THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER • ONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY‘S AND SHEREADS’ BOOKS TO READ AFTER THE HANDMAID’S TALE“[An] electrifying debut.”—O, The Oprah Magazine “The real-life parallels will make you shiver.”—Cosmopolitan Set in a United States in which 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 … 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 one hundred words per day, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial. This can’t happen here. Not in America. Not to her.
Soon women are not permitted to hold jobs. Girls are not taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words each day, but now women have only one hundred to make themselves heard.
For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.
This is just the beginning…not the end.
One of Good Morning America’s “Best Books to Bring to the Beach This Summer”
One of PopSugar, Refinery29, Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, Real Simple, i09, and Amazon’s Best Books to Read in August 2018
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Like The Handmaids Tale had a dystopian baby. This is a high compliment don’t get me wrong. This book scared the hell out of me and yet I couldn’t put it down.
I found the premise of the book to be intriguing.
with what’s going on in today’s world – one could almost see this happening. I was caught up from the first page. I intend to read it again.
My Review of “Vox” by Christina Dalcher Berkley, August 21, 2018
Christina Dalcher, Author of “VOX” has written an unusual, terrifying, intense, captivating, page turning, riveting, suspenseful and twisted thriller. The Genres for this story are Fiction, Thriller, Mystery and Suspense, and Political Satire. The timeline of the story is in the present and goes to the past when it pertains to the characters or events in this novel. The story takes place in the United States of America. (Believe it or not)
The Government and politics in place have some twisted rules, and everything seems to happen in the blink of an eye. The Women in this story are only allowed to speak 100 words a day. This is charted by an electronic bracelet that is placed on their wrists that tracks words and emits shocks.Very young girls also get the “band” and now go to school and are encouraged not to speak. The girls that say nothing get prizes. This leads to women being forced to stay home, and cook and clean, because they can’t get jobs. There is no evidence of birth control, or condoms in stores.
The men are given important roles, and some are entitled to visit elite clubhouses, where there are prostitutes. Any infraction in this society by the religious groups in power are punished.
Dr. Jean McClellan can’t believe that this is happening. She has been an expert on matters of the brain, strokes and aphasia. Now she and her four-year old daughter are limited to speaking 100 words a day. Her older teenage son questions her role in the home. It seems that the President’s brother has had a terrible accident and they require Jean’s assistance. What will she do for survival for her and her family?
There is a resistance, and the people you would least suspect are in it. But, how do you know how to trust anyone? The government is using the top scientists for some secret project. I would recommend this chilling thriller to readers that enjoy this genre. I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest review.
This book was completely immersive. I finished it way too fast and am considering rereading already. Clever, scary and breath taking.
It was unsettling but a good read
Loved it!
I think this book deserves all the accolades it has gotten. If you are a women it will surely make you mad. If it doesn’t you don’t deserve the title women. In the current climate I could see something similar happening.
As a woman, I feel like I should stick with this one – as a reader and a mother and a woman, I am finding it too emotionally charged and disturbing and am putting it down…
Before I take grief for that decision, let me explain something – I am not AT ALL knocking the quality of the writing, the importance of the issues raised, or the need for books that upset their readers. Dalcher is a strong writer; her prose is clear and concise and powerful. Her topic – the very real threat of extremism (be it from the left or the right) – is, unfortunately, all too timely and an exceptionally potent one in the current political and social environment. I was viscerally upset reading this from the beginning – my stomach hurt (literally) as I read Jean’s thoughts and fears for her daughter, as I imagined living and raising my own daughter in such a world. I was so drawn into this world that I could not help but feel it in my bones. And that’s when I put the book down.
Call me weak-willed if you like, but I read fiction to be entertained – aching feelings of distress aren’t what I sign up for in my fiction, thank you very much… They’re a testament to the power of the author’s words, and I can recognize the value of the book while still not being able to bring myself to read it. It is possible that I feel too close to the situation of the protagonist and her family at this time in my life, that it feels too possible that one could wind up in this type of ultra-repressive environment, given the current state of the world. I am not calling this one a poor fit for me so much as a book that I cannot read right now. Distance – either due to a culture shift in sexual politics or the aging of my own daughter – may provide the separation I feel like I need to be able to really dig into this one. But for me, for now – it was too difficult a read and I was not able to finish it.
My review copy was provided by the Penguin First to Read program.
“Think about waking up one morning and finding you don’t have a voice in anything.”
Christina Dalcher’s speculative novel: Vox is set in a dystopian America where significant restrictions have been placed on the female gender. No working outside the home, no reading, no writing, no equal access to education, and no speaking of more than one hundred words per day. Cameras are watching, purists are reporting, and a “counter” has been fitted to every female’s wrist showing how many words are remaining before an electric shock hits. No one saw this coming. A presidential election was the catalyst for Bible belt Christians to kickstart the “Pure Movement”, and apparently women need to be taught a lesson. Not all is lost though. Leadership has a need that only this story’s heroine can fill. Here’s her chance.
I enjoyed the metaphoric theme of patriarchy and women’s voice/rights. It was additionally interesting to follow the female lead character Dr. Jean McClellan who has ironically made a research career out of reversing cognitive-linguistic impairment. Vox is not shy about the soapboxes it stands on. The finger-pointing at Bible belt Christians along with America’s current political arrangement is pretty loud and clear and may trigger some strong emotion in readers. But it also includes an element of innocence: all the little girls who will one day take our place and a generation of impressionable boys who are learning from the examples set. There’s a statement made in this book: “Well, someone needs to be hysterical around here.” Vox delivers the hysteria in my opinion. Read it and see what you think. If anything else, the importance of voting and using your voice are life lessons worth embracing
Chilling and gripping — a real page-turner.