Plot: In a near-future in America, half the population, the women, have been silenced. With only 100 words to use a day, and physical punishments if they surpass that total, their voices are not heard. Jean McLellan was once a successful linguistic scientist; now she can no longer work or even show her young daughter that women can have an opinion. She knows the consequences this can have on not only the individuals – girls who do not have a voice – but on society in general. But is it already too late?

My thoughts: Wow, this was a fascinating premise that I wish I could have come up with, and the rest of the book to match was pretty awesome too. Not only did the promise of a dystopian society like no other deliver, but a fairly action-packed story followed, where women are fighting for not only their voices, but their lives. I found myself measuring my words as I read it, wondering at what point I would have had to stop speaking and realising just how truly awful having your voice limited like that is.
The comparisons to The Handmaid’s Tale are, of course, rife, but it’s a very accurate comparison that’s serving only to make the book more popular and visible – it’s a pretty fortuitous time for this to be thought up and published when The Handmaid’s Tale is experiencing a resurgence thanks to the TV series.
I honestly really enjoyed this read and would highly recommend it.

Honestly I can't say I liked this novel because it's just not the sort of book you like. But it is incredibly confronting, thought provoking and sharp. It makes excellent points about having a voice and what happens when that is taken away from you. Obviously it's tackling sexual inequality and occasionally the metaphor of the fantasy element is a little heavy handed. It hits similar beats to Naomi Alderman's The Power, though is perhaps a shade less sophisticated in scope. I imagine in the wake of MeToo we'll see a lot more of these sorts of books and they need to be written and read. This is a very important book.

3.5 Really enjoyed the world building aspects, as a reader I felt horrified how restricted the women and girls are in this world. But scary how extreme the current government is. The Neuro side of things had me a bit lost. It also felt a bit romance-y in the middle with a love triangle (insert eye rolling emoji). Overall I felt like the story had a satisfying conclusion and was very gripping throughout, even with the science bits that went over my head.

This is going to be one of the standout books of the year; with a background of the #MeToo movement, the domination of the religious right in America and a self-confessed sex criminal as President, the issues in this book could not be more pertinent. The story is shocking, yes, but isn’t that the point of dystopian fiction? To put a mirror up to society and show us how bad things could get. Far-fetched, but not so far-fetched that we can’t imagine this world come to pass.

Though fairly short, this book packs in a lot, from an incompetent President acting as a puppet for darker forces, to the struggle of being in a heterosexual marriage in a world that punishes women (whilst the situation in the book is extreme, how many women have felt frustrated that their husbands or boyfriends don’t really understand #MeToo, not at their very core?). It’s about the importance of speech and of having a voice, and perhaps most pertinently, about using it before it is too late. I wasn’t entirely convinced by the ending (which I won’t spoil for you here) but it definitely gave me a lot of food for thought, and I think is one that will stick with me for a long time.

Words are rationed to just one hundred a day – but only for women and girls. Exceed your quota and the bracelet you’ve been made to wear will deliver a series of electric shocks. This is an extraordinarily frightening premise, particularly if you’re a woman, and reading the opening of Vox I literally felt the panic rising in me. The novel’s protagonist is Dr Jean McClellan. She’s a scientist who specialises in reversing the loss of language, but she’s been removed from her job and forced to be a stay-at-home mom to her three sons and one daughter. The government is controlled by the fundamentalist Pure Movement and, as its repressive activities escalate, Jean starts to find her voice again and begins to plot rebellion. As I say, the premise is brilliant, so brilliant that it carried me swiftly through the early stages of the book, but just over halfway in the physical action speeds up and it turns into a rather far-fetched thriller. For me, this had the effect of undermining its serious themes – power, responsibility, freedom of speech – but nonetheless I still found it thought-provoking and really enjoyed it.

I really enjoyed this but it did get me angry! It's a Dystopian novel set in the future in America - Women are only allowed to speak 100 words a day and have a wristband on that counts down from 100 and if you exceed the word count you are given an electric shock! Men rule the land but the president gets sick and the only person who can help with a cure is Dr Jean and her team. Its an intriguing , thought provoking , shocking and infuriating book that is one of the best I have read this year.

Imagine a world where you're only allowed to speak 100 words a day. Any more than that and you'll get electric shocks. But only if you're a woman. Set in a future America, Vox tells the story of Jean McClellan and her family. Restrictions on women are getting harsher. I was fascinated to see how a family adjusted to their wife and mother suddenly being restricted in this way. The men in Jean's life annoyed me. I felt her fear for her daughter's future. And I appreciated the irony of the men of her world needing her expertise (and having to restore her freedom) in order to cure aphasia. The things she uncovers are horrifying. This is a fascinating and terrifying book, with themes and ideas that no longer seem impossible. An absolute must-read.

I really enjoyed Vox and felt it was a very timely novel. There were elements in it that had me raging with anger on behalf of the characters. I think it's important when books make us feel this way because a lot of the issues in the book - misogyny, homophobia, repression, state domination are scarily close to how we live now.

Jean McLellan, an accomplished scientist and medical researcher into the field of dementia and word loss, is now a housewife, limited to only 100 words a day, no writing or reading permitted, not even a cookbook, thanks to the the new totalitarian government controlling the united states. However when the President's husband has a stroke, her skills are required. But what is really going on, what does her husband really do and is there a resistance movement?

I thought this was a well written fast paced thriller, if a little predictable at times. A good read.

Wow what a book! The book is about a woman with a family and how her talking affects the family. She gets to help the president to make a serum. The story has a twist and the ending was good, though it did leave it to your imagination how it could have happened. Giving women only 100 words to use a day. This story could so be true! Men just want to control women! Though this book is very good, it makes you think, what if life was like this, I would never survive. (I speak to myself all the time) Thank you to netgalley for allowing me to review this book.

Enjoyed this thought provoking novel. Thanks to publisher and Netgalley for the advanced reading copy.

This book made me think and it definitely made me feel. Anger, heartbreak, resentment, fear, Christina Dalcher evokes all of these emotions through her creative narrative and beautiful prose.

Read my full review on The Overdue Book Review here:
https://theoverduebookreview.wordpress.com/2018/08/20/book-review-vox-by-christina-dalcher/

Very well written - very post apocalyptic feel. Would recommend for anyone looking for a fast paced intriguing book that you won’t want to put down

Boy, did this book sucker punch my heart. Vox is clearly inspired by one of my favourite books of all time – The Handmaid’s Tale. Vox is a little bit darker and even more sinister. The future created here is bleak and terrifying but strangely appealing. I’m sure you can name at least one or ten people you’d love to reduce to 100 words a day. The moment I really started to fall in love with the book is when Jean starts to see that her son is becoming a monster, something to fear. Oh I got me some chills. The book takes it’s time to develop the characters and build this pure – and sinister world, lulling you into a dreamy sense of security – until bang – it all implodes. Vox is amazing. Go read it now. I cried. A lot. And laughed. And had a severe case of the flesh crawlies.

Reading the description of this book, I knew I would find it hard to read. I love dystopian novels and find anything tackling the areas around sexism and feminism intriguing however it is something I am very sensitive to.

A new president has been elected in the United States and a new mandate as been declared - women are only allowed to speak up to 100 words a day or they face a painful punishment. The ramifications of this are huge - women cannot no longer work, properly communicate and have to rely on men to rule the country and support their lives. It's a scary concept and one that made me angry throughout the book - especially at how some of the men behaved despite it being their wives and daughters that were affected.

I thought the book was written really well and the only downside was that the ending seemed to be over very quickly. Overall though I still rate this as a 5 star read and raced through it all in one day.

Fantastic! For fans of Handmaid's Tale and that sort of new scary society story, you can't go wrong with this book. It lived up to my expectations and then some. 5 stars!

Wow.....if you think the Handmaid's Tale was powerful, you must read this...another whole level of control. One of the reasons to be grateful that our politics are less influenced by religion.

I don’t often follow upcoming releases too closely, but this caught my eye near the beginning of the year when it was featured in a HQ email. Feminist Dystopian? Yes please.

Then I was thrilled when I managed to get a copy of this through NetGalley. And it gave me everything I wanted. A great background explanation, a terrifying society and those who start to question it.

I’ve seen plenty of comparisons to The Handmaid’s Tale, and I do get why the comparisons are there. But I’m not a fan of Margaret Atwood’s writing style and so much prefer this!

[100 WORD LIMIT REACHED]

Vox by Christina Dalcher* is set in the near-future, where women can only say 100 words a day - any more, and they receive an electric shock through a bracelet. The more you say, the stronger the shocks. Jean, a scientist, tries to protect her family, especially her daughter. It's quite scary how believable some of the behaviour and attitudes in this book are.

The scary thing about the subject matter in this book, is that there are factions in the US today who you can see would welcome this kind of society! Really well-written, entirely plausible as an alternate reality, if a little worrying! I've already recommended it to three other people which should tell you all you need to know! Great characters - loved Jean and really bought into her plight, and the conflating emotions she has all the way through.

You are female, you are not worthy of a proper education, holding down a job, making decisions, you cannot read a book, have an email account or even check the post. So what can you do? Well if your Jean McClellan, previously a world leading neurolinguist, you can stay at home, be subservient to your husband, look after the home and your children and be very bored and unhappy. But what marks Jean McClellan and all the other women in Dachler’s novel from all the rest is that in any one day they may only speak #100WORDS.

Their #100WORDS are chosen with care and precision, there are no throwaway comments, no jokes no detailed conversations. One word over the #100WORDS an electric shock is delivered via a locked wristband. To say I was shocked when I started Vox would be an understatement, and the first thing I did was to try and imagine what I would do in similar circumstances. To be honest I am not really sure what I would do but I knew I would be just as miserable and as unhappy as Jean, but that I would also fight, fight for my rights to be a woman, to live a normal life.

What I loved above all else about Vox was Dachler’s portrayal of her main protagonist Jean. Yes, Jean was highly intelligent, but she had guts and determination, she grasped every opportunity to push the boundaries and to fight, not only for herself but also her daughter and the countless other women silenced and cowed by a male dominated society. Where Dachler excelled was her ability to highlight Jean’s vulnerabilities, her lack of confidence and her continual questioning of her actions, in particular her loyalty toward her husband and son. Her situation was extreme but, to some extent, women face the same dilemmas in everyday life, how much of ourselves do we give up, without losing who we are, or who we want to be? How many societies, in the world today still suppress women, deny them an education and more importantly a voice?

That is what was so good about Vox, it wasn’t just your average run of the mill thriller, it was so much more. It constantly asked questions, made me think, what #100WORDS would I chose, how would I feel to be silenced, to have my identity stripped from me, to have my male children question me, look down on me and have a husband who could do what the hell he liked with me.

Using other female characters Dachler was able to show an alternative version of Jean, the women who clearly embraced their silence and who were happy with their role within society, providing a balanced and two sided view of their world.

One of the most scariest aspects of the novel and again can be found in certain places today, is the power one man or a small group can wield within Government, how social media, TV, Radio, school and colleges can be used for rhetroic and propaganda to make a society believe whatever they want them to believe.

There is so much to Vox that it would take forever to write it all down, but whilst the suppression of women was at the heart of the novel, it was also a damn fine thriller. The pace is unrelenting, my page turning furious, the drama never ending and a couple of superb twists that made VOX unputdownable.

It is definitley one of the best novels I have read so far this year and I urge everyone to borrow from you library or go out and buy as it is just superb.