In the dystopian novel VOX, changes have taken place in the United States and women are losing their rights, right and left. The political climate has changed dramatically, and along with jobs, women have lost the right to speak more than 100 words a day, monitored by a device that delivers shocks for those who disobey. Men and boys have taken charge and are running the country. A few years ago, this would have seemed laughable, but given the current climate, it may be closer than we think. A timely book.

This book was so entertaining. The future can be fun to daydream about, but it can be scary in reality. The government seems to have more control over us than ever, and Vox is a book that proves that point. I loved reading Vox, and the dystopian route it took. I highly recommend this book!

***This review will appear on www.powerlibrarian.wordpress.com on July 31, 2018***

What if women were only allowed to speak 100 words a day? In this dystopian tale set in the not-too-distant future, women have become less than men, and they are equipped with bracelets that monitor the number of words they say.  They are expected to cook and clean for their families, and they are not allowed to do much else.  Dr. Jean McClellan is--or was--a renowned linguistic scientist, and while she once turned a blind eye to what was going on around her, now she can no longer deny what society has become. This is her story.

One of the strengths of this story lies in its modernity.  Dalcher frequently refers to technologies we’re familiar with – like Apple watches and Facetime (hmm I wonder if all the Apple product placement was funded?).  A year ago Jean was debating Pokémon Go with her son, and now she isn’t allowed to banter with him anymore.  She’s growing more and more detached from her sons and husband.  We don’t realize just how important words are until they’re taken away from us.  Dalcher stitches together reality and dystopia quite seamlessly, and the realism makes this story even more terrifying.

Jean’s relationships with her family are one of the most interesting aspects of this story.  Jean has grown to detest her husband, whom she once loved.  But she doesn’t hate him because he believes in what society has become. She hates him because he doesn’t believe in it, yet he is too much of a coward to do anything about it. Her youngest child is a girl, and Dalcher does a fabulous job cultivating fear in the reader. A five year old girl is only allowed to speak 100 words a day, and it is severely stunting her emotional and mental growth.  The most powerful scene in the entire novel revolves around Jean and her daughter, and—no spoilers—but it gave me serious chills!

Jean’s relationship with her oldest son is also another highlight of the book. He has been indoctrinated into this new society, and he believes in what the deranged politicians and religious figures are preaching.  Jean’s realization about what her son is becoming is deliciously unsettling!

My biggest complaint about this book is its first line.  Every writer knows that the first line of a book is the most critical. It can draw readers in or turn them off completely.  The first line of this book is engaging and sucked me in.  That’s not the problem. The problem is that the very first line of the book reveals what exactly will happen in the rest of the book. A dystopian novel like this is characterized by the oppression. Women are less than men in this society, and Dalcher should have fostered that same feeling of oppression in the readers.  The first line tells us that the main character will bring down this dysfunctional society.  Already readers feel hope before they even have a chance to experience the depressing, dictatorial, and disturbing society that the US has become.  Knowing how the story will end did not enable me to fully appreciate the horrible things that happened, because I knew that it would all be over soon.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good dystopian thriller.  However, if you’re already having nightmares about American politics and a certain orange-faced president, this book might read more like glimpse into one potential future...

Vox is a dystopian novel that feels all too real. Women are limited to only speaking 100 words a day in this story that follows one woman who might actually be able to be able to change that. This story shocked me. It is too easy to see how something like this could happen. Our political climate now is full of extremes on both sides. it is scary hos possible this novel felt. I think a good dystopian feels like it could actually happen, and this book felt real.

The characters were amazing. The way people react in extreme situations is not always good. People stand by and take videos of brutal fights and attacks rather than intervene. When horror is nation wide, the bystander effect is all too present. Many people like to think that they would react, but the reality is that most people look out for themselves. This was shown with characters who stood by and did nothing in this novel. Of course there are those brave souls who do stand up for those they love, and they were present in this novel as well.

The plot was horrific, but done so well. I found myself captivated by this story. Of course a novel like this really gets you thinking. I would not consider myself a feminist and I could see myself believing that, in the beginning, some people were over reacting, until suddenly I found myself with my rights taken from me. It really made me think about how important it truly is to have a voice and freedom. One hundred words are really not a lot, to be limited to that would be horrible.

I found this novel to be interesting, thought provoking and very well written. Dystopian novels like this are always a bit allegorical in nature. I think this is an important novel, not just for entertainment, but to remind everyone how important freedom really is, and to make sure that we don't ever lose it. This was an awesome read and I would suggest it to almost anyone. Also, if you like this book you should check out Flawed and you can find my review on that book here. It is a dystopian also about an extreme government, that doesn't feel too far from reality.

VOX

A highly significant and timely book exploring the question: What if women could only speak 100 words per day?

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY
There’s a new President in the White House, Sam Myers was elected by the votes garnered by ultra conservative Southern Baptist Reverend Carl Corbin. A Presidental decree, written by Corbin, changed everything. Women are no longer allowed to speak more than 100 words daily. They must wear a bracelet on their wrist that is a word counter, and if 100 words are exceeded you receive an electric shock, which increases with intensity with the number of words over the limit. But that’s not all. Women can no longer hold jobs. Books and writing instruments are off limits. Passports have been revoked. Schools are segregated by sex and girls are taught only how to count, sew and cook. Nothing more is necessary to manage a home. Females no longer have a voice.

Dr. Jean McClellan had been in denial. And she was not alone. No one believed this could happen here, not the United States. She is married to Patrick and they have four children, the youngest is age 4, and her name is Sonia. Jean misses reading bedtime stories to Sonia and talking to her three sons about their day. Jean was a cognitive linguist in Washington DC, and before the decree she was researching reversing aphasia, the inability to speak, cause by brain damage. She was the foremost expert in her field until she was forced out. It’s been a year since she’s been gone. And now the President desperately needs her back.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
—Edmund Burke

REVIEW
This captivating debut novel may just leave you speechless. Could this really happen? Never! That’s exactly what Jean thought. And yet, look where we find ourselves today. Our current puppet president has berated, abused and belittled every woman who gets in his way. It’s scary to think that VOX may not be to far off the mark as we would like to think. Think of all the women who have confronted him! He would love it if we would all just shut up and go away.

Vox is a first rate journey into the role of women in making a difference. Jean McClellans character is strong, amazing and she comes alive on the pages. You can’t help but feel her frustration, her anger and her fear for her children’s future. Christine Dalcher’s writing is robust, smart and haunting. She skillfully transports us to a place that no woman wants to go, but while we are there she helps teach us a few things about ourselves, just by asking one question—what would you do to be free?

DALCHER earned her doctorate degree in theoretical linguistics from Georgetown University. She specializes in the phonetics of sound change in Italian and British dialect and has taught at several universities. Her Short stories in a flash fiction appear in over one hundred journal’s worldwide. She teaches flash fiction as a member of the faculty at The Muse Writer Center in Norfolk, Virginia. Vox is her first novel.

Thanks to Netgalley, Berkley Publishing and Christine Dalcher for an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Publisher Berkley
Published August 21, 2018
Review www.bluestockingreviews.com

Vox is definitely reminiscent of Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's tale. With how popular that novel is, I know there will be crossover appeal. I had no issues with the writing or the story. I do think my patrons will enjoy the book greatly with all the focus on bodily rights in recent months.

Vox is one of the few books I have been able to read in a one-day time span. It held my attention and was very thought-provoking. It has made me very conscious of how many words I speak in a day and if I could live on a limited amount. I also want to keep in mind the question, "what would [I] do for freedom'?

This is not just a women's book, but rather a book to raise awareness of the general complacency that has grown in American lately. We must be aware that our actions or inactions do have an effect on what the future holds.

I look forward to book club discussions on this book.

It’s hard not to compare Vox to The Handmaid’s Tale, and frankly, it feels a little derivative. Set in the “now” but with a slight twist, the religious right has risen up after that hopey-changey African American president and hijacked, and silenced, half the country. Women now have to wear a bracelet on their wrists that limit them to 100 words a day or they get an electric shock, and the government has plans to silence them permanently. They’ve conscripted Dr. Jean McClellen to help them in their efforts, and she’s received a temporary reprieve from her bracelet, only to have her husband say that he liked her better when she was silent. Her teenaged son is swallowing the propaganda hook line and sinker, and her five-year-old daughter gets an award for not saying an entire word all day at school. The premise is great… but then the rest of the plot happens. There are some unnecessary coincidences (her mother has a stroke in the exact part of her brain that Jean is an expert on, really?) and the events at the end are murky and hard to understand. I feel like this book could have been so much more, and that it needed a bit more time in development to flesh out the details better. Sorry, I’m a details gal!

What would happen in America if the government decided that all females should be outfitted with a "bracelet" that limited them to speaking only 100 words a day? If the clock was rewound to mimic a period where women had, not only no considered opinions, but no jobs, no real education, and no ability to do anything besides care for the home, children and husband. That is the state of the nation in this near-future tale. The PURE movement, spearheaded by a preacher and the upper levels of government, has relegated women and female children to mere tools of the men to whom they belong. The men control every aspect of life. Propaganda fills the airwaves. Even the women, like Dr. Jean McClellan, a neuro linguist whose scientific research in eliminating Wernicke's Aphasia was about to make a huge difference in stroke and head injured people, have been silenced. Powerful men have reduced America to a fundamentalist state after subjugating half the population.

In this new world order, hope comes when it seems that all has been lost. Jean is called by the President to work on her project in a top secret lab because his brother has had a head injury from a skiing accident and the President needs him cured. When Jean arrives to begin the intense work demanded of her, she finds that something even more heinous is planned. NO SPOILERS.

This was quite the read -- shades of Atwood's chilling work, THE HANDMAID'S TALE -- but with the focus more on the voice of women and their need to pay attention to politics and their rights. To not stand idly by while government creeps into their homes and bedrooms. To use their power to vote and campaign for themselves. The story would definitely provide many themes and topics for a great book club discussion. It gave me chills to imagine how easily something like this could happen if fully half the population was lulled into a sense of complacency. Keep up the good fight, ladies.

The narrative itself was a quick read even though there was a ton of technical and scientific information. I found myself often wondering how far-fetched the science was though always rooting for it to be possible. I thoroughly absorbed it all and think it was a very interesting and compelling book. Sort of a wake up call to answer some of the current political shifts that have the potential to impact the lives of many women. People always say, "That couldn't happen here." But, they're wrong. All it takes is...and I'm paraphrasing...for a few good women to do nothing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the e-book ARC to read and review. I recommend it!

This was a great story along the lines of The Handmaid's Tale, but with an ending that doesn't leave you hanging. In an America where conservative Christian religion has taken over and brought back "traditional family roles," women are only allowed 100 words a day. Once they go over their allotment, they are violently shocked back into silence.
With everything going on in the world today, this book reminds us again and again that all evil needs to triumph in the world is for good men (and women) to do nothing. It is a call for action to make your voice heard.

I read Vox in one sitting, because the first 98% of this book was just so amazing. In the near future, women are limited to 100 words a day. It’s a believable future, where an AP Religious Studies class indoctrinates impressionable freshmen. Televangelists also preach the values of modest (silent) women, and it’s a eye-rolling, awful joke, until it’s not.

Jean, the main character, was a scientist and is now a silent homemaker. Books, reading, writing and talking are all forbidden. Her youngest child, a daughter, has never experienced a world where she can express her thoughts freely. She’s eager to please, and wins her classroom contest for quietest girl, a distressing victory for Jean to see.

Jean’s oldest son, Stephen, is every guy who read an article about gender differences once. It’s biology! Men are just better at strength and intelligence and logic, because biology says so! It’s ok, because he’s a teenager. Well, it’s ok until it’s not.

Her husband Patrick is all the perfectly nice guys who think it’s sad that women don’t make as much as men and it’s sad that women are subjected to sexual assault, but they “aren’t political” and don’t really apply their power.

While women become silent, life goes on on usual for the men and boys. Sports, TV, school, work, and talking about all of these. With only 100 words a day, how many do you devote to getting a counter in a color other than pink? How many do you devote to talking about your day? Sharing your thoughts? Naturally, Jean spends most of her words telling her children she loves them.

When an important politician has a brain injury that’s exactly like the work Jean was doing before the silence, she and her former team are brought back to try to stop it. She wins special privileges, and at first she tries to find a balance between working fast, as instructed, or working slowly, and spinning out the time she’s allowed to have a normal life again. But her team stumbles onto a much more sinister project, and this becomes a scifi page-turner and a thoughtful evaluation of marriage and motherhood. It’s so good. It’s well-plotted (until the last couple pages), blending agenda twists and true characters, shocking politics and realistic relationships.

But, those last few pages. Vox raises these really dark questions about whether Jean’s first obligation is to her existing sons or to her possible, future daughter. It asks wider, darker questions about what we straight-married ladies owe to our queer sisters in a regime that penalizes all women, but doesn’t penalize all equally. And then, none of these are resolved. Suddenly, they’re in Canada (WHY WASN’T THAT AN OPTION EARLIER?) waiting for passports to Italy. Also, there are characters who’ve been taken off to shady, distant punishment camps, but they’re fine! Also, in a world where there’s a camera at every doorway, a teenager just disappears? Eh.

Vox was compulsively readable because the stakes were so high, and I felt completely conned when it all worked out just fine.

This review is based on the Advanced Reader's Copy version of the book.

This book takes place in a world where woman are no longer allowed to speak more than 100 words per day. This is regulated by a tracking bracelet women wear that will generate an electric shock if they exceed their daily word quota.

On the surface this concept pits women against men, but there is so much more to it than that. This is more about power and its corruption. There were many men in the book who wanted to help, who didn't believe in silencing women for the supposed betterment of the country. This novel follows Dr. Jean McClellan as she navigates this new world order and is ultimately forced to make decisions that will affect those that she loves.

I had a hard time rooting for the unapologetically morally flawed heroine of the novel, but I still found myself intrigued by the formation and unity of an underground rebellion that subversively fought for what they believed in regardless of the risk.

Overall this was an enjoyable read that kept me guessing everyone's true motives until the very end.

This story did what I felt it set out to do; inspire the type of emotions that compel action and change in motion. I felt angry, felt loss for the reality that the characters lived in and how it became possible. It certainly draws a parallel to the current climate, and serves as a cautionary tale for how, if action is not taken and voices not heard, we can find ourselves in a similar, rights-deprived culture far beyond what we know now. I appreciate that the main character was flawed and not portrayed as 'perfect", because it made her human and valid, despite what her government and culture said. Her flaws did not undo her strengths and achievements, and she ultimately leveraged her position through opportunity to fight back. Great, compelling, read. While I appreciate the touching upon of LGBT+ treatment, and racial issues, I feel it could have been explored more in depth, as well as how other religions were treated.

The thought that something like this could happen in the U.S. is terrifying, disturbing, and inconceivable.  It's a chilling reminder, albeit extreme, about what can potentially happen if you remain silent.

Parts of this book enraged me - not only that of women being limited to 100 words per day, stripped of their jobs and identities, and forbidden to read or watch only approved media - but also the rules placed upon gays and lesbians, with their children taken away, and being forced into heterosexual relationships.  It's maddening and surreal - and yet there are probably still people in this country who might embrace this way of life, and that's the scary part.

Even with the bits of backstory woven in, I thought the massive life-altering changes seemed to come about rather suddenly.  Being a science geek, I enjoyed the scientific details, but found some areas a bit too technical and possibly unneeded.  Nearing the end, I wondered if there might be a second book, but things wrap up rather quickly and some events aren't entirely clear.

This is a perfect choice for a book club, and would no doubt encourage much discussion.  I'd definitely recommend this to dystopian fans.  Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Jean's friend Jackie always told her to get more politically involved, but she was busy becoming a renowned linguist, getting married, and having four children. She never imagined that her silence would contribute to total social reversion: in one year, women lose their jobs, money, and passports, and are forced to wear bracelets that shock them for speaking more than 100 words a day. But the president's brother just injured his brain's language center, Jean's exact specialty. The men who ruined her country need her, and she will make them pay for it. Definitely an intriguing idea for a dystopia, but too much (America's decline, Jean's quest) seems too easy.

Every bit as chilling as “The Handmaid’s Tale,” yet ripped from today’s headlines. In this dystopian version of the United States, the “Pure” movement has limited women and girls to speaking a maximum of 100 words a day. Sign and body language are also prohibited as means of communication. This is enforced with bracelets that deliver painful and potentially deadly electric shocks to the women who exceed their quota. For Jean, a scientist in the field of neurolinguistics, these strictures are particularly cruel. But there is a resistance movement growing, which Jean discovers when she is called upon to help the president’s brother who has suffered trauma to his brain affecting his speech. Completely engaging and a page turner to the very end, readers may themselves be left speechless by Vox.

Vox by Christina Dalcher

Pros: very fast paced, emotional punch, thought-provoking

Cons: minor things, slightly rushed ending

A year ago life changed for 50% of the US population. Women were kicked out of the workforce and made to wear bracelets that counted their words. When they reached their cap of 100 words, they received an electric jolts of increasing intensity until they stopped talking. Members of the LGBT community were shipped off to ‘camps’.

A year ago Dr. Jean McClellan was a top cognitive linguist researching Wernicke’s aphasia, an ailment that makes it difficult to form coherent sentences. Now she’s a stay at home wife, slowly watching her marriage crumble, her daughter suffer under the word restrictions, and her oldest son become a misogynist.

When the President’s brother has an accident that affects the Wernicke area of the brain, she’s asked to help find a cure, little knowing that there’s another reason the government wants her work.

The book is very fast paced and only look me 2 days to whip through. It’s first person narrative makes the world immediate and the clever use of flashbacks fleshes out the characters and how the US changed so quickly.

Loss of freedom is always an interesting plot device, and this book touches on real fears American women have during the present political climate. The book joins other US dystopian novels that focus on how women could be repressed like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Veracity by Laura Bynum, and When She Woke by Hilary Jordan.

There are some powerfully emotional scenes, some of which were rage inducing, while others made me want to cry. While I often didn’t agree with Jean’s choices, I could understand why she made those decisions and sympathized with her plight.

While the book explained that Wernicke’s aphasia impairs the ability to speak coherently, it would have been good to point out that it doesn’t always impair cognitive abilities outside of communication. I was left wondering if people who had it would be able to function or if they would have to be put into care homes.

There were a few minor issues that annoyed me, like cookbooks being banned when you would expect they would be needed. You can’t remember every recipe or learn new ones without some sort of help. There’s also a scene where Jean had just under 40 words remaining in her day and she had to make a phone call. She prepared her message in advance but used her whole allotment, even though several of the words she used were unnecessary. What if she’d had to respond to a question afterwards? She’d have had to stay silent.

The ending felt a bit rushed in that I would have liked a more complete telling of what happened. I understand why it wasn’t comprehensive, but it felt like the author could have provided an alternate viewpoint or arranged to have a witness describe the event in more detail.

It’s hard to call a book that does so many horrible things a pleasant read, but it was. Normally dystopian novels leave me horrified by how things could go in the real world while this one left me feeling energized, and feeling that the resistance can succeed if good people fight for their rights.

Vox incorporates themes falling within the current zeitgeist of women needing to have more of a "voice" in work, politics and society, and would be a great book club pic. I thought it was well-written, with realistic dialogue and a sympathetic main character. It does tend to lean to the left politically, so you will have a whole demographic who won't necessarily care for the opinions expressed in the novel. I would recommend it as a book club choice and for customers looking for a socially challenging novel to read.

I am the kind of person who likes her dystopia fiction nice and unsettling, and given how politics have been going as of late VOX felt like a huge dose of 'too real' dystopia. I pretty much devoured this book in two settings, as once I picked it up I had a very hard time putting it down. I really liked Jean, our main character, and I liked that she was such a science minded protagonist within the not so far away future of American society where women have been literally silenced by the government. At first I was worried that this was going to feel a bit on the nose (even if it reflects some very real fears that I have at the moment), but Dalcher did a good job of creating a believable timeline to fit this scary future-scape. I also enjoyed the 'frog in the boiling water' aspects of a few of the characters, who refuse to believe that things can get as bad as they eventually do. So basically, if you are in need of a bleak but somewhat cathartic read, VOX might be a good pick for you.

absolutely loved this book. I kept asking myself...Could this happen? Unfortunately, it's not far fetched!