Book: “Vox” by Christina Dalcher
Publishing Info: Berkley, August 2018
Where Did I Get This Book: I was sent an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
Book Description: Set in an America where half the population has been silenced, VOX is the harrowing, unforgettable story of what one woman will do to protect herself and her daughter.
On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed more than 100 words daily, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial–this can’t happen here. Not in America. Not to her.
This is just the beginning.
Soon women can no longer hold jobs. Girls are no longer taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words a day, but now women only have one hundred to make themselves heard.
But this is not the end.
For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.
Review: A special thanks to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for sending me an eARC of this book!
People keep asking me if I have watched “The Handmaid’s Tale” yet, and as of now I still haven’t. I know that it’s supposed to be super super good, and I know that a number of my friends really love it, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch it because it really just feels ‘too real’ right now. So I will admit that when I was sent the book “Vox” by Christina Dalcher from Bentley, I also had that moment of cringe, not because I doubted that it was good, but because I felt that it would touch on a raw nerve. Perhaps a few years ago I would have said that the idea of the American Government stripping women of all rights, and limiting their daily speech to 100 words total, as preposterous. Now? I’m not as certain about it. But I did eventually decide that it was time to buckle down and read it, and once I did, as terrifying as the themes were, I had a hard time putting it down.
The first big win of this book is that Dalcher creates a fairly realistic pathway for how American Society can change it’s societal values and ideals in such a drastic way in such a comparatively short amount of time. Our protagonist, Jean, is in her early forties, and she can trace the origins of this super right wing group, The Pure Movement, within her lifetime dating back towards her college years. Through flashbacks involving Jean and other people in her life, mostly her old friend and feminist advocate Jackie, we can see how a woman who became a renowned expert in neuroscience eventually ended up as a housewife with no rights and a counter on her hand to track her words. Dalcher presents a slow take over of right wing politics and ideals, and the apathy of ‘that will never happen here’ that does nothing until it is far too late. Dalcher also presents a fairly realistic progression of how Jean’s family is affected by the law, and how the men in her life betray her in different ways even though they also ‘love’ her (I hate putting that in quotations, but I feel like I have to). Be it her husband Patrick, who is a flunky to the government who doesn’t REALLY believe in the law, but does nothing to stop it, or her son Steven, who at seventeen is drinking the Kool Aid of The Pure Movement and becoming a traitor to his mother and general decency.
Because of these things the plot was gripping and engrossing. I was horrified by the things that the Pure Movement does in this book (be it to women, LGBTQIA people, or other marginalized groups), but Jean was so compelling and so easy to root for that I kept reading, needing to know if she was going to overcome the persecution, if not completely overthrow it.
There were a couple of things that didn’t quite work for me. I did feel that the pacing was a bit off by the end, as I felt that I suddenly wrapped up very quickly. There were a couple of inconsistencies within the ending that felt like they went against a few of the characters and their personalities, and while I do believe that some people can change their minds about certain things (I’m trying so hard to be vague), to go from one side of opinion to an opinion on the other VERY extreme side felt uncharacteristic and hard to swallow. I can’t really divulge much more without spoiling anything vital, but just trust me when I say it was a leap. That and I feel that some characters who did nasty things got too easy of a pass. I’m kind of over giving people who do crappy and disturbing and oppressive things the benefit of the doubt, so while I like me a redemption arc to a point, I’m not sure that I can stomach one that gives something of a pass to bigots, even if they were slowly brainwashed.
Still and all, “Vox” is an entertaining read that give enough darkness to feel allegorical, but enough hope that you don’t want to just crawl into a hole and never come back out. I think that this could be a hot read come Fall, and think that anyone frustrated or scared may be able to work out some feelings by trying it out!
Rating 7: A gripping and addicting thriller that feels all too real at the moment, “Vox” was a disturbing, and somewhat cathartic, read about women being silenced by their own government and those who fight back.
Reader’s Advisory:
“Vox” is included on the Goodreads lists “Patriarchal Dystopias”, and “Best Books To Read When You Need A Reminder of Why Feminism Is Important”.
Find “Vox” at your library using WorldCat!
The Library Ladies 