A good thriller with a compelling cast of characters, but the abundance of perspectives and constant timeline shifts created confusion, hindering character connection

I recently discovered John Marrs after reading The One, which I loved. I went on to read The Passenger and The Marriage Act, which take place in the same universe as The One. All three books are speculative/science fiction, taking place sometime in the near future.

I was excited to have the opportunity to read the John Marr's The Vacation. The book is a republication from the author's 2015 release. I assumed that the book would also be science fiction, which Marrs does so well. But the book is actually just a straight up thriller and not an interesting one at that. The book was slow and focuses on eight characters as they interact in a Venice Beach hostel. Some of the character's stories were more interesting than others, but ultimately, this book just didn't do it for me. I'll stick with Marr's science fiction releases.

Marrs has two types of novels. High concept and domestic. While I am a SUPER fan of the domestic, this is a high concept. Not a bad thing if you like big ideas, of which he has many, but it's not my favorite.

The being said, Marrs can WRITE. You want to keep reading. You want to know about his characters. He handles multiple POVS like the artist he is. So there was good here.

It was interesting to see how things came together. It wasn't my favorite high concept from him, but it was very solid overall. It took a while to get into it though, for me, even though the beginning started with a bang. Ha. Ha.

Overall, it's a 4.3/4.6, rounded.

John Marrs is an automatic read/ buy author for me! This book started a little slow/confusing with all the characters, but once it started it didn’t let up until the end!

There’s a large cast of characters to keep you on your toes, and even more plot twists that keep coming at you. Once the different storylines start weaving together, the book is unputdownable! At a little over 500 pages, it moves surprisingly fast with short chapters. I didn’t realize this was a rerelease of one of the author’s earlier novels until after reading, and I’m so glad to have found it!

Thank you for the opportunity to read!

This book covers the lives of people who are visiting a hostel at Venice Beach, California. We, as the readers, get to see the various backgrounds of the characters staying or working at the hostel, and they are all quite fascinating, if not a bit scary. Some of their lives are intermingled, some are running away from an old life, some running toward a new one. Overall, by halfway through the book, the twists and turns become more than a daytime drama and the ride was fabulous.

The way so many characters intertwine with each others back story in John’s books never fails to impress me. This book was no exception! I read it so quickly because I couldn’t wait to find out what was going to happen. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in return of my review!

Very very suspenseful. I absolutely love all his books. So this was no surprise. Read this in 1 day. Page turner. Highly recommend

The Vacation by John Marrs is a chaotic thriller with a number of different characters on the run from their pasts. They all have very different backgrounds, though all seem to be running from something or in search of something and each of their stories unravels bit by bit.

I did find the question of why Nicole and Eric were travelling America, having come from overseas, clearly looking for something very intriguing. This is hinted at and yet not revealed very carefully, and I felt the anticipation for finding out their story was well done and certainly kept me guessing and very much wanting answers. I enjoyed that it was almost like a scavenger hunt they were on to figure out the mystery they had been left with, while very well kept a mystery to the reader with information slowly doled out that amped up the intrigue of it.

I felt there were entirely too many different point of view characters which kind of had me losing the actual story in trying to keep track of who was who and the point of swamping characters so frequently. Another thing I struggled with was the constant back and forth within these short chapters between present and past. It was a bit overwhelming having two different timelines for such a brief amount of time from one characters point of view just to shift to a new character in the next chapter and do the same thing. All in all there was a lot happening within short bursts that overshadowed the story itself for me. Having so many different characters featuring in chapters also made it hard for me to care about any of them. There was no real moment of getting to actually know a character and develop a bond with them because of the sheer number of different points of view the chapters went between. It didn’t quite work for me. On top of that, particularly in the flashbacks, the information presented oftentimes seemed so irrelevant to the story that I was left wondering why I should care.

The story did improve for me once the storylines started to come together more and the information seemed less superfluous but it took longer to get to that point than my attention span could really handle and it still felt like there was too much back and forth between past and present for my liking. As more information came to hand about the characters and their situations I did become more interested and did enjoy how their stories started to unfold.

I will say I did really enjoy the ending of The Vacation. How everything wrapped up and came together, how heartwarming and bittersweet some of the endings for the characters were. It did redeem the book a bit in my eyes and helped the initial struggle feel more worthwhile. I also felt it was much easier to connect to some of the characters closer to the end so I didn’t leave this book feeling entirely disconnected like I thought I was going to. All together The Vacation by John Marrs is a mystery about a number of different strangers and their secrets and a short, enjoyable read for fans of this type of story.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me with an eARC of The Vacation in exchange for my honest review!

Even as The Vacation spreads itself thin sometimes while covering such a wide ensemble of characters, it ends up being an entertaining little mystery thriller that offers up various intriguing people with whom we can connect. They've all got personalities that draw us in and make it clear that they're trying to flee their own mysterious pasts. They've all got hidden parts of their souls that the narrative gradually unearths, creating quite a few unpredictable twists. Savannah, Ruth, Tommy, and Jake stand out as my favorite members of the roster here. Now, I do think the book takes a while to build up steam, but once it's past the first act, it moves along faster. And even when the story feels bulky as it handles all these different POVs, it keeps me compelled enough that I want to find out how their individual subplots interweave together and wrap up. I do wonder if the conclusions for a few of the characters could have been resolved more fully, but it doesn't detract much from my satisfaction.

Overall, I'm officially rating The Vacation 3.25 out of 5 stars, which I'll round down to 3 stars. I'll keep an eye out for more of Mars's work.

Upon original publication in 2015, the original title of this book by John Marrs was Welcome to Wherever You Are. With John Marrs subsequent success, that title is now being re-released as The Vacation. The connections the author is able to depict between the characters at a hostel in Venice Beach are creative and entertaining. It just takes a while to get there. About half way through, I am ready for the story to all come together.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2024/01/the-vacation.html

Reviewed for NetGalley and a publisher’s blog tour.

Thanks to the publisher and the Netgalley for this eARC.

JOHN MARRS, is the master of psychological thrillers, this book is the mental equivalent of the physical enjoyment of eating a huge helping of your favorite dessert.

Keep writing the books Mr. Marrs, we will certainly keep reading them!

Thanks HTP and NetGalley for the ARC! I always enjoy picking up John Marrs' books. As usual, he does a fabulous job writing the book from multiple viewpoints and wrapping it all together. I did find that this book was a bit of a slow start - I kept waiting for things to take off and BOY when they took off, the really took off! I'll be recommending this to my friends who love a good mystery and twist!

I love John Marrs! Whenever I open one of his thrillers, I know to prepare myself for a cerebral, intricately woven plot with a large cast of characters. This one was not as thrilling as some of his other works but I still enjoyed it. The timeline switches were a little hard to follow and I found myself returning to previous chapters to try to figure out who we were talking about. You really have to pay attention to follow each plot line. 3.5 overall. Thank you HTP and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this rerelease!

I enjoyed this! The characters are well developed and it has twists that I liked. I like the writing style and will definitely be checking out more books from John Marrs. Thank you to John Marrs, Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! The only other book of Marrs' I have read is The One, and now that I've read The Vacation, I am officially a fan. At first, I was a little confused keeping the backstories straight, but once I got that figured out, I couldn't put the book down. The plot moves, and there are twists all throughout, not just saved until the end. There were some points where I was even thinking, "Wait. Did that say what I think it said? Did that really just happen?!?" I loved everything about it, including how there are some breadcrumbs sprinkled throughout that make you feel like you know what's going on, but then something happens to turn it on its head. Really really enjoyable. Highly recommend.

I don't think this one needed to be re-released. Marrs has grown so much as an author since these first books of his, and I feel that most readers that love him now will be disappointed by the pacing and lack of murders in these pages. Ha! I still love him though and can't wait for the next thing from him!

John Marrs just has a way of writing that gets me so lost in a book. I absolutely devoured this one. I love the way he uses so maybe characters and seamlessly creates their personalities in a way I can’t forget any of them.

One of the things I love about traveling is that it's always a reminder of just how many people there are in the world. I especially love people-watching in an airport--wondering where the lady in the powersuit is traveling to, wondering how that group is all related, wondering why that guy is so sunburned.⁠
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I'm sharing that because I loved the premise of this book: it's the story of what brought eight main characters to the same run-down hospital in Los Angeles, California.⁠
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(Apparently this is a re-release of the book "Welcome to Wherever You Are"--edited and republished with a mainstream publisher.)⁠
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Admittedly (thankfully?), it's been a long time since I've stayed in a hostel, but I certainly remember the days of shared drinks in the common room, waiting my turn for the shower, and being woken up in the middle of the night by a roommate coming in. And I remember the (sometimes deep and philosophical) discussions with strangers from all over the world...and wondering where they came from and why they're in this hostel.⁠
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John Marrs capitalizes on the idea of strangers (each with their own secrets) coming together in this psychological thriller.⁠
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It's a slow burn...I'm honestly not sure I would have finished it if I hadn't been reviewing it for @NetGalley and @harlequinbooks, but I'm actually glad I did. It took awhile, but once we start to see how all of the characters overlap (and how their pasts catch up to their present), it's twisty, turny, and unexpected.⁠
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So if you're into travel and learning more about people (and like thrillers), this would be a great choice. Just be patient with it.⁠
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Book: The Vacation ⁠
Author: John Marrs⁠
Format: Digital⁠
Genre: Fiction, Thriller⁠
Places Featured: Los Angeles, California, United States 🇺🇸⁠
Review Score: ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 (rounded up)

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are my own opinions.

I must give John Marrs kudos for writing a novel with Multiple characters involved and yet I could keep track of them due to amazing character personalities. I get confused easily and felt satisfied after reading this novel.

Great book with many twist and turns.