I loved the concept of this book. With strong echoes of The Handmaid’s Tale, Vox imagines a near future where women are literally silenced by the patriarchy. Every female is forced to wear a bracelet or ‘counter’ that monitors her speech and limits her to a paltry 100 words a day. Any more than that, and a horrific electric shock is administered. The government is formed of a fundamentalist Christian groups and severe punishments are handed out for sex outside marriage, improper behaviour, homosexuality... it paints a dark and depressing picture.

The novel centres around Jean, a one time neuroscientist specialising in linguistics, now trapped in the home with four children, a detached husband and a limited voice. The parts of the book that spoke most to me were those that explored the relationship between Jean and her daughter Sonia, who is growing up in a world where she is denied the speech her brothers take for granted.

I think I would like to have seen more of an exploration of how it all happened, and how society allowed these changes to be made. This was covered, but not in a huge amount of depth (as I suppose the plot needed to progress).

The final third of the novel felt quite rushed to me - everything was happening very quickly, but I wasn’t always clear on what was happening. And I’m still quite confused about what exactly happened at the very end.

But I’d still recommend this book, for the terrifying concept alone, and the time spent on the relationship between Jean and her daughter.

There are two covers for this book that I have seen. I honestly like them both and I think either will stand out on a bookstore shelf so both do their job very well. If I absolutely had to choose one? My love of a great byline would make me choose the dark cover, but, the white cover and the x over the females mouth is such a stark, striking image too.
The genres I have seen listed for this book are Sci-Fi, Dystopian which fit perfectly but I would also add futuristic to this list.

This book is set in America, though the setting would also work over here in the UK. The government (all male of course) has passed a law that women are only allowed to use 100 words per day! It doesn't stop at limiting women to just 100 words soon women are not allowed jobs, they are supposed to stay in the home and keep the family home ticking over, caring for the children, and having the dinner ready for their husband coming home, they are not allowed to hold any job of responsibility.

There really is an inequality within everyone's household. The central character in this story is Dr Jean McLellan who is ironically a well educated woman who trained as a cognitive linguist forced to give up her career to men with lesser qualifications. She has to stay home and isn't even allowed access to books. She cannot use a computer, anything for the use of communication is locked away in her husbands office. Her husband is quite literally her jailer. Jean isn't even secondary in the pecking order at home. Her son is held in higher esteem and has more authority than she has herself. When her son Steven becomes deeper and involved with a movement called the Pure movement and really believes women should not be at work or allowed to read books. Steven wears his badge as a member of the Pure movement with pride. Jean cannot believe the change in her son and his attitude. His actions and words certainly fit the governments expectations, he truly seems to think women are an inferior race and should be ruled over by men. This doesn't sit well at all with Jean, his educated mother. In fact it makes her think back to her years o education and a friend, Jackie Juarez who had told her she should be out protesting with her but Jean was dedicated to her books and never thought things would go this far. Jean remembers the last time she saw Jackie on TV, she was labelled a feminazi and sent away to work in the fields.

Jean is devastated to learn that her son Steven has reported his next door neighbour/girlfriend, Julia King for what he considers an infraction of the governments rules. Julia is taken away in the night and like all protesters or those considered to be breaking the law she is sentenced to working on the farms and a life of silence, she isn't allowed any words at all.

I guess I should explain how the government enforces the 100 words per day policy. Every female from the youngest children to the oldest woman is fitted with a cuff which counts their words as they use them. If the female wearing the cuff goes over her 100 words per day she is sent an electrical type shock through her cuff. So is harshly punished for over use of words. There is no way out of this life. Even if women wanted to leave the country with her family she is unable to do so as all females had their passports confiscated and n new ones are being issued.

Dr Jean McLellan is given the chance of a small reprieve when the President wants her to continue some scientific work she had been doing before America changed. It turns out he needs a serum to give his brother who is suffering from a brain disorder/damage which was the scientific are Jean and her team had been working on. Jean decides to help so long as she can choose her team Lin and Lorenzo to help her. The price/payment she receives is the removal of her cuff and her young daughter Sonia's cuff. Jean intends to enjoy what little freedom this "work" will give her. She fall right back into the affair she was having with Lorenzo, which is risky as if found out she will be sent to the farms to work hard labour until death!

There is so much going on in this book and it truly is a conversation starter. I'd also say it is something that could quite realistically happen. I mean there's still a political row going on about getting equal pay for women, and certain professions are still mostly male dominated.

I was pulled into this book almost immediately within the first 4% ! As a reader you are thrown right into the dystopian society with its rules and regulations. To be totally honest looking around at our present political leaders around the world is a scenario that is really believable and doesn't take to much imagination to envision it. I found the plot of this book amazing twist on a society. Women, even young girls must be fitted with a counter and are limited to the 100 words! If you just go over, a reminder shock is entirely through your counter.....if you continue to speak even though you have used you allotted words the shocks get stronger and stronger. It's not only words that have been taken from the female part of society...." There really seems no end to the torment of women in this society yet still some women look down on others. Making it seem in places were women are their own worst enemy, if they banded together they could make a bigger impact but it just takes a few brave women to stand together.

I really enjoyed reading this book it was really thought provoking the society going back to a time where women were thought lesser important than men and are sentenced to a life of drudgery and silence.

I was so very excited by the concept of this book - in a very near future US, women are forced to wear a bracelet that restricts the amount of words they can say during the day to 100. Other rights are also taken way - women no longer can have jobs, travel, live independently, read, write... The main character of the book, Dr Jean McClellan, a well known neurolinguist (now Mrs McClellan, really), has a chance to speak again - and her words and actions might give voice to other women too.

It is a familiar dystopian concept, but in "Vox" it became somehow chillingly more realistic. One would think that this sort of thing will never happen, but then we did not expect many things in recent history that have sadly taken place. But what the author shows well are the small steps in which the lives of women are changing, and how inaction can speed them up, how we learn to accept - out of fear or out of indifference.

"Vox " is really gripping and engaging book, well written (although I must say I struggled with the neurolinguistic jargon!), and I believe fans of "The Handmaid's Tale" and "Red Clocks" will enjoy it. The only thing I am not sure about was the ending, as it was fitting, but somehow I had expected something else. Overall, "Vox" definitely deserves attention and hopefully readers will enjoy it as much as I did.

it was amazing

I really enjoyed this thought-provoking book. I found it to be reminiscent of The Handmaids Tale, with women being forced into a `traditional role' by a backward president with no mind of his own, led by his older brother and a zealot preacher who tell him what to do and say.

I can't imagine being restricted to 100 words a day and forced into marriage or a who're house or prison. To have no funds or rights of my own. Yet there are some that would no doubt love to see us reduced to that, zealots mostly.

An intriguing and engrossing read.

Jean McClellan is bi-lingual. She can speak both English and Italian; however, she is only allowed to say 100 words a day. The American government has turned back the hands of time, to a simpler time when the men went to work and the women stayed at home, cooking, cleaning and caring for the children. To ensure this happens, every female in the US has been fitted with a counter that shocks the wearer if they exceed their daily 100 word quota! That is until Jean’s expertise in neurolinguistics is needed and her counter is removed. Can she use this opportunity to right the wrongs against womankind and give them their voices back?

I read this in only a few hours. It is easy to read and very engaging. It got me angered and riled up like no other book ever has. For the first three quarters of the book I was all ready to give it 4 maybe even 5 stars but it fell short at the last hurdle. With a quarter of the book left to go I felt for sure that it must be the first of a series because I didn’t feel like there was enough time left to come to a conclusion. It did, however, reach a conclusion which all felt very rushed to me and with a lot of things left unexplained. I would still recommend it to those who love dystopian fiction.

Thank you to Netgalley, Christina Dalcher and HQ for my ARC of Vox. 


Set in a not too distant future version of America Vox is an evocative novel where a religious cult leader is pulling the president's strings and women have been restricted to speaking no more than 100 words today, and guess what? That includes reading!

We hear the story from the perspective of Dr Jean McClellan, previously a renowned linguistic specialist/scientist, now expected to stay home and be a housewife, especially with her teenage son fully buying into the new regime. Jean doesn't just fear and feel frustrated for herself though but for her six year old daughter as well. A child who is already learning that staying silent comes with positive rewards. Jean must do what she can to get back not only her own voice but every woman & girl's as well.

The story was really interesting, it kept me hooked. But it made me so angry, this is a good thing because obviously you want a book to provoke emotion in you but at the same time it was so frustrating because I just felt so angry, I was even getting angry at my boyfriend for imagined misogyny haha!

I think the idea is really new, it's not been done before. There's a lot of dystopian novels out there that deal with female oppression but Christina Dalcher really brought something fresh and new to the table.

I'm looking forward to seeing more from this author!

This is a difficult novel to read for a woman. It deals with an America not too far in the future from today, where women are forced to wear devices that only allow them 100 words a day before being hit with an electric shock. Reading is banned. Working is banned. Their assets and their whole persons belong to their husbands. Queer people are interned in labour camps. It is absolutely horrible to read about, for the sole reason that it's incredibly easy to see how this could be reality very soon.

The actual plot, I found a little bit dry. It has overtones of the kind of 'literary fiction' produced by middle-aged white males, about the trials of professorship and how life-affirming it is when you start an affair with a much hotter person. I was more interested in the social interactions of the characters than the main plot, especially when it started to get kind of action-filmy at the end (with a race to use a sci-fi injection to restore/remove language capabilities. I also found the ending rather fairy-tale and pat.

However, Dalcher does a great job of keeping the menace of the misogynistic society bubbling quietly under every single thought and action that our main character has. I found myself getting angry several times, especially as she interacted with her eldest son, who is soaking up the indoctrination in a textbook way. As I say, it's a difficult read if you are a woman, because we are constantly fighting these tiny aggressions, desperate to stop the larger hatred behind them. I can't say I enjoyed this book, because it frightened and enraged me, but I thought it was very good, and very important.

Wow -I really enjoyed this read- was totally gripped by it- read on holiday over a day and the family started to get annoyed by my lack of participation in anything other than reading! Only took a few pages to get stuck in, and I was hooked. I've never actually thought about what life must be like with very limited communication with others- still thinking now about how I would manage only being allowed to speak 100 words a day. I really enjoyed all the relationships in this book - from husband, lover, friend , neighbour and mother- but the loviest relationships for me was between the main character Jean and her young daughter, I would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys fast paced, intriguing read.

An original idea ...something really different. The USA has turned into a patriarchal society with women no longer allowed to work, watch normal TV or media, read books or speak more than 100 words per day! The novel focuses on mainly one woman and her family and friends. One of my favourite characters is Sophie, the 6 year old daughter. I won't give away anymore here but this book makes you think and challenges us to review the way our world is progressing, or not.....

I had heard and read lots about this book online and I was a bit doubtful about it at first but decided I would give it ago. I am so glad that I did as I absolutely loved it.
Imagine waking up one morning and finding out that all women and girls are not allowed to say more than a 100 words a day, and if you do you will be punished by being given an electronic shock. Every word you say is monitored by a little device “counter” that is worn on the wrist of every female and once you reach 100 the very same device will send a shock through your body.

The book is very gripping and thought-provoking. It really makes you think about how this is all too possible in the near future, and how important for women to fight for equal rights.

Christina Dalcher has written this book well, and comparing the writing style to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale I thought VOX was much more easier to read and the story flowed much better. She has good strong characters throughout the book. I have read a few good books so far this year, but this one is up there with some of my favourites for this year.

A must read for dystopian fiction fans, and even if you're not a fan still a must read.

I would like to thank NetGalley and HQ for my Advance Digital Review Copy in return for an Unbiased review.

Strange fitbit like devices have been issued to every woman and girl in America. They will be shocked if they go over their 100 word limit. Mans rules the land, until the president falls sick and the only person who can help him is Dr Jean and her research.

Women are silenced, gay people are put in concentration camps to "convert" them. Anyone disobeying the rules in publicly shamed on TV in front of everyone.

I loved this book! In a world where this situation could quite frankly be a possibility. I find myself imagining what my life would be like with only 100 words to speak.

This is a fantastic non-stop read. 5 stars for me. Everyone should read this book. If you don't get even a little bit angry then you are part of the problem.

Wow.
Life reduced to 100 words daily as a female. No books. Horrendous.

A patriarchal society under an autocratic president where group think is evident and women delisted. Not too far from modern day America (I think that’s the point)

A valuable lesson in speaking up for those who cannot speak up for themselves and to stand up for what you believe in.

A little terrifying and frighteningly realistic, Vox is a parable for modern times. It lost its way several times but all came together nicely at the end albeit a little rushed

4.5* thought-provoking

I really wasn't sure what to expect with this book, I love dystopian books but haven't read such an original one for ages, I loved it.The main character and many other people in the book really resonated with me,I was rooting for them,this seemed especially in today's political climate and with unlikely presidents etc to be all too possible.I thought the author had a great imagination but made it all seem very realistic.I was really caught up in the book and I couldn't read it fast enough.Imagine being restricted to 100 words a day and punished, imagine having your job and rights stripped while any man or boy has unlimited rights and can lord it over you..... Not a world I would want to be in but it was scary and realistic ,it didn't seem that far away .Imagine being persecuted and forbidden to express your sexuality, oh wait a minute that happens in some places already doesn't it.. and seems to be the way it is going in supposedly more civilized countries like the USA for example .This book is bang on point and although it shares a vision of a truly horrific future it is one that wouldn't surprise in some ways .thankfully this is not the world we live in and I am able to read and enjoy this book.I will definitely be looking out for more books by this author ,and would like to thank the Publishers and Netgalley for this ARC.

Dr Jean McLellan is an eminent neuroscientist. She has her personal flaws but in her career she was at the forefront of studies into the brain and how it’s impacted by illness. I use the past tense because when we meet Dr Jean her role has been drastically reduced, like that of many women.
In this America women are no longer part of the work force. Their role is to nurture children and keep the home. Their rights have - as we learn in bits and pieces - been eradicated. This alone was enough to anger me, but the fact their voices are taken away was jaw-dropping. Each female wears a wrist counter. It allows them 100 words a day. 100!
The fact that nobody openly questions this tells us just how different things are in this imagined world.
The premise of this story was absorbing. I particularly liked the way we learn how such a situation came to pass. Like so many periods in history where such things happen it’s always easy to look on in hindsight and question the actions of those alive at the time. Sadly, Dalcher paints all too vivid a picture of how this came to pass.
The story was chilling as we come to understand just what is at risk here. A timely reminder of the need to question decisions made by those in power.
Thank you NetGalley for granting me access to this prior to publication.

This book should, and I predict will, stand along side Handmaid’s Tale, 1984 and Only Ever Yours for its speculative commentary on society.
The book’s narrative will have anyone reading bringing it up in comversation; it’s haunting premise will ensure everyone wants to pass on the book in some attempt at prempting it’s possible outcome.
The exploration of the impact of religion is quite interesting and something I personally wanted to know more. Had the narrative not focused on the one person, I’d have loved to have see the leader’s rise to power; which is a testament to the writer and her ability to build a world with potential beyond the one book.

Wow! Just wow! I really dont know what to say about this book! I mean it's horrifying and such a strong point for a book, but it was totally amazing. It started out as just a horrible way of living... But having a look behind the scenes of the personal aspects was eye opening... I honestly don't know what I'd do if this was something that actually happened.

So on the plus sides it had such strong female characters and such an intense storyline it pulled me in straight away and I could barely put the book down.

On the negative side I found it a little hard sometimes to tell the difference between the present and the past... There didn't seem to be anything to mark it, so it did get a little weird sometimes and I had to reread bits to make sure it made sense

I would definitely recommend this to everyone it was just so awesome!

Years ago I read Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and enjoyed it as a great story of a fictional world. Then along comes the TV series which painted the book into more colours than I had imagined, now frightening and real.

Now there's Vox which will inevitably be compared as the outline is familiar. But I think this book is even more extreme in so many ways. How could we live without words, without everything that they convey? How could women let this happen in the first place? How can a well educated, respected person be crushed into such a small example of themselves? Bleak and depressing to the extreme.

The second part of the book was much more fiesty, gave me hope while reminding me that yes, this is reality already in many societies and more and more of us are becoming oppressed. If a book can take you on a roller-coaster like that then it deserves to be read. Doesn't it?

Imagine a modern world where women and girls are only allowed to speak 100 words per day and suffer dire consequences if they disobey. No work, no rights – and people disappear overnight. Vox issues a stark warning to those who do not use their voices to stand up for their beliefs.

The book is intense, terrifying, and anger-inducing. My only criticism is that the intensity waned in the last third and lost its golden thread of being a social commentary.

I thoroughly enjoyed it but would’ve liked to have seen the thread maintained throughout. Highly recommended for book clubs.

(Word count – 100. Phew.)

Many thanks to NetGalley and HQ Stories for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Vox really make you think, its quite terrifying how easily society was able change. I really enjoyed the first half of the novel, but at some point towards the middle it seemed to change, the tone of the book altered and the plot became slightly confusing, leading to what appears to be a very rushed and abrupt ending.

A gripping, compelling read, Vox imagines a dystopian future, not that far away, where women are the inferior species; they have been removed from employment, cannot hold bank accounts or passports, or even open the mail. Women are only allowed to utter 100 words a day, strictly monitored by a wrist-worn counter which administers powerful shocks if the limit is infringed.

Dr Jean McClellan is summoned back to work and temporarily excused from these rules in order to employ her neurolinguistic skills on creating a cure for the President's brother's aphasia. But is this the real reason? What will the impacts be of her return to work? Can anyone fight back?

Packed with interesting characters and relationships, Vox has every potential to become a bestseller. Highly, highly recommended.