Following the release of her breakout hit, VOX, Christina Dalcher returns with MASTER CLASS, a terrifying work of speculative fiction set in an America much --- too much --- like our own that asks how far we are willing to push ourselves to achieve perfection.

In the world of MASTER CLASS, everyone has a Q score. Your Q is determined by your intelligence, earning potential, the zip code in which you reside, the career of your spouse or parents, and a slew of other details that add up to success. Stressful enough for adults, the standardized testing that comes with figuring out a child’s Q has the potential to turn otherwise happy, curious children into numb, mindless robots. Even worse, the slightest drop in a score can alter their future forever. Score high, and you can attend top-tier schools from elementary school onward, guaranteeing yourself entry into a prestigious college, potential pairings with other geniuses, and a golden future. Score low, and you are bussed off to a federal boarding school where you can watch your prospects shrivel up and die.

The purported goal of this new system is to lower the costs of education, focus on the students with promise, and allow teachers to hone their talents on only the brightest and best. But the twisted reality means that the federal schools --- yellow schools --- are becoming overcrowded and forgotten, and the highest ranking schools --- silver, then green --- are pushing unreachable standards onto impressionable children.

Elena Fairchild is aware that there are flaws to the system, but why should she worry? A teacher herself, she knows that standardized tests are stressful and hard, but has no trouble passing them. With a PhD and a successful husband, she boasts a remarkable 9.73 Q, and has no reason to doubt that her daughters, Anne and Freddie --- bolstered by their parents’ genes, incomes and support --- will continue to test firmly in the 9 and above range. But Elena has a secret.

On the morning that nine-year-old Freddie throws a fit and begs to stay home “sick” to avoid the latest round of testing, Elena already has a lot on her mind. Her husband, Malcolm, who once seemed so brilliant and confident, has become elitist and smarmy. As Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Education, the new system is not only championed by him but was created, in part, by him and acts as a physical manifestation of his own insecurities and ideals. Malcolm adores his eldest daughter, 16-year-old Anne, who looks up to him and has no trouble acing every standardized test thrown her way, but has largely begun to ignore Freddie, who seems to be on the autism spectrum. She is by no means unintelligent, but learns and grasps concepts differently than Anne and struggles with anxiety that pushes her into dissociative states. In other words, she’s a nine-year-old who has just been told that the test she takes on the first Friday of the month can determine her entire future. No pressure, right?

Alternating between the day Freddie bombs her test and is sent away to a yellow school in Kansas and her early relationship with Malcolm, Elena walks readers through not only the course of her marriage and motherhood, but the beginnings of the Q system and the ways that the Department of Education has come to run the country. Through her eyes, we watch as suggestions --- “Parents of children with Q scores below eight points are encouraged to consider yellow schools” --- become directives, until each and every child is sorted according to their Q ranking. As more and more parents and educators “hop on the commonsense train,” the education system becomes more standardized and far less humane. And now, with no warning whatsoever, the system has claimed Elena’s daughter.

As she grapples with the news and considers her disgust for Malcolm, Elena reveals that she has not always been so complacent and content to live within the system. As she explains, mothers-to-be are heavily encouraged to have the Q scores of their babies tested, even in utero. If you are unhappy with the potential Q of your fetus, there are clean, brightly colored clinics where you can “take care of it.” After all, who wants to raise a child with no hope for a successful, happy future? Isn’t it more humane to take them out of the race before they can lose? But when she was pregnant with Freddie, Elena couldn’t push herself to take the test and faked a promising result, knowing that Malcolm would force her to terminate any pregnancy that could result in a subpar child. Now Freddie is paying the price --- and Elena will do anything to rescue her from the education system.

With the fire of a mother, the gumption of a detective and the fearlessness of a warrior, Elena fights against the system until she, too, is sent away to teach at a yellow school --- the same one where her young daughter has been taken. She expects old classrooms and bland food, but what she finds is far more like a prison than any school she has ever seen, and now must save not only Freddie, but millions of children like her.

Though MASTER CLASS reads like a thriller, it moves quite slowly for the first third. I am not sure that I would have kept going had I not read VOX and knew the sort of brilliance this author is capable of. Elena’s relationship with Malcolm was a particular low point of the novel. Dalcher gives him almost no redeeming qualities, and it is difficult to understand how a man so sniveling and wretched was able to woo Elena or wield any power over his colleagues. He is so villainous in all of his manners that he reads more like a caricature; I could practically see him twisting his mustache with every jab and punishment. I wish this portion of the book had been just a bit more fleshed out so we could see exactly how Elena fell into her situation, but the payoff was worth it in the end.

Dalcher has penned a horrifying work with devastating real-world ties that is both thought-provoking and thrilling. As Elena, a woman who has largely benefited from the system, starts to fight against it, every flaw and shortcoming is exposed in a way that completely rocks her worldview. Dalcher reveals the twisted fine print of the Q system so slowly and insidiously that it is impossible not to compare it to our own education system and the ways that it has failed those who are not white, upper-middle-class and gifted. But the real horror of the book comes in the form of eugenics. Slowly, carefully and brilliantly, Dalcher explains the real master plan of the Q system: to breed a master race of humans that are as intelligent as they are healthy, as self-reliant as they are subservient...and remember, this is set in America.

Poignant, chilling and painfully self-aware, MASTER CLASS is another eye-opening read from an author who is not afraid to ask the hardest questions imaginable --- and force her readers to answer them.

In the future, everything is based on your Q score, which is a compilation of many factors, one of which is intelligence. Dr. Elena Fairchild has two children, one of whom has some special needs. This makes her ineligible to attend the school where Elena teaches, instead she is shipped off to a boarding school . Elena tries to save her and bring her home, and then learns about the bigger plan in which euthanasia and selective breeding will play a part.
As a teacher, this book was eye- opening and thought provoking. What would happen if we had stricter controls over who births and raises children? Who would make those decisions? How long before that process went out of control?
Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in return for a review. I will be thinking of this book for a long time.

In this dystopian thriller, MASTER CLASS looks at a world where children are judged by their Q quotient (IQ , genetics, social standing etc.). High scorers attend the best schools, while low scorers end up being sent to boarding schools far from home. Elena is a teacher at the elite school in her area, her husband Malcolm is high up in the education system, and her daughters attend the best schools, until one of them fails the latest test and boards a bus to a yellow school in far away Kansas. Elena loses her teaching status to follow her daughter, and finds that these schools are worse that could be imagined.

I found this book to be believable and horrifying, a terrifying possibility of a world ahead. Her main character was fully developed, as were her daughters, some of the supporting characters were more two dimensional. This book is definitely for those who enjoy dystopian fiction. Thank you to the publisher for providing an eBook in exchange for an honest review.

Christine Dalcher’s debut novel, Vox, established her as one of those writers who can layer present events onto the future and make it grim without being inconceivable. In the novel separation of church and state disappear and one of the first acts of the new government is to restrict the number of words a woman can speak each day. Yeah. Now, she’s back and she sets Master Class in a similar vein, with the same kind of government only now it’s all about children and education. Nothing familiar about that, right?

It’s an unspecified time in the future and there’s a new number every American of a certain age needs to know. It’s their Q number and it’s determined by regular testing and impacts every aspect of your life at every age— where you go to school, your career choices, even which checkout lane you get to use at the supermarket. If it’s below 9 all of the above are going to be problematic. This is Elena’s world and thankfully, she, her husband Malcolm, and their two daughters, Anne and Freddie, all rank above 9. She’s a teacher at one of the best middle schools and Malcolm works at the Department of Education. He’s a true believer in the Q score as a way to get all children the education they need with reduced costs. Elena is largely on-board until 9-year-old Freddie tests below 9 and is slated to be sent to a state-run boarding school.

Of course, Elena doesn’t want this to happen, but there is no getting around it so she botches her next round of testing and goes from a teacher at a high-ranking school to one at Freddie’s school. Now, the dystopia boils over because, surprise, nothing is as the government’s told them.

All of this began with a shadowy middle America ‘grassroots’ group, the Fitter Family Campaign, that called for educational reform years ago and was part of the effort that led to Q testing. Then corporate America stepped in with the Genics Institute, who, in the name of women’s health, offers pre-natal genetic testing that will predict your baby’s Q score. Score too low? That’s easily rectified as abortion in the name of better babies is no longer a problem.

There is so much to unpack in Master Class and Dalcher wants to get it all on the page. Unfortunately, this means the novel becomes very heavy handed—even to someone like me who is astounded at the corruption and personal agenda of our current Secretary of Education. There’s no gray in the novel and we quickly learn that Malcom is the enemy. No spoiler there, there are enemies everywhere. What lost me was Dalcher’s crossing the lane from education into something much darker and more insidious. There is plenty of room to write a dystopian novel based on realities in the educational system, but Master Class becomes about something else entirely. Something terrifying and not impossible, but much less realistic.

While I appreciate her ardor in using fiction to extrapolate where corporate and religious overreach can lead a country, Dalcher’s efforts to rein the novel back in aren’t enough. She has to go further to wraps things up neatly and it feels forced. It was all too much for me, but if you’re looking for fast, over-the-top reading that confirms your worst fears about America’s future than Master Class is the ticket.

💫💚Book Review💫💚 Thank you @berkleypub {partner} for my gifted copy of Master Class by Christina Dalcher in exchange for my honest review. Publication date 4/21/20. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This can’t be happening!! How could her test scores have dropped so far? I won’t let her go!! I have to do something, anything, to keep her here with me. Laws or no laws, I am her mother! She needs me.

In a society where test scores dictate every child’s success or failure, parents cling to the hope the day won’t come when their beloved ones have to board the federal school’s yellow buses. What started out as a way to improve the educational system, the Fitter Family Campaign has now become an oppressive tactic to rid the nation of those who are less adept at learning. When Elena finds out her daughter, Frankie, has fallen below the curve, she is determined to find a way to rescue her child from the clutches of the federal boarding schools.

She devises a plan to place herself in Frankie’s new school with the purpose of getting her out, but finds herself trapped in an environment that has much to hide. Elena soon discovers the Fitter Family Campaign has teamed up with a women’s clinic and the Genetics Institute with the purpose of assigning potential quotient scores, referred to as Q scores, to unborn children. Through genetic testing, the FFC will be “weeding out” inferior intelligence to raise a race of highly intellectual people, and they are using the state schools to get rid of the ones who could foil this venture.

As Elena secretly gathers evidence, she puts herself in harm’s way to expose the people behind this hideous plan. It becomes a race against time, a dangerous and challenging fight to rescue, not only her own child, but herself as well.

Wow!! This book blew my mind. Dalcher has done it again!! Pushing the envelope of society to create a read that sits right on the line of fascinating and disgusting. The creativity, and yet horrifyingly realistic possibilities, exercised in the making of this story are simply mind blowing.

In Master Class, Christina Dalcher uses elements of history to spin a tale so shocking and sinister, you can’t believe what you are reading. The concept of human interference in evolution has always been right there on the sideline, rearing its ugly head in the name of progress. It’s been used in the past by many to “better the human race”, exposing the dark and perverse nature that lies just under the surface of mankind.

Yet, there is also a side to humanity that will, thankfully, always be there to stomp out the evil that exists in others. Dalcher does an excellent job at exposing the darkness and the light of man, and restoring your faith in people.

I like to think as a reader I can look past my feelings on a topic, a character’s unappealing and ugly personality, and very difficult subject matter, to see what lies beneath these hard subjects. Even though I may detest the people and their actions in a story, I can see this is the purpose, this is what the author is trying to provoke in me. When all of this comes together and I am left with a satisfying feeling when I read the last words, that’s when I know an author has written a great book. Books are suppose to make you feel all these things, think these things - that’s why I read anyway.

Master Class has all of these components. It has hard subject matter, characters you’d like to see get there’s in the end, and emotion-provoking incidents that infuriate you. It also has qualities that represent hope, determination, undying faith and loyalty, and good triumphing over evil.

An eye-opening experience I would wholeheartedly recommend, and a book that will stick with me for a long while, Master Class is definitely one to add to your reading list. It’s edgy and raw, pulling at your emotions and waking you to the good and evil that lies in all of us.

Elena Fairchild is a teacher in a futuristic world where her own children are in the school system. Her husband Malcolm works for the department of education and is instrumental in overseeing change. The current system uses a standard measurement to evaluate the potential of students called the Quotient (Q). It is a standardized test score where each student's progress is calculated and measured. Those achieving high Q’s attend top tier schools with rewarding futures, and those with the lowest tests Q’s are sent to a federal boarding school.

Elena’s youngest daughter, Freddie, is nine and performed terribly on her recent test. Her Q score deteriorated so far that her parents were notified that she will be sent away to the federal boarding school. Malcolm believes in the system and feels his own family should not be exempt. Elena becomes unhinged at the thought of losing her daughter but fighting the system will lead to the end of her career and marriage.

Master Class by Christina Dalcher is a suspenseful dystopian novel. It is a thought-provoking book and raises questions and concerns about social change. The tension mounts throughout the story making it exciting to read.

Wow, Christina Dalcher really knows how to create horrific dystopian worlds. As soon as I heard that Christina Dalcher was coming out with another book I knew that I had to have it. I loved Vox and found it to be a really powerful feminist dystopian novel, so I was psyched when I received an ARC of Master Class. (Check out my review of Vox here!) Master Class is just as horrifying as Vox was, but in a completely different way. Where Vox really focused on gender inequalities, Master Class focuses on how we measure success through intelligence. Both books were horrifying because Christina Dalcher does an incredible job building dystopian worlds that not only feel real, but feel possible.

I really got invested in Elena’s story. It was so horrifying to imagine a future where eugenics is becoming a reality and your worth as a human is boiled down to a Q score. It’s hard to imagine a future like this becoming reality, but Christina Dalcher does a fantastic job of building this world slowly and artfully to make it feel authentic. She points out the eugenics practiced during the holocaust and other times in the world’s history. Christina Dalcher shows just how horrifying these practices could be, but also shows the reader that the entire story isn’t fiction, things like this actually happened. The novel winds up having a powerful impact and shows how judging and bullying can lead to horrific consequences. Once again she created a dystopian novel that hit hard and has an impact because of how possible and real it felt.

The plot was fascinating, but the pacing lost me at times. I found the whole idea fascinating and horrifying, but the pacing of the novel felt off at times. There were times where I could easily set down the book and other times where I couldn’t stop reading. It was just a little bit inconsistent overall. I did like Elena, but thought that her character could have been developed a little better. I do think that I would have been able to relate to her better if I was a mother, because a lot of her motivations were driven by the love for her daughter. There were also marital troubles that were a large part of the story, and while I found them interesting for the plot, I felt like it was another thing that made it harder for me to relate to Elena. Regardless of my issues relating to Elena I still found her compelling and loved her story.

Master Class was a great dystopian novel, but I didn’t love it quite as much as I loved Vox. I do think that it was incredible and it really hit hard. It really made the realities of eugenics hit hard. I think that Christina Dalcher does a fantastic job of creating dystopian worlds that feel real and I hope to follow her throughout her whole career. This book was quite the roller-coaster read and I am grateful that I got to read it early. If you love a good dystopian I would highly recommend checking this one out!

Really well done and absolutely terrifying. I was nervous from the start of the book and that dread feeling never really left as I read it. I loved Elena as a character but I didn't like any of the other characters and the husband made me cringe (which I'm sure was intended). The best thing about this book is how it made me reexamine how we function as a society because I could see us heading in this direction all too easily.

I want to crawl inside Dalcher's brain and live there for a bit. The concept of Vox, which I read a couple years ago, and now Master Class are spectacular. Dystopian science fiction and eerily plausible. Please please do not let this actually happen to our already weird, doesn't seem real, world - we have it weird enough these days!

I definitely remember when I was younger wishing that the popular, sometimes not the sharpest crayon in the box, people would get away with murder and I wished people would just see how stupid they really were. I couldn't imagine a society where now we are ranked based purely on our IQ and then treated accordingly. Aren't ideas spectacular until somehow they bite you in the ass?

Uff, I had a hard time with these characters but admittedly love to hate on characters and weirdly happy with the ending because of this.... you'll have to read to get me at all here. The couple of issues I did have was that the first half of this book seemed to drag. Luckily it was easy and fast reading to get me to this point... I was intrigued just enough to see what was going on. Then it started to finally get good. But I still didn't feel like there was enough meat.... it was like just knowing enough of the ins and outs without feeling like you're actually there. I would also have loved to get the POV of Freddie... but admittedly, this wasn't entirely necessary, just something I would have liked to have seen.

I'm so curious about Dalcher's mind and where she gets such eerie premises. I certainly want to see what she brings us next.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the free early copy in exchange for my honest review

I had read and enjoyed VOX by Christina Dalcher, so I was curious to see what kind of suspense meets science fiction read she would bring us next! We get another thought-provoking book set in a dystopian future that doesn’t seem entirely out of the realm of possibility. I think these are the best kind of books within this genre – I like when you don’t have to suspend too much belief and I think it adds an ominous tone.

Imagine living in a world where your life is dependent on one number – a number that could make or break the success of your future and your family’s future. Welcome to a world where children are regularly tested and given a Quotient, or Q score. This number determines their futures. The higher the rating means the kids can go to the top tier schools and are given better chances at brighter futures. Score too low and you’re sent to a federal boarding school away from your family and your future prospects aren’t too promising when you leave.

Elena Fairchild is a teacher at one of the best top tier schools where both of her children attend. Elena’s belief in the educational system and the Q scoring comes into question when her youngest daughter, Freddy, fails one of her exams and is sent to the federal institute where she has limited visiting with her family (a half hour every month). She is determined to get her daughter back, no matter the cost.

That ending. I was not expecting that! This had an addictive pacing to it and the added history that Dalcher included made this feel even more possible and real. I definitely learned quite a bit and it will more than likely lead you into a rabbit hole of Google searches afterwards (I know other reviewers have also mentioned this!). This raises so many questions about the educational system and I love a thought provoking read. I did enjoy this one more than VOX and I’m really curious to see what kind of dystopian world Dalcher will create for us next.

Unpopular opinion of this book. unfortunately. I just could not get into it. The writing style was annoying me and I just wanted to fast forward through a lot of this book just to get it over with. I guess it just wasnt my type of book. I am not big into sci-fi books so that could be why. I was really hoping to like this book because I heard such great things about it but that didn't happen. It also took awhile for anything to really happen so that didnt help in my favor either for me to like this book.

Thank you though for still letting me have the chance to read this with the early copy.

Christina Dalcher’s latest novel, Master Class, is a terrifying exploration of what can happen when those in power choose to implement radical policy changes, but at such a slow and gradual pace, that the citizens don’t realize what a radical and dangerous path they’re being led down until it’s too late.

What makes Dalcher’s novel particularly frightening is that although it’s technically set in a dystopian world, the world is not that far removed from where we as a society actually are. The whole time I was reading, I kept thinking. “Huh. I could see the current administration here trying to pull this kind of sneaky stunt.” It’s that realness, that plausibility of something that should be totally implausible, that makes Master Class such a gripping read. I found myself hardcore cheering on the protagonist, not just because I love to cheer on those scrappy underdog characters, but also because I just needed that reassurance, with such a realistic plot, that someone would in fact stand up to fight back against dangerous and radical policies.

I have to admit that it did take me a while to warm up to the protagonist, Elena Fairchild, though. Her actions and choices early on in the story, combined with some flashbacks of her young adult year, paint a pretty ugly picture and I had some real issues relating to her. The radical policy changes that are the subject matter of Master Class revolve around education, specifically segregating lower performing students and sending them off to out-of-state boarding schools/institutions. Elena is a teacher at one of the elite schools where top-performing students attend, and she is also the wife of one of those in power who is specifically pushing forward this agenda. Elena’s eldest child is excelling in the elite level school system and so Elena is very complacent about the way things are, even as she watches other children shamed if they drop in performances and end up packed up and sent away to these other schools.

It is when Elena’s youngest child, who struggles in school, fails a test and gets shipped off to a school hundreds of miles away from home that Elena finally opens her eyes and we see a different side of her. She starts to notice some of her own students getting shipped off and she can’t understand why. They were performing so well that even a failed test or two shouldn’t have dropped their scores low enough to take them to the lowest tier. Elena starts to suspect something more sinister is afoot and makes it her mission to get to the bottom of it and to save her daughter, even if it means taking down her own husband in the process. That was the moment when I really started to cheer on Elena, this redemption arc of sorts. She’s smart, resourceful, and she is a Momma Bear to her core. Do not mess with her babies. Or anyone else’s babies for that matter.

I don’t want to go into anymore details for fear of spoilers, so I’m just going to say that it’s a wild and, at times, frightening, ride as Elena digs deeper to find out what has been going on right under her own nose. Dalcher does a wonderful job of gradually ratcheting up the tension and suspense until everything just boils over.

Master Class is a compelling read that really took me on an emotional roller coaster. I felt such rage at those who were coming up with these horrid educational policies, frustration at the parents who just sat by and accepted the way things were, sympathy for those who didn’t, and finally, heartbroken for the children themselves who were being hurt by them. When I read the author’s note and learned that Dalcher based her novel on real-life events that actually happened here in America, I got angry all over again. If you’re looking for an eye opening read about what can happen when people let their guard down and blindly accept that those in power have their best interests at heart, Master Class is the book you’re looking for.

From Christina Dalcher, the best-selling author of Vox comes another dystopian novel!

The US has adopted a caste system where your (and your descendants’) future will depend on your Q score – a standardized measurement. What you score in your monthly tests at school determines what kind of education you will receive. If you score above nine out of ten, you’ll get to keep attending or go to a silver elite school. But if you score below eight, you’ll be shipped off to a yellow state school far away from home where children get to see their parents only four days a year. Your results will also have a cascading effect on your life as you grow up, from deciding where you will end up working to where you will stand in the queue while waiting to buy groceries. Children who are not good at STEM subjects, but brilliant at other things need not even bother – it’s nothing but downhill for them, and the same goes to differently-abled children. No such thing as catching a break in this vicious system if you are less than “perfect”!

It is in this crazed environment we find our protagonist, Elena Fairchild, who is the wife of Malcolm, deputy secretary of education. Elena and Malcolm are high-school “sweethearts,” and what is happening in the US is a result of Malcolm’s policies. When they were in high school, the studious Elena had been picked on by the popular mean girls. However, when Malcolm’s proposals went through for cafeteria lunch to be served according to test results, that had allowed the bullied Elena to become the bully! At the time, Elena had believed in and cheered Malcolm’s effort to implement a new social order. But since giving birth to Freddie, their younger daughter, Elena has been disillusioned with the system. Unlike Anne, their older daughter with perfect grades, Freddie is an “average” kid who is barely keeping her head above water at school. So when Freddie scores below eight at a test and gets sent to a state school in another state, Elena will have to do everything in her power to bring her daughter back home.

The first thing I noticed as soon as I began reading Master Class is how similar its plotline is to Vox. Both protagonists are married to high-ranking government officials, their marriages are unhappy, and they both have a child in need of saving. These inescapable parallels made me worry Master Class‘s ending will be predictable, but thankfully, it was not! Dalcher’s writing style is simple and straight-forward. Usually, I can read books like that in a couple of sittings. But here, I had to put Master Class down multiple times. Even though I appreciated where the story was heading, I didn’t like the two main characters. Elena is supposedly a very smart person, but bullying aside, I found it difficult to sympathize with a woman who had turned down a decent, kind man because he wasn’t a genius, to marry a “smart” douchebag! Malcolm, of course, is portrayed as the root of all evil with no redeemable characteristics, so every time I read a scene with him in it, I could feel my blood boiling!

Even with these quibbles, I’m glad I read Master Class because it shows how a ludicrous system like Q score testing can become central to a part of a selection process aimed at weeding out the “unsavory” (low Q scorers, immigrants, LGBTQ+, poor — you get the picture) from society. In the story, at least, some people like Elena turn a blind eye to what’s happening believing they and their genius kids are “untouchable,” until it becomes their problem. Also, when the government starts sterilizing low Q scoring individuals, it shows how eugenics could come into play in a situation like, even though it may seem far-fetched.

The exploration of the history of the eugenics movement in America is what I loved about this novel. I think most of our minds go to Nazi Germany whenever we think/ talk about eugenics. Eugenics that was practiced in America rarely gets mentioned in public forums, and I didn’t know about any of the sterilization programs that were conducted in the US until I watched the documentary film No más Bebés early this year. (I highly recommend the film. It is about the Latina women who were sterilized in the late 1960s to early 1970s in Los Angeles. These women – most of them who didn’t speak English – had gone to Los Angeles County Hospital to give birth, and had been forced to sign consent forms for sterilization which were in English. It was gut-wrenching to hear these women speak. And infuriating to watch the doctors who performed the sterilizations yapping about how the lawsuit that was brought against them, later on, tarnished their reputations (The judge found the doctors not guilty, by the way – “He conveyed that the procedure was not objectionable if a physician believed that a tubal ligation could improve a perceived overpopulation problem, as long as said physician did not try to “overpower the will of his patients.” 🙄) Master Class specifically touches on Human Betterment Foundation, Fitter Family Contests, and the Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes’ role in eugenics and this novel is well worth a read because, as Dalcher puts it, “Patriotism does not require turning a blind eye to the darker chapters of our country’s history; if anything, the opposite.”

My Thoughts: I was a huge fan of Christina Dalcher’s last book VOX (my review), so expectations were high for Master Class. Like VOX, Master Class is a story of a time not far in the future where things have gone a little off the rails. In this case, a system has developed where everyone has a “Q” score, based largely on IQ, but also includes test scores, influences of family members and more. These scores determine many things, but most of all the level of schools children will attend and things have moved to the extreme. Children at the lowest level are being taken away to isolated “schools” and their parents can only see them a few times a year, while those at the highest levels are getting a luxury education. It was a fun story, and I appreciate Dalcher’s political leanings.

“It started with fear, and it ended with laws.”

This was clearly written in part as a response to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her clear love of Charter Schools. Fast, easy and just a little bit scary, I liked Master Class.

Note: I received a copy of this book from Berkley (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest thoughts.

As a teacher and a mother, this book hit me on all kinds of levels. I have so many thoughts on the education system and honestly, this book brings about a great conversation on a lot of them! A world where test scores define you? Are we there yet even? The suspense! This book is all too real in my opinion, which makes it all the greater to read! I loved it and would really love to hear your thoughts on it as well!

Dr. Elena Fairchild appears to have everything together. She’s a well-respected teacher at a prestigious school, her husband heads up the Department of Education and her two daughters are as bright as they are beautiful. Appearances can be deceiving.

Elena is hiding a secret. One that she hopes she will never have to explain. But the day she has always feared has finally come.

“I almost can’t remember how it felt before we all started carrying the Q numbers around with us, like an extra and unnatural print on the tips of our fingers, a badge of honor for some, a mark of shame for others. I suppose, after more than a decade, you can get used to anything. Like cell phones. Remember not having the entire universe in your back pocket? Remember sitting on the floor, talking to your best friend about nothing, unwinding a curly cord only to watch it kink up again? Remember all that? I do and I don’t. Blockbuster two-day video rentals and bookstores the size of an airplane hangar are distant memories, faded impressions of life before streaming and same-day delivery.”

When her youngest daughter’s Q falls precariously low, she’s set to be shipped off to wherever they send the children who are viewed as “less than.” She begs her husband to use his influence and is only met with cold disdain.

It sets off a chain of events that causes Elena to question everything from her loveless marriage, her career and exactly how far she would go to save her child from the grips of a merciless system.

“To Malcolm, I was still me, still Elena Fischer Fairchild. There was no way to explain to him that I wasn’t, and that I hadn’t been since the day Anne was born. These babies of mine took something when they left me, thin slices of myself, leaving empty spots. Dead spots. I think I died a little when Anne was born, and I think I died a little more this time around.
With Freddie sleeping on my bare breast, I whispered to her.
“I’ll do anything for you, baby girl. That’s a promise.”
When she stirred and stared up at me with those big eyes, those eyes that would be the same size at three and at sixteen and at eighty, that would see all of her life through the same physical lens, I cried.
They say it’s postpartum depression. Or hormones. Or who knows what. But I knew then what the deal was—a simple matter of trading myself for my baby, should it ever come to that.”

In Master Class, Christina Dalcher constructs a bleak world where test scores define you and there’s no room for dissent. Elena is one of the strongest female characters I’ve read in recent memory. Her raw determination to save her daughter no matter the consequences moved me in so many ways. She discovers that unspeakable atrocities are occurring in the name of progress and she puts her very life on the line to make sure that they never happen again.

I held my breath and shed unexpected tears. It’s a terrifying look at what has happened in the past and what could happen in the future. So bear witness with your eyes and then open your heart. For only then can hate and indifference be defeated…

Elena Fairchild is the wife of the man who created a system in which imperfect children are removed from their homes and sent to state schools. She's about to find out that she's the mother of a child who is being sent to one of those schools. Rather than never see her daughter again, Elena chooses to attempt a rescue.

Master Class is exactly what I've come to expect from Christina Dalcher. It is a thrilling piece of dystopian fiction, focusing on themes like motherhood and fascism. The ending is thoroughly satisfying and deserved.

The book is not, however, a match for VOX. The main difference being that I believe that the main character in VOX is clever because of her actions. I'm told that the main character in Master Class is clever, but then I'm told that she knows nothing of Nazi Germany. Honestly. She's never heard of eugenics, she didn't read about Mengele in history class. One can only assume that she has an unreliable sense of her own intelligence. I will recommend this book, and I recommend it to whomever reads this review, but I'm taking off a star because I just don't find this premise believable.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this in exchange for my open and honest review.

Wow. What a story. What an idea.

Again, Christina Dalcher has written an almost prescient story about humanity. Much in the Vein of Vox, Dalcher tackles the idea of the "haves" and "have nots" and takes it to a terrifying place. It isn't a new idea; I know of quite a few authors who have delved into the concept of inequality based on genetics or disposition. However, I can't think of one who pulled at my emotions as much as this story. Her book struck a chord in me. Maybe it is the combination of motherhood, something so powerful and innate it makes me shake thinking of someone taking away my child, and the current climate of unease. Or, perhaps the utter impotence and rage I felt reading about Elena's predicament. She fought to save her child in a near-impossible system.

Either way, Dalcher wrote a hell of a character.

Dr. Elena Fairchild looks like she has it all. On paper, she does because she has a high Q score, the perfect husband, the ideal career, the perfect children. The Q score is an amalgamation of all the characteristics a society considers "desirable." Underneath it all, people are imperfect. Because people are people warts and all, and when you shove them into a system like the one described in Master Class, you can see right away how people will start to fall through the cracks. People like those who learn differently, such as Elena's daughter. Or wives who fall out of love with their husbands. And especially those who have any disability, all of those who are outside the "perfect" line. When Elena's nine-year-old daughter bombs a critical test, her Q score becomes too low and is sent away to an institution, and Elena wants her daughter back.

I think that some who read Master Class will feel that it is a compelling dystopian story, and the undercurrent of narrative and discussion won't go any further than that. Others, though, like myself, Master Class will rip their heart out and have to put the book down a few times because of the building rage inside of them.

I wanted to yell a few times:
"Stay the hell away from her child!"
"What a bastard of a husband!"
"What a messed up system!"

Any book that can elicit such a strong emotional response inside of me is aces in my book.

Wow. I opened Master Class without knowing anything at all about the plot. I really enjoyed Christina Dalcher’s previous book Vox - so I picked this up based solely on the cover and name recognition.

“It’s impossible to know what you would do to escape a shitty marriage and give your daughters a fair shot at success.” From this opening line, I was fully drawn in and wanted to see where things were headed.

A few pages later I read “I guess, if I think hard enough, people can get used to anything.” Reading this about 6 weeks into quarantine for covid19 made that certainly ring true. Just a few months ago I wouldn’t have imagined this would be our reality right now.

If you want to know more about the plot - you could check out a synopsis. But I suggest going in without knowing much of the plot. This would make for a great buddy read or book club selection - there are lots of topics for discussion. This is one that will definitely stick with me.

Thank you Berkley and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

Man I really wanted to like this one but couldn’t make myself care about these characters. They were all so unlikeable and I don’t like when the characters know more than the reader and things are slowly revealed. It’s frustrating. I ultimately did not finish @ 60% because I was forcing myself to pick it up.