3.5 stars

This book had a little bit of everything: family drama, dystopia, a historical element & a dual timeline. All the elements came together to weave an interesting story of an elitist society, motherhood and the lengths people will go to to protect what they love.

Q shines a light on the past actions of the Nazis & the lesser known ideals & experiments that were being trialed in America. Elena, our main character, is feisty but flawed, our bad guys are hateful & their actions disturbing.

This read like a movie with punchy, short set scenes rather than vast descriptions which helped move the story along at a quick pace.

Ok, I ADORE Christina Dalcher’s books! I read Vox over two years ago and loved it!! And I also loved this one so much, the idea was so interesting to me and so insightful about how easy something like this (and a repeat of history) actually is to happen! A very scary, almost-reality that really calls a lot into question!

I loved the main character, her slow admittance to herself that she played an unknowingly big part in the way life was. I really wanted the book to keep going, but I just flew through the ending!!

It did take me some time to get into it but it truly shocked me! But I definitely recommend both this book and Vox, and seriously can’t wait to get my hands on Femlandia in October 2021!!

Thank you so much to HQ for the NetGalley copy 😍

This dystopian narrative is thought-provoking, disturbing, terrifying and… a little bit dull in places. The concepts that Dalcher explores in her fictional tale are fascinating, but I do not feel it was as gripping as it could have been.

In this novel, we are witness to a society that strives for perfection. A ‘Q’ score is based on test results which then has an impact on education and, for adults, their place in society. Dalcher makes it quickly evident that perfection is becoming harder and harder to achieve – a perfection determined by the Government – as testing is harder and the elusive, brilliant score, is more of a myth than a reality. It’s unsurprising then that Elena’s youngest daughter, Freddie, suffers from anxiety at only 9 years old – the pressures of the monthly testing bringing her down in what should be such a carefree time of life.

Pressure and reputation is a theme in this novel. The importance of portraying an intelligent, secure family is important to Elena’s husband, Malcolm, who is more interested in the stark statistics, rather than connecting with his wife and children. It’s a harrowing depiction of society because it is something that we can recognise in our own way of living. With the desire to be liked and accepted, the significance that social media has in our lives, Dalcher demonstrates that actually, the world that Elena lives in is not too dissimilar to our own.

The novel provides a background to why society is so obsessed with these ‘Q’ scores. I found this element really interesting. Even more so, were the parallels made to real, historical events. This added to the chilling atmosphere of the story and it was intensified as Elena finds out more about future plans for ensuring a brilliant society. Whilst I struggled to connect with Elena’s parents and grandmother, it turns out that these scenes were more important than I initially realised; Dalcher is demonstrating how history does eventually repeat itself, despite claims that mankind has “learnt their lesson”.

The premise behind this story of state control is brilliantly shocking and you cannot help but draw comparisons to how we live today. Furthermore, the shady, secretive way that the Government behaves in order to control the population is something we have all seen before in history. Although this is a work of fiction, it feels like Dalcher is giving readers a warning of what might happen – without us realising. This definitely adds power to the story.

Yet, despite this, I did find the novel was not as gripping as I had hoped. The narrative did not progress forwards as I had anticipated and lacked the energy and drive that Elena displays in her determination to be reunited with her daughter. I thought there were scenes where not much happened and I think this lessened the pace and my overall enjoyment of the story. A dystopian narrative such as this, with such a shocking topic, needs a delivery that has more punch than I think was achieved in this writing. I liked that so much background information was provided – both in terms of social developments and Elena’s past – as I find that books of a similar genre tend to gloss over this. However, it did not allow me to fully connect with Elena’s journey. Despite sympathising with her, I just wanted her to get to Freddie and there to be more of a happy ever after.

And a happy ever after is questionable in this story. But justifiably so. It’s a harrowing read that raises many questions, with horrific parallels to modern history. Whilst I wasn’t fully absorbed by the narrative, I thought it was superbly written and would delight many fans of this genre. I think this haunting story will stick with me for a while.

With thanks to HQ Digital and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to extend my gratitude to the author, #NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this advanced reader’s copy in exchange for a frank, fair and honest review.

I absolutely loved this dystopian novel. It was a “couldn’t put down” story for me. I have not read any others by this author but definitely will now. Although this was based on a story, it could just have accurately been based on truth. It sounds like it could be something that happens in the world in the future which is reminiscent of “1984” by George Orwell. No one saw any truth in that story either but look at society and lifestyle now. I loved this book and highly recommend it to everyone. And if you have never read a dystopian thriller then this should be your first one.

This was a good dystopian thriller with a nasty whiff of eugenics in the mix, which I read back to back with Louise Fein’s ‘People Like Us’ so it was interesting to compare the two ‘worlds’ - one real and one imagined. Our narrator Elena is a teacher within a very different teaching system to the one most people are used to - I come from one of the only counties that still uses the 11+ selection exam to route the top 25% of learners into grammar schools. Here children are given a Q or quotient score to be routed to their secondary school learning. Elena is part of the system and teaches in a top banded silver school for children with a high Q score. Green schools take middle band children and then yellow schools house the undesirables. Elena is like most people who support this type of social engineering - she’s in favour of the system until it affects her negatively. With her doctorate education and her husband’s job in the Department of Education she is used to all the privileges that a high quotient brings - better treatment, faster shopping check out etc. So it is with horror that on testing day her daughter Freddie is banded as a low quotient and will be sent to a yellow school.

Her elder daughter Ann is already in a silver school and Elena is struggling to comprehend how this could have happened. However, it’s clear to the reader that this is a case of treating their children differently, oh how I hated Malcolm for this! He really does dote on Ann, seemingly ignoring Freddie who until now has been at a Green school. As a result Freddie is under confident and suffers panic attacks. The thing I hate most about Malcolm is that he’s a classic gas lighter, constantly behaving badly while telling the victim that it isn’t happening. I was furious with him at some points of the novel. He’s one of those people who appear like the ‘reasonable’ party in front of others, making it look like the other person is crazy or hysterical. Elena’s response to Freddie’s demotion to the yellow out of state school, is to fail her next teacher assessment and ensure she is sent to the same school. It’s hard to empathise with her, because it’s taken her a long time to really care about what’s going on in these lower banded establishments. Only now does she realise that the ‘Genics Institute’ is based on eugenics? I found this really difficult to swallow, because Elena is meant to be an intelligent woman, had a part in implementing the system, and starts to find the information online readily enough when she wanted. I wondered if it was a case of denial more than lack of knowledge? She’s even from a German background, with a grandma who grew up in Nazi Germany. It just didn’t make sense to me, even with the excuse that this part of history wasn’t taught at her school.

Perhaps the author was making a point that history will always repeat itself and this ultimately left me slightly depressed for the future. As a disabled person the last few years have been tough, with some disable people killed by austerity measures, lack of care, and now COVID in nursing homes it feels uncomfortably closer to the truth than fiction.

Unfortunately I will not be able to provide a positive review for this book as I was unable to finish it. Not for me.

I can say for certain that this book has a very limited audience. It made me feel incredibly uncomfortable. Conceptually, Q is interesting. I'd class it as a combination of The Maze Runner and Northern Lights in reference to the idea of a corrupt government institution that attempts to control children.

I'll start by comparing it to Vox, as I know many people like to know how a second book compares to a previously popular one. In my opinion, it was miles better. I was actually invested in the story. My issue with Vox was that the main character felt false, only invested in her adulterous relationship rather than in her children's lives. In Q, Elena is absolutely doing this for her daughters and you get to see the maternal bond she shares with them.

Note that Q is by no means a fast-paced book. It's full of action, but the action is very much subdued by rules and regulations that Elena has to follow. It's a slow-moving book, to the point where the first time we get to see something happen that isn't outlined in the synopsis is around 230 pages in. Up until then, you know exactly what will happen because the synopsis already told you. I also find that Q and Vox are formulaic. You have a woman who is in an unhappy marriage but has daughters that she would protect with her life; she works for a corrupt government institution, or has a foot inside; something goes wrong for one of her daughters so she risks her life to save her; she uncovers a darker plot than she imagined; she saves the day but not without some fatality. If you've read one, you've read them both.

Now, the uncomfortable part of the book. This is not a book for you if you don't want to read a literary recreation of concentration camps. Nobody wants to read that. Minor spoilers here, so read with caution! [SPOILER STARTS HERE] This book focuses heavily on eugenics and the concept of disabled people and minorities having 'defective' genes and needing to be controlled by the government so they can't continue to breed. As I said, limited audience. Elena's Oma and Opa are German and they speak in this book about the war. It's hard to get through. In a similar way to the camps, children who are seen as 'defective' are made to wear coloured armbands. [SPOILER ENDS HERE] I suppose I felt uncomfortable because this was too close to 'art' mimicking reality.

The main reason that I dislike most thrillers is that they're often written with unlikeable characters or unreliable narrators, which means I have nobody to root for or to love and I am therefore not invested in the story. I appreciated a lot of the characters in this, perhaps Ruby Jo Pruitt, Lissa Munson and Elena's Oma more than the rest. I loved the scenes that they were in, simply because they were people I actually cared about and it was almost like I needed to know that nothing would happen to them.

Overall, I thought Q was well-written with a solid ending, but definitely a book that you have to be cautious about when you go into it.

Content warnings: ableism, abortion, bullying, domestic abuse, emotional manipulation, fatphobia, forced infertility, gaslighting, homophobia, racism, septicemia, sterilisation, suicide.

Thank you to Christina Dalcher, HQ and Netgalley for providing me with an e-copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

I read and loved Vox last year so Q was a highly anticipated read for me. Overall, I loved the premise and the execution, there were some behaviours and thought processes that I didn't like and felt slightly off to me. But if we put those aside, the book was a really good read, it flew by and I read it in two sittings and spent the time away from the book, thinking about when I could next pick it back up.

I read the synopsis and wondered if I would find this too far fetched for my liking and while the plot does seem to be unrealistic once I got reading its actually quite disturbing and gets you thinking that this sort of thing could actually happen in the future and as a result it makes for a gripping read. It's very well written albeit a bit slow in parts but its a very unique and original novel and would love to see this as a Netflix series!

Gosh, another great book By Christina Dalcher. Whilst VOX was horrifying this book, Q, is chilling in the possibilities. Towards the end it did get more horrifying and I felt it ended quite suddenly - maybe that's because I couldn't put it down and read it at every opportunity and reading into the early hours because I was hooked so finished the book quite quickly.
Very thought provoking and slightly terrifying to think on a more minor scale with a "wrong'un" in power elements of this could surface in real life

Wow! I found this book rather chilling. I thought Dalcher’s previous book fascinating but a bit far fetched - but with Q, I can really see some aspects of that happening in the not-too-distant future.

Absorbing and horrifying at the same time, I was with the mother and rAiling against the father and his policies! A shadow of eugenics passes over this book, but Q is just another thing to add after gender, orientation, colour, physical appearance, family background, geography etc... need i go on?

Got a little slow in places, but overall it’s thought provoking, and well worth a read.

4*

Really interesting concept! Everyone has an intelligence score or 'Q' which decides your status in life.... particularly children who are sperated into either silver, green or yellow schools depending on their ability.

The story follows Elena, a teacher at one of the silver schools, and wife to one of the key figures in the group designing the new system..... as she fights for her daughter who has been suddenly sent to a yellow school.

I found this a very easy read - with enough action to keep me turning the pages.

However it loses 2 stars for me as it reminds me so much of 'The Handmaids Tale'! A different approach maybe but the overall idea of an 'elite' and particularly the fact that the main female 'victim' has so much more to do with the system that is originally shown. Cant say more without spoilers!

Also the ending seems too rushed. A whole system wich has been accepted by a country, is feared by everyone.... is suddenly dismantled in 2 days?! Oh how I wish social change was so fast in real life!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Dalcher’s concept is faultless and gives us an eerie view of our current obsession with academic success. However, as with Vox, I did feel like overcoming the system just came a little too easily. There was never really any doubt that the protagonist could tear it down, which did make the story less believable...

I enjoyed this book, It was a real page turner that gave me chills. A interesting concept that is scarily relatable..

Having enjoyed Dalcher’s previous book I was expecting the same kind of pacy story and wasn’t disappointed. Her thought-provoking dystopian premises result in easy quick reads. Thanks NetGalley!

Such a thought provoking book and so believable, it isn't hard to think this could happen in my lifetime. Students essentially sorted by their IQ but with a darker undercurrent of segregation underneath.

I really enjoyed this book when I started reading it but got to 80% and couldn't finish it. I'm not sure why. I don't even think it was the book. It might be because I have covid and my reading mojo has been affected. Apologies to the author. I LOVED VOX.

I really liked Vox when I read it a couple of years ago, and was thrilled when I first heard of Christina Dalcher’s follow up (not a series, both are standalones.

Q is set in the near future, where “perfection” is everything. It’s a world where exactly what people should aspire to be is defined. Tests and intelligence define a person’s social standing and it’s a continuous battle to maintain those standards. Anybody outside of those standards is deemed a failure.

I love how Dalcher pulls her world together, seamlessly weaving together contemporary elements were familiar with, along with slightly odd and new elements of day to day life.

Wonderfully cleverly written, and terrifying in just how realistic it all seems.

I read Vox a few years back and despite thinking it was an interesting concept, it felt poorly executed. When I saw the synopsis for Q, I remained hopeful that it would be better. Pleased to say, Q was so much better than I expected! Page-turning, chilling and hugely enjoyable, Q is reminiscent of Margaret Atwood in all the right ways. Thanks to HQ and NetGalley for the ARC!

An all too realistic glimpse at what could happen if we were divided by intelligence and treated in different ways according to the test results. Set in a contemporary right wing America where babies are tested pre-birth and children tested at school every month, Q feels like it could happen all too easily. There are clear links made to both Nazi policies and eugenics, and the sense of people voting to save themselves whilst condemning others is strong.
If you enjoyed Vox, this is definitely for you.