Vox by Christina Dalcher – 336 pages
Book Blurb:
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.
My Review: 3 stars
Vox is a dystopian and sci-fi novel about laws that enforce silence, among other things, for women. In the near-future alternative reality, the Pure Movement has taken over the nation and gone are the days of tolerance and equal rights. Women not only lose their ability to hold jobs & bank accounts, but their speech. Only 100 words a day are allotted. The premise that Dalcher creates is strong and frighteningly relevant. It’s a cautionary tale of government control and non-participation and involvement.
Based on this premise, I wanted to love this book, especially because it seemed to be a cousin of The Handmaid’s Tale (which I’m watching on Hulu right now). The plot had such potential to make an impact, but the ideas are never developed enough to make them as powerful as they could be. At times the writing was bogged down with technical medical details and felt like I was switching between a dystopian novel & Gray’s Anatomy. There was a detachment to a lot of the characters – and this book had many characters. For example, the main protagonist has four kids, two of which were twin boys. The author included them as family members yet they were barely mentioned in the novel. At times I wondered if this were meant for a YA audience.
Although Vox was an interesting read and there were parts of the story that I did enjoy; there were too many coincidences in the story for it to be believable. I am in the minority in my review, so if you’re a fan of this genre, give it a spin.
Quotes I liked:
Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. That’s what they say, right?”
-“One thing I learned from Jackie: you can’t protest what you don’t see coming.”
– “We’ve turned into necessary evils, objects to be fucked and not heard.”
-“My fault started two decades ago, the first time I didn’t vote, the umpteen times I told Jackie I was too busy to go on one of her marches or make posters or call my congressmen.”
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