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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This book captured my interest from the get go.
In our country, we have a term “chat like a gal”, which gives the impression that women speaks more than men.
I know that I love to use my words and as the author so wished in her acknowledgment, she “wish we are a little bit angry”. Boy, was she right. I cannot fathom the thought of not speaking, not even to myself (for expert advice) for even a day.
As much as it is claimed that men hates nagging women, they do a lot which cause women to talk a lot, so they must love the nagging.
At work, the bosses would love for us sometimes, not to discuss things. But how can we stay silent when the issues are so much in you face and affects us?
If you really want the world to end, put a gag on women. Give them a 100 word per day limit and see the population dwindles in record time because women will do anything not to have their daughters’ subjected to such unhumane lifestyles
After reading this book I immediately got hooked on The Handmaids Tale. I’m still talking about this book to others. Totally freaked me out.
Robbing females of their voice
I enjoyed this story. I read some of the mixed reviews but i don’t let them influence me. I read them as more of a curiosity. If a story interests me then I’ll read it and make my own decisions. Some of the reviews I felt took things too seriously. This is a story. To entertain, provoke thoughts and/or discussions and evoke emotions. For me Vox did all these things. There were times where I wasn’t happy with Jean, the lead character but that was due to some of her actions and how she treated her husband, Patrick. But things were so complicated that I found myself feeling forgiving toward her by the end even though I didn’t agree with some of her personal decisions. This is a story I talk about and recommend to others.
Disturbing. Makes one think.
The idea of such repression and oppression are particularly scary at this point in history! I loved the story. The twists and turns were juicy!
This is not a book I would typically read myself BUT I had heard about it more than once which prompted me to give it a try. Good book that makes you go “hmmmm.” I would recommend this book to others.
In the same vein as A Handmaiden’s Tale, but more believable.
Way behind on this one but wow. Set in a near-future where an authoritarian American government restricts women and girls to 100 words per day. Dalcher piles disaster after disaster on her main character and the result is a powerful page-turner. If you liked The Power, grab this (and vice versa.)
This woman is a terrible writer and it blows my mind how this became a best seller. The plot is ludicrous – not because of the political implications – but the sheer number of coincidences she has constructed. On the rare chance she turns a nice phrase she ruins it by spending the next paragraph explaining her metaphor. I went to high school lady, I can figure it out on my own. Ultimately, I think this book would be more appropriate as a YA novel but hopefully can be guided by a good teacher to discuss some of the issues.
It represents an uncomfortable sci-fi future.
Don’t say it couldn’t happen here… it could. Every woman should read this and be stirred to action.
This is a female-centered dystopian novel that feels very contemporary while also feeling pretty well written. I read it quite quickly and it game me some things to think about.
I was excited at the beginning to see how the main character would be able to reverse the government’s decision that women were limited in the number of words they said each day. But once the injustices were presented, the book dragged. I lost interest and didn’t finish the book, a rarity for me.
In the not too distant future when men got fed up with women’s lib and set women back 100 year’s of repression. Frustrated me to read as I felt my rage built in sympathy towards the women hero’s.
I wish some of the characters were more developed. More of a backstory would have improved the book.
This book was readable but frankly I had higher hopes for it- I expected it to be a bit more thought provoking. If you are into action packed but not especially intellectually challenging reads, where there are contemporary but uncomfortably cliché female heroes and all the characters are really a little bit too one-dimensional, you might like it. Somebody will undoubtedly pick this up to make a direct to DVD movie out of it.
Modern take of Handmaids tale. Thought provoking.
This story centers around Dr. Jean McClellan, one of the leading cognitive linguist in the world until a new President is elected. With the new president things change drastically for women. Women can no longer work, schools are segregated by gender, and above all women can only speak 100 words per day. Words are counted via a word counter worn on the wrist of all women and girls. Jean lived in her own bubble prior to the president taking office, and didn’t even vote. Jean felt people were being overboard, and that the people of the US would never elect a president who had such “purist” ideals. Jean is married to Patrick who she feels is “soft”, and wouldn’t stand up for anything. Part of her disdain for Patrick, has to do with her constant comparisons to her Italian lover Lorenzo. Jeans oldest son Steven seems to have drank the Pure Movement kool-aid, and is constantly making disrespectful comments to his mother because she is a woman. Ultimately the President comes calling and needs Jean to help produce an anti-aphasia serum similar to what she was working on before he took office. Jean uses this opportunity to her advantage, and ultimately with the help of her lover Lorenzo and her mentor Lin she tries to take down the president, and take a stand where she didn’t before.
Imagine if, after the term of our first black President ended, a new totalitarian leader is elected.. Small changes are made, the Southern States, where religion rules, starts to grow and take over the country, converting all those in its path. News channels owned and fed by the government, women silenced, pushing our country back to the 50’s as the rest of the world sits by and laughs at us. Sound eerily familiar? Can’t imagine why… This book blew me away every step of the way. I raged, I cried, I doubted… An absolute must-read!!
Devoured it in one day!!