children within a condensed time frame (it takes nine months for the child to go from newborn to 18 years). Viewers vote with red and black hearts on how they feel the parents are doing and people are voted off. The winner gets to either keep their virtual child, or be given enough money to afford to raise a biological child. Doesn't that sound intriguing? It did take a while at the beginning to remember who was who since there are a lot of characters introduced, but I found as the story went on it was not an issue for me. Each couple was uniquely different, and so was their style of parenting. The book included news segments and forum remarks from the viewers, and these were such a great addition to the story! And of course what would reality tv be without a bit of manipulation behind the scenes? As always, lots of social commentary to discuss, and this keeps you thinking about it well after turning the last page.
Such a great social commentary combining parenting and reality television. I'm definitely on the Marrs hype train and look forward to not only what comes next, but his backlist titles.
