After reading Vox I was delighted to get a Net Galley Copt of Q.
Continuing the dystopian fiction of Vox, Q tells the story of school teacher Elena, her husband Malcolm and their two children Anne and Freddie, who love in contemporary America. An America changes by everyone being judged on their Qs, scores that are achieved through regular and rigorous testing in schools. If you pass your tests, nothing changes. If you fail, then....
A well paced and almost unbelievable read. Would recommend.

To everyone that loved Vox and wants to read another like it this is just for you!! A dystopian future in America trying to control part of the population through scientific means. This time it is social engineering to the extreme, involving severe IQ testing, segregation of schools and ultimately moving into eugenics. At its heart a mother who discovers the secrets of what the government is doing and puts her own life at risk to expose the truth.

I wonder if I’d have loved it more if I’d read this first rather than Vox. Because this is probably as shocking and ground breaking but for me too similar to Vox which meant the impact wasn’t there for me.

This is story is set in a dystopian future where a persons IQ determines every aspect of their life. Students are regularly tested and depending on their results moved into different schools. If someone continues to fail the tests they are sent to a state school away from their family.
A chilling look at a world where a persons contribution to society is the ultimate goal.
Thank you to NetGalley and HQ for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

Praise for Christina Dalcher

After reading Vox I was more than excited to join the queue to read Q.

THIS NOVEL DOES NOT DISAPPOINT

I think the thing that makes Christina's writing so powerful is the idea that what happens in her novels could actually occur in real life.

A terrifying thought but it makes her stories all the more explosive.

It looks at the idea of a points scale which separates humans, from the most elite to the lowest class of people.

The higher your points the more privilege you are awarded.

But what happens when the points system no longer reflects the abilities of those who use it?

If it were a family member that suddenly failed the test would you stand back and let the rules dictate or would you stand up and take action?

Fast paced and incredibly well thought out, this is a tale that will have you thinking not just about what could be but how you act in the here and now.

The ending was not what I was expecting, it had just as much of an impact as the beginning sentences.

From start to finish Q is so much more than a book and I implore you to read it!

I loved Vox so was really excited to get an EArc of Q, Christine Dalcher's newest dystopian thriller. And it didn't disappoint. Like Vox Q takes place in an alternate US, one not too many years from now. Only here. rather than developing into an autocratcic patriarchy, the US, fuelled by immigration fears and falling standards of living is a meritocracy. Or so it likes to think. Each person is judged by a variety of factors, including job, family and crucially IQ. These numbers, recalculated monthly, determine status and the higher your Q number, the better your life.

Elena has a dazzingly high number thanks to her PhD, job in a silver school, teaching the brightest of the children and husband Malcolm, clever, successful and high up in the Education department. Her eldest daughter Anne is an effortless high number too, confident at her silver school, her future bright. But Freddie her youngest struggles, the prospect of falling into a Green school a constant fear, or even worse, a yellow school, out of state, boarding and compulsory. Elena spends her life trying to ensure Freddie succeeds in the face of Malcom's indifference and even dislike, but when her worst nightmare is realised and Freddie is taken away, Elena has to face up to the truth about her marriage and the system she helped to create,. And when she follows Freddie to the yellow school, things take a much more sinister turn, and Elena has to ask herself, what will she do to save her daughter?

I read this book in a week when the Prime Minister employed a man who openly espouses eugenics as policy making the book both timely and chilling. Q is a thrilling read, a well plotted dystopia and a thoughtful book, but it was also a warning about how easily 'othering' can be and how the results are never benign.

Q is a tense dystopian novel about eugenics, intelligence, and motherhood, in which one of the privileged must expose the heart of the new education system. Elena is a teacher at an elite school, one for those with the highest Q quotient. Her daughters go to these schools, and her husband runs the politics behind them, the politics that makes the country focused on perfection and unforgiving on those who don't do well enough. Those who aren't good enough at these schools end up at the yellow schools, boarding schools out of state with restricted visiting access. Elena thinks the system is fair, until one of her daughters fails a test and is sent to a yellow school. Elena hatches a plan to join her, but to get her out the whole thing will need exposing.

This is a dark book that fits very much into the kind of dystopia where only a few details from reality have to be changed to form the crux of the narrative and where calling it 'sci-fi' doesn't seem appropriate. Dalcher takes historical (and not so historical) ideas about intelligence and eugenics and looks at what would happen if these became the new basis for an educational system that spills out into other areas of life. Elena is an interesting choice of protagonist, someone with a complicated, morally questionable past and a controlling husband in the present. The novel made me want to know more—about the supporting characters, about what the yellow school was like—which was unexpected (often dystopias give you too much detail), and sometimes the plot felt a bit too neat and easily resolved, but as a relatively quick read it at least wasn't bogged down.

The concept of this novel is interesting and the viewpoint of the protagonist brings complexity due to her past and her present clashing. Easily linked to elements of the modern day, it will probably spark a few conversations and shock a few readers.

I thoroughly enjoyed Vox, so when I saw that Dalcher had another book coming out, I was very excited, and instantly requested it on NetGalley. However, I was surprisingly disappointed in this tale of a world where a new social order has changed how people interact, and certain classes are more oppressed than others. Although I enjoyed Vox, there's very little new or appealing in Q, as it retreads the same ground with a thinly disguised alteration of what is, at this stage, a slightly tired trope..
There were lots of interesting parts of this book - Elena Fairchild, the middle-class, highly educated main character, mother of two, is quietly rebelling against the system that her husband is wrapped up in - but this is very similar to Vox, where the main character is quietly rebelling against the system that her husband is wrapped up in. The difference this time is that Elena herself seems to have been involved in it, which is unveiled slowly through flashbacks which parallel the narrative.
Given that it's a first-person perspective, however, I found it quite frustrating that Elena shied away mentally from thinking of what it was that she did in her past that led to the implementation of this new system. There's no real reason for her to hide it from herself, so the slow reveal over many pages of what her heinous act was is clearly designed only to heighten reader tension. Someone else discovering this alongside Elena would make far more sense.
My other complaint about this book was that it took far too long to get going - 55% of the way through the book is when Elena makes the choice to follow her child. This is despite the fact that this is flagged on the blurb as being the trigger point of the story.
I just expected more from this. I was hoping for a twist in that the perfect child would be sent to a reform school, or her husband would be working against the system from the inside, or something, anything, which would make this less formulaic and near-identical, once you scratch the surface, to her previous novel.
Originally I had rated this four stars (rounding up from 3.5), after reading, but the more I think about it, the more dissatisfied I become, and so I've downgraded it to a three. It's not terrible, and it's not even really bad, it's just not brilliant, and doesn't do anything new that Vox didn't do.

3.5 stars


Dalcher writes well,about a future that isn't all that hard to believe could happen.
Where America just wants to be great again...
A tiered system where everyone knows their worth and most fight to stay at the top.
There's no childhood,relaxing or vacations in sight... Or all that many happy families I'd think.
What we do have though is a mother's love that has her doing anything she can to save her daughter.

It's positively menacing at times.

Great central character,and super pacing.


I worry what the authors dealing up for our future next though. 😁

A society where your performance in school and in life determines your social standing and the performance and behaviour of your family can sway that standing.
Q takes to a new level (but perhaps not that unimaginable) the social tiers of society based on a number of factors that add up to give your "Q" score. A world where everything is scrutinised and tested on a frighteningly regular basis should feel very dystopian and unreal but actually is worryingly familiar in many ways.
The Q system is a repeat of some of the worst incidences of eugenics and widespread human rights abuses and yet those in charge of the system, seemingly derived from a few innocent comments made by the unpopular kids at school, have learned nothing from history and plough on regardless with their bright new society.
When Elen finds that her younger daughter has failed and is moved to a yellow school (the worst case possible) she does all she can to bring her back by deliberately demoting herself to the same status. All is definitely not as advertised as Elen finds out when she reaches Kansas and the yellow school and finds herself stuck in a system that is upheld and run by her husband.
There are a few points in the book where great leaps are made, perhaps in the edit, where I could have done with a bit more detail or background but overall a great premise for a story with plenty of breath-holding moments as Elen fights for her child's rights.

I am sure this is a very good book but the uncorrected arc I received from netgalley makes this unreadable.

Working in education, this was both fascinating and horrifying. A very well written read, did lose its way somewhat towards the middle but quickly regained pace and kept me reading well into the night twice! Highly recommended.

Q is shocking. I finished reading about two hours ago and still have chills.

You HAVE to read this book. You’ll be talking about it forever. Set in a dystopian world where your social class is decided on how well you do at life. Elenas daughter has failed and is sent to a “yellow” level school so it’s only fair that Elena follows. What comes next is insane! Literally insane. I devoured Q, it’s the kind of incredible story that I love and I can highly recommend to anyone and everyone!

5/5