Early Review: VOX by Christina Dalcher
/18 Comments/by SuzanneAlso by this author: Master Class
Published by BERKLEY on August 21, 2018
Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction
Pages: 336
Source: Netgalley
Amazon
Goodreads
FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. All opinions are my own.
MY REVIEW:
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.
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.
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.
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
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.
About Christina Dalcher
Christina Dalcher earned her doctorate in theoretical linguistics from Georgetown University. She specializes in the phonetics of sound change in Italian and British dialects and has taught at universities in the United States, England, and the United Arab Emirates.
Her short stories and flash fiction appear in over one hundred journals worldwide. Recognitions include the Bath Flash Award’s Short List; nominations for The Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Small Fictions; and multiple other awards. She teaches flash fiction as a member of the faculty at The Muse Writers Center in Norfolk, Virginia. Laura Bradford of Bradford Literary Agency represents Dalcher’s novels.
After spending several years abroad, most recently in Sri Lanka, Dalcher and her husband now split their time between the American South and Naples, Italy.
Her debut novel, VOX, will be published in August 2018 by Berkley (an imprint of Penguin Random House).
Weekly Recap #65: Week of 8/5 – 8/11
/30 Comments/by Suzanne
It’s time for another weekly recap post of all things happening on and off the blog. This week I’ll be linking to the Sunday Post, which is hosted by Caffeinated Book Reviewer and to Stacking the Shelves, which is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews.
I don’t have much to report here. I was busy but it was mainly with back-to-school preparations — shopping for supplies and new clothes, getting my kid a haircut so he doesn’t look like a wild man on the first day of school, going to the school to meet teachers and learn how to use lockers, etc. We also got our new soccer roster midweek so I feel like I’ve spent days on the phone calling parents with beginning-of-season info. I had two days off at the end of the week and they’re both a blur.
It was busy but I still managed to get a ton of reading done, mainly because I started thinking about my son going to middle school and got too anxious to sleep. Even with all of the extra books I added in, last night I started reading the final book on my Summer TBR Wipeout Challenge reading list. I don’t know if I’ll finish it before the challenge is over since it’s over 500 pages, but I’m thrilled to have read so many books this summer.
I’m also way behind on reviews and on blog visits again. The time just got away from me with everything else that was going on this week. We’re finally ready for school to start tomorrow though so I hope to work on getting caught up today. I think as far as the reviews go that I’m only going to write proper reviews for the ARCs on the list below and then just a sentence or two on the others as part of my final recap post for the Summer TBR Wipeout Challenge. My brain can’t handle being that many books behind so I need to do something to quickly get myself back on track.
Oh well, I think that’s it for me. I hope everyone else has a great week! 🙂
WHAT I POSTED LAST WEEK
- [5 Aug] Weekly Recap #64: Week of 7/29 – 8/4
- [6 Aug] The Point by John Dixon ★★★★
- [7 Aug] Top Ten Tuesday – 10 Book Mash-Ups That I’d Love to See
- [8 Aug] Can’t Wait Wednesday – GIVE THE DARK MY LOVE by Beth Revis
- [10 Aug] Letters to the Lost (Letters to the Lost, #1) by Brigid Kemmerer ★★★★★
- [10 Aug] Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch ★★★★
WHAT I’M READING THIS WEEK
UPCOMING REVIEWS
STACKING THE SHELVES
TOTALLY RANDOM
Backlist Briefs – Mini Reviews for LETTERS TO THE LOST and LOVE & GELATO
/26 Comments/by SuzanneAlso by this author: More Than We Can Tell, Call It What You Want
Published by Bloomsbury USA Childrens on April 4, 2017
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 400
Source: Purchased
Amazon
Goodreads
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS:
Juliet Young always writes letters to her mother, a world-traveling photojournalist. Even after her mother's death, she leaves letters at her grave. It's the only way Juliet can cope.
Declan Murphy isn't the sort of guy you want to cross. In the midst of his court-ordered community service at the local cemetery, he's trying to escape the demons of his past.
When Declan reads a haunting letter left beside a grave, he can't resist writing back. Soon, he's opening up to a perfect stranger, and their connection is immediate. But neither Declan nor Juliet knows that they're not actually strangers. When life at school interferes with their secret life of letters, sparks will fly as Juliet and Declan discover truths that might tear them apart.
Review:
Brigid Kemmerer’s Letters to the Lost is one of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. What really hooked me from the beginning is its exploration of loss and the grieving process through the use of anonymous letters. Juliet and Declan have both lost loved ones and are struggling to move through their grief and both feel alone because no one seems to understand what they’re going through. Juliet tries to work through her grief by writing letters to her dead mom and leaving them in the cemetery where Declan works. When Declan sees and reads one of the letters, he relates to the sense of loss in the letter so much that he replies to it. Declan and Juliet begin writing to each other anonymously and immediately form a deeper connection than either of them could have imagined because they are able to say things to each other that they’ve not been able to say to anyone else. I thought this aspect of the story was just so beautifully done. The letters themselves were so raw and emotional, like reading someone’s diary and peering down deep into their souls, and they had me in tears on more than one occasion while reading.
In addition to the powerful exploration of grief, Letters to the Lost was also a wonderfully engaging read for me because of all the relationships. And not just Declan and Juliet’s either. They both have two of the most amazing best friends a person could ask for. I had already met Declan’s best friend, Rev, and knew how precious he was because I read Kemmerer’s More Than We Can Tell first and fell in love with him there, but Juliet’s best friend Rowan is equally amazing. Plus, there are also several adults (parents, teachers, and work supervisors) trying to be as supportive and non-judgmental as possible, which was just lovely to see, especially since a secondary theme of the book is about how wrong and unfair it is to judge people without ever bothering to get to know them first.
After reading and falling in love with both Letters to the Lost and More Than We Can Tell, Brigid Kemmerer has become an auto-buy author for me. Her writing is exquisite, and her stories are filled with such incredibly realistic characters that you won’t be able to stop yourself from becoming fully invested in their lives. If you’re looking for a read that will tug at your heart strings, I would highly recommend something from Kemmerer. 5 STARS
Love & Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch
Published by Simon Pulse on May 3, 2016
Genres: Contemporary Fiction, Young Adult Fiction
Pages: 389
Source: Purchased
Amazon
Goodreads
GOODREADS SYNOPSIS
“I made the wrong choice.”
Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn’t in the mood for Italy’s famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. She’s only there because it was her mother’s dying wish that she get to know her father. But what kind of father isn’t around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is get back home.
But then she is given a journal that her mom had kept when she lived in Italy. Suddenly Lina’s uncovering a magical world of secret romances, art, and hidden bakeries. A world that inspires Lina, along with the ever-so-charming Ren, to follow in her mother’s footsteps and unearth a secret that has been kept for far too long. It’s a secret that will change everything she knew about her mother, her father—and even herself.
People come to Italy for love and gelato, someone tells her, but sometimes they discover much more.
Review:
Jenna Evans Welch’s Love & Gelato follows American teen Lina, who is sent to live in Florence, Italy after her mother passes away. Lina’s mother had cancer and knew she was dying, so she made arrangements for Lina to go to Italy and get to know her father, whom she has never even met. Although Lina doesn’t want to leave her friends and move to Italy, she feels like she has to respect her mother’s dying wish and at least visit. Upon her arrival, she is handed an old journal that belonged to her mother that dates back to her own experiences living in Florence as a student. It’s this old journal that takes Lina on a journey that she never expected to – one that leads her to discover never-before-known truths about both herself and her parents.
Although she was a bit stubborn and irritable at first, I found Lina to be a very likeable and relatable character overall. It was easy to understand her attitude, given that she was being separated from everything she has ever known and sent off to live with strangers. At the same time, I liked that once she was in Florence, she became determined to make the best of the situation. I especially enjoyed reading along with her as she pored over her mother’s journal. Her mother adored Florence and so it was fun to watch Lina slowly but surely discover a similar love for the city. It was also fascinating to follow along as Lina learned more and more details about her mother’s life that had previously eluded her. In many ways, it felt like we were both just getting to know Lina’s mother for the first time.
While Lina’s journey is mostly about discovering truths about her family, she also meets some wonderful friends while in Italy. Ren, in particular, was just such a charming young man and I liked the friendship that developed between him and Lina, with its promise of becoming something more if Lina were to decide to stay in Florence.
My absolute favorite part of Love & Gelato though was that the author did such a magnificent job of capturing the essence of Florence and why it’s such an easy city to fall in love with. I’ve visited Florence once and, after reading this book, I’m dying to go back! 4 STARS
About Brigid Kemmerer
BRIGID KEMMERER is the author of LETTERS TO THE LOST (Bloomsbury; April 4, 2017), a dark, contemporary Young Adult romance; THICKER THAN WATER (Kensington, December 29, 2015), a New Adult paranormal mystery with elements of romance; and the YALSA-nominated Elemental series of five Young Adult novels and three e-novellas which Kirkus Reviews calls “refreshingly human paranormal romance” and School Library Journal describes as “a new take on the supernatural genre.” She lives in the Baltimore area with her husband and four sons.
About Jenna Evans Welch
Jenna Evans Welch was the kind of insatiable child reader who had no choice but to grow up to become a writer. She is the New York Times Bestselling author of LOVE & GELATO and the upcoming LOVE & LUCK. When she isn’t writing girl abroad stories, Jenna can be found chasing her children or making elaborate messes in the kitchen. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband and two young children.