[REVIEW] Vox

This Advance Reader Copy of the book is courtesy of NetGalley and the book’s publishers. I am not receiving any financial or additional benefit from either group for posting this review other than the opportunity to read this book before it’s released publicly. 

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tl;dr Review:

Terrifying and brilliant, this book is an all-too-possible future if people, especially women, don’t use their voices now.

Full Review:

I read this book in one sitting because my heart was pounding so fast as I kept reading that I knew I had to finish or I’d never be able to go to sleep. Vox by Christina Dalcher is like an updated Handmaid’s Tale or a clear look at the future if people like Pence continue to gain and hold power.

The publisher’s description alone is enough to make you anxious.

Set in a United States in which 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 one hundred words per day, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial. This can’t happen here. Not in America. Not to her.

This is just the beginning…

Soon women are not permitted to hold jobs. Girls are not taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words each day, but now women have only one hundred to make themselves heard.

…not the end.

For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.

As someone who personally loves to speak her mind daily, the thought of only being allowed 100 words a day, not to mention being unable to read or write for fun or work, is horrifying.

There were numerous sharp critiques of white feminism and how people never want to believe things will happen to them. Until they do.

It’s hard work to care. It’s harder work to try and change things. And it’s much easier to say you support things than to actually go out there and make a difference.

But that is what this book is trying to get us to do: stop sitting around and hoping things get better and instead working to make things better ourselves.

Though the ending hit me kind of fast, and was a bit unrealistic at times, overall I came away from the book feeling empowered and ready to go fight for my rights.

It’s definitely a must read and gets 4 out of 5 thumbs up from me.