Vox by Christina Dalcher

VoxVox by Christina Dalcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a book club selection that I was putting off reading. I just read The Testaments for another book club and I didn't know that I was ready for another book full of women's suppression. The premise in Vox is that we have a new U.S. President who is basically a puppet being led by a member of Clergy and other powerful leaders. We enter the story one year into a national regulation on women's speech. Every female in the US has been outfitted with a "bracelet" that counts the number of words they speak in a day. They are only allowed 100. If they go over 100, they get an electric shock. The shock will increase in intensity with every word spoken and quickly becomes horribly painful.

100 words is not much. As of right now in this review, I have written 144 words.

Through the story we learn about Jean, who used to live with a friend who was an activist and would try to push Jean to get involved. Jean used to shrug off her friend's concerns and say things like "what can ONE crazy politician possibly do?" and "how much difference can ONE person make?" The author was definitely sending a message to the reader - that sitting back and doing nothing should not be the option. Jean is struggling with facing her ignorance in the past and trying to raise her family in the current state.

With a teenage son that is drinking the kool-aid and a six year old daughter who barely uses half of her allocated words in a day, Jean feels anger and hate rising up and tries to leverage her skills as a neurolinguist to work with the government and regain some freedom in her home life. But the people in charge at the US Capital can't be trusted and Jean quickly learns that.

The tension in this book kept me up reading until almost midnight - and for someone who usually passes out at 9:30 pm with a book in her hand, this is a big deal. I thought this was a book that I was going to read over the course of a week or so, interspersing it with something lighthearted. Instead I started it yesterday afternoon and finished it last night. Very well done!



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