Ahoy there me mateys!  I received this sci-fi dystopian eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.  So here be me honest musings . . .

vox (Christina Dalcher)

Title: vox

Author: Christina Dalcher

Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group

Publication Date: Tuesday, August 21, 2018! (hardback/e-book)

ISBN: 978-0440000785

Source: NetGalley

So I seem to be in the minority again.  This book irked me.  The premise is that a misogynistic bunch of males has taken over the government and women have become second class citizens.  Restrictions include, but are not limited to- no jobs, no financial control, no access to books, no passports, and no real use of language.  It's the last limitation that made me want to read this book.

The statistic in the blurb claims that the is that the average person currently speaks 16,000 words a day.  In this book the woman can only speak 100 words a day.  To enforce this quota, all women are equipped with sensors around their wrists.  Go over the limit and ye get an electric shock.  And it isn't mild.  With every misbehavior, the force and duration of the punishments only increase.

The concepts behind limited women's speech were fascinating.  In particular the relationship between the main character, Jean, and her youngest child, a girl, was the most poignant part of the novel.  The consequences for a generation of girls brought up without the skills of reading and the outlet of speaking were harrowing.

But unfortunately the expression of the novel's concepts and the impact of its message were completely filtered down by the awkward execution of this novel.  Some of the problems:

- unlikable protagonist - Jean is supposed to be smart and intelligent.  She holds a PhD and was about to make a major achievement in treating the problems of language malfunction in stroke patients.  And yet throughout the book she was whiny, unfocused, clueless, and meek.  It made sense for the beginning of the novel but she never really became a strong force.

- unrealistic and unneeded plot elements - So much of this book felt unreal.  Subplots about animal testing that were unnecessary.  Brand-new drugs working the first and only time on a human subject.  Multiple characters important to Jean that happen to be conveniently in a cell and rescued at a critical moment.  No cameras or recording devices in any place that seems rational.  Escalation of a bio-terrorist threat that literally makes NO SENSE and would hurt the bad people just as much as the others.   

- too tied to current events - This book seemed to bash the reader over the head with it's lack of subtlety.  I am extremely liberal and yet this book seemed to be a political soapbox for hatred of the current regime.  I feel it would have had more force if set in slightly more distant future.

- the muddled message - The theme seems to be a call for women to be active in politics.  And yet it lambastes any woman who doesn't follow a certain type of political activism.  It doesn't even seem to want women to have individuality of their own.  Fie on any woman who wants to be a stay-at-home mom.  Fie on any woman who doesn't attend political rallies and march the streets.  Fie on any woman that is a Christian.  I do believe that all people should vote.  But this seems to suggest if ye aren't a rabid fanatic about yer politics then ye are useless.  I get that a passive approach to horrible behavior can allow that behavior to flourish.  Think the Nazis.  But there are many different types of activism and legitimate lifestyles.

- the lackluster ending - What a crock.  For a book to be about women power, a man is needed to bring down the regime.  Then the main character runs to another country and doesn't even stay to help mitigate and direct the consequences of her actions.  She is basically a coward through and through.  She is always being selfish and really never cared about the greater good.

It's been compared to the Handmaid's Tale.  Skip this one and read that one instead.  This book was a muddled mess  and therefore must walk the plank!  The Handmaid's Tale is a modern classic for a reason.

So lastly . . .

Thank you Berkley Publishing Group!

Netgalley's website has this to say about the novel:

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.

To visit the author’s website go to:

Christina Dalcher - Author

To buy the novel go to:

vox - Book

To add to Goodreads go to:

Yer Ports for Plunder List

Wow, well. This book is a big ol' DNF for me. And let me preface that by saying that I am not really religious. I'm not quite agnostic. I believe in a higher power, and I will attend church the 1-2x per year that I go home to visit my parents on holidays. But I'm not a habitual attender at organized religion, and I don't care what anyone else's religion is. I kinda find them all interesting after taking a theology class in college that delved into all kinds of historical religions and religious practices. To each their own is my belief, and no one religion should speak against another unless of course evil acts are being carried put in the guise of religion. Then it would be appropriate to speak against the group carrying out those acts, not the religion as a whole.

So coming from the aspect of a non-religious person, even I was offended by the theme of this book. Serious, you blame the downfall of society on ALL Christians? ALL of them? Not a radical group or a subsect, but ALL of them? When did it become acceptable to demonize or marginalize all Christians? What if you substituted Muslim, Judiasm, or any other faith here? Would it still be acceptable to modern society? Not likely. So why is it acceptable for the Christian faith? And especially to do it as a whole. Don't we separate radical Muslims from the vast majority of the Muslim faith? Do you really see Christians lauding the antics of Westboro?

I voluntarily read (in part) and reviewed an advanced copy of this book that I received from the publisher. Sadly, I found the themes to be offensive and off-putting and I can't honestly recommend this book to anyone. I find the tone and theme somewhat dangerous in our current society when people would rather hate everyone that doesn't agree with them 100%. I think this book adds to the divisiveness that we are seeing everywhere we look. I don't need more of that in my life

While I do enjoy the occasional dystopian novel, I found this one to somewhat contrived and not fully believable. The future came too quickly and with such overwhelming male support that I wondered what happened to the men to vehemently opposed. Surely there must be a majority. Surely enough women would protest enough to at least make men's lives miserable. Surely the majority of women would no be so passive.

The premise was intriguing, but the follow-through was not believable for me.

Christina Dalcher’s Vox is a dystopian novel set in America in the not-so-distant future. Instead of being the land of the free and the home of the brave, however, Dalcher’s America is one where radical religious fundamentalists have taken the reins of power and have implemented what they call the “Pure Movement.” What the Pure Movement entails is basically stripping women of all of their basic rights, including the right to speak. One day women are just removed from the workforce and fitted with bracelets that count the number of words they speak. If they go over the their daily allotment of 100 words, or if they try to skirt the 100 word limit by using any form of non-verbal communication, there are severe consequences.

Girls are also placed into different schools from boys and no longer receive the same caliber of education. They are taught how to do basic arithmetic and how to do household chores like sewing and cooking, the idea being that they are meant to take care of household responsibilities while the men in their lives go out and earn a living. Cameras have been mounted everywhere to make sure women and girls are falling into line as expected and punishments are readily doled out if they are not complying.

Needless to say, life is pure hell for women like Dr. Jean McClennan, the protagonist in Vox. Jean is a renowned linguist who was engaged in groundbreaking research that would benefit stroke victims when she is forced out of work and fitted with a bracelet. Jean is in denial that this is actually happening and she’s absolutely furious at herself for not seeing the signs and not trying to do something to stop this movement from taking hold. She’s also angry at the men in her life for going along with it and she’s furious at women like her neighbor, Mrs. King, who seem perfectly content with this new way of life. Most of all, Jean is livid because of how quickly she sees her young daughter fall into line and embrace the idea of speaking as few words in a day as possible.

So what happens when Jean is offered a temporary reprieve from her new way of life because the President needs her expertise? Can she figure out a way to put a stop to this horrid movement before she, her daughter, and all American women are stripped of their voices?

Gosh, where to start with this book?! I’m always a big fan of books that really make me think and that get to me on an emotional level, and wow, does this book ever fit the bill in both of those categories! I think The Handmaid’s Tale and maybe The Hunger Games are the last two books I’ve read that got to me the same way Vox did. I was so angry the whole time I was reading and lost track of how many times I just wanted to fling it across the room. Why? I think because even though the book falls into the dystopian category, it just felt so darn plausible. Way too plausible, honestly, especially given the current administration in charge in the U.S. How many times have we heard this President make sexist and derogatory comments about women? I get the feeling that he and his cronies would be all too happy to shut women up if they could and so this book resonated with me immensely for that reason. If I wasn’t already an activist prior to reading Vox, it would definitely motivate me to become one.

In addition to how much it resonated with me and made me think about our government and how easily things could go horribly wrong if a radical movement were to take hold, I also loved how the author really thought of every little detail as she was building this dystopian version of America. My very first question while reading was why wouldn’t all women just flee the country as soon as they got wind of what the founders of this movement had in mind? The author took care of that right away by having their passports confiscated. And it was like that all along the way…every time I thought of something that made a world like this seem highly unlikely, Dalcher immediately came up with something that made it suddenly seem all too likely. She really thought of every little detail and made the idea of this kind of society frighteningly realistic, especially when she illustrates how this group pushes their agenda using the schools so as to indoctrinate them at a young age.

Another huge selling point of the book for me was, of course, the protagonist, Dr. Jean McClennan. Can you imagine being at the top of your field in such an important line of work and suddenly being told to go home and shut up? I felt tremendous sympathy for her, not just for her own loss of voice but also because she has to watch her daughter grow up accepting such a horrible way of life. I thought the author did an incredible job of portraying the array of emotions that Jean was feeling – the initial denial, the anger, the frustration, the growing hostility toward the men around her, including her own eldest son who seems to have immediately embraced the Pure Movement, all of it is palpable and as a mother, I found it all so easy to relate to.

Issues:
Overall, I thought Vox was an incredibly well written and gripping read. The only real issue I had with it was that it felt like the ending wrapped up a little too quickly. It just felt a little rushed and like maybe a few things fell into place a little too conveniently.

Final Thoughts:
Vox is an utterly terrifying book in part because even though it’s supposed to be a dystopian read, it seems like something that could easily happen if the wrong people were ever in power. It serves as a warning to us all to never take for granted what we consider to be our rights and to pay attention to what is going on at all levels of government. The world on display in Vox is reminiscent of what we see in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale so I’d definitely recommend to fans of that book and TV series.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for a digital ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

In an America gone horribly wrong, women no longer have a voice. Literally. Ever since President Myers and the Pure Movement overtook the country, women have been relegated to a mere 100 words a day. Punishment for going over the 100 word limit is doled out through electric shock by the means of counters locked on every female’s wrist ... even the wrists of children.

Dr. Jean McClellan, once a renowned neurolinguist, solely takes care of her home and children nowadays. Not only have women lost their voice, but they also can no longer hold jobs, nor do they enjoy the privilege of reading and writing. Jean hates to see what her country has become, and even more difficult is wrapping her head around how exactly they got here. Sure there were warning signs, but Jean never took them seriously. Now it’s too late. For her, for her daughter, and for the millions of other women living in this suppressed state ... or is it?

I went into Vox by Christina Dalcher with high expectations. Dystopia is one of my go-to genres when I am looking for a book that will knock me off my feet and help me forget my own worries for awhile. After all, things don’t ever look so bad when compared to a dystopian world, right? Vox did not disappoint. Dalcher dispenses bits and pieces about this new America in easily digestible chapters throughout the first quarter of this book. Intermixed with details from Jean’s life as a near mute, the story of America’s rapid demise is shared in little vignettes. This is where Vox is strongest, showcasing this new American state and the women who are trying to adapt to an oppressive life in it.

However, what began as a piece of feminist-focused literary fiction, quickly turned into an action-packed thriller. While there is nothing wrong with either genre, here they didn’t mesh well. I had trouble falling into step with the new pace and tone of the novel after Jean becomes involved with a secret project for the US government. Instead of focusing on the dystopian elements of the novel, Dalcher instead brings in a lot of technical and scientific detail, as well as a steady stream of “bad guys” who must be destroyed at all cost. While the book was nowhere near being bad, it wasn’t the novel I was expecting to read. I was prepared for Vox to be more psychological, philosophical, and introspective rather than action-packed. But with that being said, if you’re a reader who prefers your dystopia in the vein of the heart-racing Divergent series over more cerebral reads such as The Handmaid’s Tale or The Road, you may just find much to love with Vox.

This book offers an alternate society, one where women lose more than their ability to speak. This book speaks to the importance of using your voice in politics and in the defense of other's.

Recently I’ve been reading a lot more fantasy or sci-fi than I used to, but a few years ago my genre of choice was dystopia or speculative fiction. I was excited to get approved for the ARC of Vox, remembering how much I enjoy books in this vein. I’m a HUGE Margaret Atwood fan after all, and The Handmaid’s Tale is not a book I enjoy (that’s not the word for the emotions that book makes me feel), however, it is a book whose importance I appreciate. Vox promised to be along those lines.

The premise is as follows:

Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words a day, but now women only have one hundred to make themselves heard.

This is an America divided. Men are allowed education, jobs, and quite literally a voice. Whereas women and girls are allowed only 100 words a day. If you go over your limit, or choose the wrong kinds of words to speak then you get stunned by a bracelet that every female person is required to wear. This is part of an autocratic theocracy which has taken over the United States Government.

The idea of silencing women and the way that affects their lives is an interesting one, but I found the book hard to connect to. One problem for me was the main character. I’m not against un-likeable main characters, but I found Jean to be capricious, disloyal, and disconnected. Interestingly, the parts of the book that had the most impact for me did not involve the main character herself. What I found most poignant was her interactions with her young daughter. Imagine watching your child grow silent as the enforced sanction on expression starts to mold her young personality. Horrifying. In the end, I think the main idea of the book was good, but was unhappy with the follow through.

Song for this book: I’m in Here – Sia

In the near future women can only speak 100 words per day - would you be able to survive?
An explosive debut novel! Looking forward to Dalcher's next book!

Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC copy.

In the interest of full disclosure: I received a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are strictly my own.

While I wanted to love this book and was so excited to read it, there were so many plot holes, the characters were unlikable and the whole thing just fell flat for me. While the concept at first reminded me of Atwood's Handmaid's Tale, this is nowhere near as good or as believable.

First of all, the dystopian future: the book isn't set far enough into the future to be believable. Yes, the current state of politics (the rise of Trump and the alt-right) is worrying and insane, but the author sets the story too close to today. It's like she's trying to parody or build on Trump, but (despite the fact that I think he's a racist, misogynistic buffoon) the author didn't establish a reasonable correlation, let alone causation, between what's happening now and what's happening in her book. She makes veiled references to Obama (the "president of hope") as being a very recent president, and how all his good was undone; but she fails to present any believable connection between what's happening now and the state of the US in her book.

Also, the characters just fell flat. Dr. jean McClellan was selfish and, even though I'm also a working mother of 4, I just could not relate to her beyond her concern that her daughter be able to express herself freely. Jean seemed to have no care or concern for her husband or her sons. (Her oldest son's brainwashing at school was the only believable point of the whole book for me.) The two middle boys were just left floating around by the author as non-people with no personalities. Her husband, Patrick, being the Science Advisor to the President but still being so silent and compliant with the insanity just didn't work for me as a reader. (Jean's adulterous relationship didn't help anything here).

Finally, the end. It was too rushed and, honestly, just plain stupid. [The idea that everyone in the entire administration and the congress who had enough power to push through this crazy agenda would all be in one place at one time and one vial of the serum was enough for Patrick to get to all of them was just ridiculous. The idea that Poe was also secretly on the side of the resistance was also ludicrous. (hide spoiler)] It felt like the author got to the end of her heavy-handed bashing us over the head with her particular political pet peeve and then she had no idea how to let the protagonist win. But, the protagonist obviously had to win. So, she [ killed off her husband so Jean doesn't have to choose between him and her lover or leave her kids behind. (hide spoiler)]
Also, it really irked me that, after supposedly realizing all her past mistakes (not voting, not paying attention to politics, not getting involved, etc.) Jean has learned her lesson and yet still she just [ runs off to Italy to play housewife there with her lover (hide spoiler)]. Just unbelievable. If Jean really would do that, then she didn't learn a blasted thing.

And all of this doesn't even take into account the unashamed religion-bashing of the author's premise to begin with! Yes, the world is full of stories of organized religion systematically oppressing others, but it's also full of real acts of humanity and charity and loving your fellow human beings because of organized religion. Sadly, it's the scary, sad stories that make the news far more often than the heartwarming ones. I'm sorry, there is a lot of evil in this world. I'm sorry that there is a lot of racism, misogyny, and homophobia. But, it's not just the fault of the Christians. And, the percentage of Christians (in my opinion, having lived everywhere but the Midwest) in this country who actually buy into that crap isn't more than 1 or 2%. Sorry, you just can't blame an entire religion for the acts of a few misguided souls. (Just like you can't blame an entire race/group of people because of the actions of a few - not all Black people are drug dealers, not all priests are child molesters, not all White men are power hungry, not all liberals are lazy bleeding hearts, not all conservatives are stingy, heartless racists, etc. etc.) All the country's problems cannot be blamed on one group of people or one religion.

The premise was intriguing, but the book fell completely flat for me - no character development, too many plot holes, and and too unrealistic - even for this avid reader of dystopian fiction. Not recommended.

This book was frightening and a little too real right now. But it had me in its grasp until about 60% in when I started becoming less interested. And then right before the end something happened that made zero sense. I seriously wondered if there were pages left off by ebook because I had no idea why they chose to do one thing and not another. So it ended up being just all right.

Evocative of The Handmaid's Tale. Ending seemed a bit too easy. Some of the characters had abrupt changes of viewpoint/personality that didn't make sense to me..

That being said, it was engaging, and I read it almost without stopping (no, librarians don't get to read all day)..

This is one of those books where I loved it, but didn't love it at the same time. It is definitely a very unique book that kept me on my toes from start to finish.

The good... The overall story was so intriguing. I think because it's almost possible, whether it be our country or another country, it made it that more interesting to read. 

The characters were so well developed. I felt connected to them whether it was in a positive or negative way. I felt vested in each character. Good versus evil. Who will prevail? These characters were absolutely outstanding.

The plot moved at such a wonderful pace. I couldn't put it down. I was anticipating the end in a way that had me on edge to see what was going to come of these characters and the country as a whole.

The bad... I never like to be able to feel a writer's political bias in their writing. If I wanted political bias, I would pick up a political non-fictional sensational book, not a fictional book. I could pick out this authors biases left and right, and I will admit, it left me feeling unsettled. I had a hard time with wanting to finish the book because of it at times, even though I was totally vested in the book. So caution to authors, while you are human, know that your audience may not like your personal political bias trickling into your work, whether they share your bias or not.

Overall, this is definitely a book I would recommend to many. Not all. There are those who are absolutely not going to like it. Usually, those that wouldn't like it are those that are close minded and easily ruffled. Those of us with open minds and thick skin are going to enjoy this book.

A very captivating story. It made me stop and think; what if that could really happen. How can you go through life only speaking 100 words a day. I truly do not want to ever find out.

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Thursday, August 2, 2018




Vox by Christina Dalcher, A Terrifying Debut



VoxSomething happened when the world of Hulu discovered Margaret Atwood and disseminated her terrifying, futuristic "The Handmaid's Tale" to the universe. When I first read that novel it was considered science fiction. Now? Well, not so much.

Then Louise Erdrich jumped on the bandwagon with "The Future Home of the Living God," a frightening diversion from her usual work. Today I finished "Vox," a debut novel that I feared would be a copycat. But as I listened to myself go on and on about it in a phone conversation with my sister, I realized that Christina Dalcher had me hooked.

The word vox is from the Latin for voice. The premise of Dalcher's novel is that under a newly elected American president with a penchant for dictatorial behavior - ahem - women and girls will no longer be heard from. No more pussy hat marches, no more "opinionated" women in the halls of government, in fact all women and girls are now limited to one hundred words a day. They are no longer allowed to read, write, go to school, or work.

How, you might ask, could such a deprivation be perpetrated on half the country's population? Not without the complicity of the men in our lives! Women and girls are fitted with bracelets that resemble the ubiquitous fitbits. And, in fact, the bracelet is a counter. But rather than count steps and calories burned, it keeps track of words spoken. Over one hundred words and the initial electrical shock is tolerable, until it isn't.

Dr. Jean McClellan's husband Patrick actually works for the new administration and, though he seems empathetic to the plight of his wife and daughter Sonia, it just doesn't feel like he's doing enough. Then suddenly Jean receives a call from the president's office. Her special skills as a scientist who once researched a cure for aphasia, a brain injury that results in an inability to communicate, are desperately needed. It seems that the president's brother has sustained such an injury in a skiing mishap.

Reunited with her core research team which includes Lorenzo, an Italian mathematician with whom she once had a torrid affair, she barters with the administration, unlimited words for herself and her daughter in exchange for her work. But, of course, the time frame is tight and once the work is completed what will happen? Sinister observers are everywhere, listening, watching. Phones and computers are confiscated at the end of the day and uncomfortably full body searches are de rigueur.

Will the president be so grateful that he'll let Jean and Sonia slide? What about all the other women and girls out there, the female babies still to be born? What about her neighbors and friends, women who are committing suicide in huge numbers, women who are sent to work farms in the west for transgressions that range from self-induced abortion to adultery to having the "wrong" sexual orientation?

Christina Dalcher has a remarkable CV. This may be her first novel but she's been writing for years. http://christinadalcher.com/ What's so terrifying about the world she has created is that it takes place in the here and now, not some future time. It sounds oh, so plausible in light of the current political climate. I imagine that she will be getting plenty of press coverage when this book is released at the end of August (I was fortunate to have received an advanced copy) so you may want to get yourselves on the wait list now. You'll probably read it in one sitting and never look at your fitbit in the same way!

What a very interesting concept.

I think in the political climate we're in right now it is very easy to envision what could happen to us if radicalism gets its way.

In this novel, the extreme right has decided that it's better to go back to the way things were. In order to do this, they all but silence women, giving them only 100 words a day and taking them out of the workforce.

I read someone else's review of this novel, saying that they resented the author because not ALL Christians are bad and therefore he couldn't understand this concept. Here's the thing: we say not all Christians. Not all men. Not all white people. Not all.

This is a novel that wonders what will happen if we don't make our voices heard. If we don't vote. If we let powerful people have their way. It is cautionary. And it's scary.

I loved this book. But I also found myself scare. I found myself questioning and wondering what if. 

This novel was thought provoking and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommended.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." ~Vox

I received an advanced copy of this book through Netgalley. This book had me from the very beginning. I love that it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I would highly recommend this book to my fellow readers. Thank you for the chance to review this book!!!!!

I received a copy of this novel from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I am going to guess that, “Vox,” is going to be a book that a lot of people are going to be talking about this month. Hot off the heels of the success of the Handmaid’s Hulu series, Dalcher explores this same topic with a bit of a dystopian slant.

Imagine you live in a world where women are only allowed 100 words per day. Dr. Jean Mcclellan could have never imagined that the political officials would have ever been able to pass such a law, but she now finds herself wearing an electronic bracelet where each word is counted and each word overage is punished. When the president needs her expertise to help his brother recover from an accident, where his brain speech center has suffered from disruption, she decides to leverage this to have her word count bracelet removed and utilize this opportunity to help herself and her family.

Dalcher uses her background as a linguist in a really clever way through this story. This story is a really uncomfortable one and questions our own role as women and our silence during political times. What are we doing now with our voices and what would we do if our ability to use them was taken away from us?

If you are not angry about what is happening in the #metoo world, you will be after reading this book.

This controversial story would yield a passionate, and perhaps, uncomfortable book club discussion about what is happening in politics today.

Imagine that a new President has been elected with the help of the extreme Christian right. So extreme, and so powerful, that they reverse over a hundred years of women's rights, and worse. Women are limited to 100 words a day, enforced by a "bracelet" they wear that administers worsening electric shocks for every word over the limit. Dalcher doesn't waste much time on the details of how this came about, which is fine, as they're largely beside the point for the purposes of her story. But, every time I caught myself saying "this is just too unbelievable - that would never happen here," I reminded myself that that's been said by other people at other times and places in history, and it could, and it did.

As for this book, though, comparisons to The Handmaid's Tale are inevitbale, but Vox has a different ambition. Dalcher doesn't pull her punches when it comes to the details of women's subjugation in the new regime, but the story focuses on a small group of people who suddenly realize that they can change everything.

Even that isn't the real point, though. Dalcher also pulls no punches in getting her message across. Everyone: use your voice. While you still can.

This book was really infuriating to read. I wanted to stab it with a pencil and throw it against the wall. I guess that's what you want from a book though. One that makes you feel extreme emotion. It kind of had a Handmaid's Tale kind of vibe where men ran the world and women were only there to serve them, but that's as far as I would go with that comparison.

The first half of the book was really intense. It was interesting and drew me in. The second half of the book seemed like a completely different story. It was like starting over. I never really felt connected to the characters and their struggle.

Although there was a great premise to the book, I felt a little let down. Still, it was a good afternoon read and I'm not mad that I picked it up.

Received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

I keep debating whether this book or Handmaid’s Tale is more frightening. I read HT years ago and watched the first season of the TV show - my only reservation is that perhaps the uniforms worn by different classes of women seem a bit outdated. Vox brings out more clearly its protagonist’s, Jean’s, intelligence and professionalism - now completely thwarted by the restrictions placed on her. The added use of technology to enforce these restrictions emphasizes how much easier it might be today to control a segment of the population than it was when HT was written. The affect on children is a stronger element, too, conveying the ease with which a regime can brainwash and subjugate. At the end of the day, Vox resonates with our times and renews the cautions Atwood foresaw more than 30 years ago as well as reminding us that male privilege and its counterparts are alive and well.