Vox was one of my most anticipated reads of 2018 - I love dystopian fiction, especially the sort that is set in a world very similar to our own, the sort where it could very easily happen.
Q is set in America - no timeline is given but it felt very current or maybe just a little bit in the future. In this version of America, every child has to undergo routine tests for their quotient or Q and any child who doesn't measure up is sent to the new government schools. The idea being that teachers can focus on the gifted children, without the distractions of children who don't meet the grade.
Elena Fairchild is a teacher at an elite school. She is married to Malcolm who is high up in the Department of Education and they have two daughters. Anne is beautiful, ambitious, hard working and perfect. She works hard to keep her place in her elite school and looks destined for big things. Freddie is 10 years old and goes to one of the State's green schools - she has to work harder than Anne to keep up the high scores and suffers from anxiety, especially on the test days which happen every month.
When Freddie doesn't get the required score one test day, she is sent to one the government schools. These are essentially boarding schools, often many miles away from home. Parents are rarely allowed to visit and there is no way of communicating with your child. Elena is horrified and begs Malcolm to use his influence to stop it happened but he refuses. So Elena finds she has to choose between her daughters. When she sits her test (which she has to take in order to continue her elite teacher position) she purposely fails and gets herself sent to the same school where Freddie is, and what she finds there is terrifying.
We also hear how this system came into being. Elena herself was a very bright child - but not popular and often ignored by her peers. When her school brought in a system where the brightest kids get their own line in the cafeteria, we find Elena and her friends gloated at the kids who had to queue in the longer line, enjoying their own superiority. We also hear how it is possible to test foetuses for their likely intelligence and how women choose to abort their babies if they don't meet the grade (with the blessing the of government.)
When I saw Dalcher had written another novel, I was very excited especially when I read the blurb and was thrilled to get a proof. Q completely lived up to all my expectations - it is the sort of book that you read with your mouth open in horror! It is the sort of plot that I could imagine the current president reading and thinking it was a good idea!
Elena's grandmother is German and the links with what is happening in this book and what went on in Nazi Germany are truly chilling. It also touches on a part of American history that I didn't know about - how eugenics was practiced from the late 19th century until the second world war. Children from poor families, mixed race families and with disabilities were often send to schools for the feeble minded. Forced sterilisation was common. Reading more around this history is horrifying.
Q was exciting and perfectly executed. I read it very quickly and I think it would make an excellent film. It made me wonder where I would fit in such a system - I think I would probably of been destined for the state school as child! It is the sort of book I won't stop thinking about for sometime and I hope this sort of thing doesn't feature in any of our futures!

I loved Vox - a dystopian novel where women are only allowed to speak 100 words a day - so I was really excited to read Q, Dalcher's second novel.

In this book every person is tested regularly to find out their quotient (Q) score. Q is based on intelligence but is also affected by your family, income and even punctuality. Schools are tiered, with the top students going to the silver schools and getting the best quality education, materials and even lunches. Middling students go to green schools, and lowest scoring students go to yellow schools - a government boarding school far away from home. The score impacts adults too - it affects job prospects, relationships and even queue times in the supermarket.

Elena's family are all top scorers - her husband is the education secretary who devised the system - until her youngest daughter is sent off to a yellow school. Elena decides to follow her daughter to find out what really happens at government schools and to bring her daughter back.

I really enjoyed this book but was surprised that the story didn't really get going until about 60% of the way in. It meant that a lot of the adventure and drama happened quite quickly. It was a really well thought out system though, and the world and characters were really well built. There were a lot of similarities with Vox - in both story and protagonist - so if you enjoyed that, you will probably appreciate this.

Another exceptional read from Christina Dalcher, if you enjoyed Vox, you'll like this too.

Q imagines American society, not far from the contemporary state, where intelligence is everything. Foetuses are tested to predict their "Q", you're encouraged to choose a partner based on brainpower alone, and everyone in society is judged by their Q. Children are tested on a monthly basis and allocated to three tiers of education - silver, green, or the dreaded yellow; teachers are tested similarly.

For Elena, a teacher in a silver school, she hits the unthinkable, with a yellow bus bound for her house to collect her beloved youngest daughter. The story is heartbreaking and compelling, a thorough and scary exploration of eugenics in a contemporary setting, much of it based on the truth.

With beautifully written characters, and a narrative that pulls you onward, this is a great read.

A well written and thought provoking book. It feels important that each generation should have a eugenics novel to acquaint them with the past and ensure it remains a dystopian future rather than an accepted reality
Thank you to netgalley and HQ books for an advance copy of this book

the book is about a couple of teenagers who didnt like that they werent the most popular, pretty or part of the in crowd. This is a geeks will inherit and run the world story.

We are thrust into a world where your life is based on scores, your IQ score, attendance is scored and if you step out of line you family will suffer the consequenses. Elena is lucky. Shes one of the elite, high scores, good top and her husband is in a powerful position at work. What could go wrong?

The answer is obvious really – Everything. The expectation to ahve two perfect daughters, always be at work on time, never miss a beat. Its not realistic. Fighting the system is harder.

This is an interesting view on how society treats people who are different, be it their background, percieved intelligence or sexual orientation. There are links to history and the ethos instilled in the Hitler regime. This is a reminder that just because someone is different, or has a different type of knowledge it doesnt make them any less.

I read this book in an afternoon because I was so engrossed in it – and its just a little better becasue the ending it completely not what I expected.

‘Are we born like this? Or are we taught? Either answer is horrible in its own way’.

When Elena’s daughter is downgraded to a feared State School because her ‘Q’ level isn’t high enough, she risks everything to find her. But what dark secrets will she uncover along the way?

Having missed out on getting the ARC of Vox also by Christina Dalcher recently I was really excited to read Q instead. It reminded me heavily of the Black Mirror episode ‘Nosedive’ where a woman who has always been an advocate for a government rating system learns how bad it is when she finds herself on the other side. As world building and plotting go Q is a strong read, it’s also really well written in an engaging way that had me finish it in almost one sitting (#QuarantineLife). I enjoyed the pacing and the stakes are kept high all the way through including the end, although it seemed to tie everything up a little too neatly in places!

I had no idea the American Eugenics Movement was real – we weren’t taught about it at school (although admittedly I am from the UK) and it is a terrifyingly dark part of the US’ history. It was a good idea to have the book show that we can create parallels for this kind of story without using Nazi Germany. The book also highlighted how certain ideas could grow in popularity for seemingly normal (if selfish) reasons and be pushed through legislation before people can realise the darker intent which seems very relevant to Trump’s America or Britain’s Brexit as well.

My main criticism with this book was that it finished too quickly! I would have liked to have gotten a little more description and chapters set in the State school – I felt like we spent a lot of the book building up to going there and then never actually found out very much about it. I also felt that the villains were a little too pantomime-y in places – Malcolm for example, has no redeeming features even in the flashback episodes! It would perhaps have been nice to see a little shade to his character progression with something redeemable from his past.

Overall Q is a dark look at our society; past, present and future, and is a gripping and thought provoking read. Thank you to NetGalley & HQ Stories for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

OKay this was WAY better than Vox. The pacing was so much better. I DNF'd Vox but I still appreciated how well written it was, and this is exactly the same. Very well written, really well thought-out characters and a harrowing and distressing story. It invoked so much anger in me at the villains in this story. Urgh I want to punch so many of them.

Glad I read it!

This is my most anticipated book release this year. It is a novel that is every bit as intriguing as the cover. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel more than Christina’s first, titled VOX. I think Q is better. The story is much more than the tagline – ‘only the perfect will survive.’

There are some deep and thought-provoking messages within its pages that really made me sit up straight and say, “Oh my this feels real.” and therefore is a book you must read.

The writing is fluid and paces the key events right to give you just enough of the secrets and plot twists within. At first, I was unsure where this story could go as we follow from Elena’s perspective, which means you don’t always get a full picture of events. However, as Elena’s narrative moves along you see how her character evolves as more layers of the story are peeled away. As the plot thickens what is revealed is something deeply disturbing.

This novel is out at the end of April, pre-order yours now, you won’t be disappointed. Truly terrific.

I knew that after reading Vox a couple of years ago that I would be really interested in the next book that Christina Dalcher wrote and as soon as I saw the description for Q I knew it was going to be another good one. It is definitely a contender for one of my favourite books this year.

I think what really gives me chills about this book is that it is utterly terrifying but you can’t help but keep your eyes glued to the page. It was a polarising reading experience for me, one the one hand I was desperate to know how Elena gets through the situations she finds herself in but at times I felt such intense anger that I also wanted to put the book down and walk away. To say that I went through the whole gamut of emotions with Q is a bit of an understatement.

Another scary thing about this authors work is that it draws on a few very frightening historic narratives that gives extra weight to what she writes, like what happens is a foregone conclusion and that really fuels every feeling that you will have alongside this book, anger, fear, and hatred for a scheme that is trying to eradicate everything that is human.

Elena was a character that I could really empathise with, I enjoyed getting to see her present and her past and seeing the mistakes and choices that she has made and how that has affected her and what she believes, it made me have a hard think about how some choices can really change the course of your life and others. I think because I could see some of the mistakes that I have made at some point in my life reflected through Elena, it fully invested me in her story and had me hoping like mad for a positive outcome.

I don’t want to say too much more because this is definitely a story that you will want to experience for yourself and I won’t lie it is a tough pill to swallow at times but with brilliant writing, a clever but chilling story and characters that you want to succeed, in my opinion it is worth it. I have to say even though I know I will be put through the emotional wringer I am looking forward to seeing what Christina Dalcher will come up with next.

I've read several books where segregating children on the basis of intelligence (or other traits, for that matter) is a key element or a byproduct of the story. Most of them are middle-grade reads, often nominated for Newbury prizes. This isn't like them. It's also not a middle grade read.  It's horrific.

Ms Dalcher writes a mean novel. She writes mean husbands who you'd love to strangle, and a lot of other very well-crafted bit-players who you know well. Just like the 'guard' on the gate of the yellow school, fat belly wobbling over his waistband. I am very attached to my fat belly, but along with the rest of the description, well, you know this person.

You know all these people.  Even with my infamous distancing from people, I know them, I relate to them, and I'm screaming at Elena the whole time not to do it, or to get out, or why did you ever...? Her daughters were just like my nieces, or a friend's super-intelligent pair. The system they are locked into is such a logical extension of our world that it was frighteningly real. The testing is a system I would fail in. Maybe most readers will feel that

The whole system is excellently put together; the people shine out of their descriptions, the progression into dire straits is so inevitable...  It may be classed as a thriller, but I think it's horror.  Horrifyingly possible. Read it in a safe place.

This was my first Christina Dalcher book and it will not be my last.


Q is a book that made me think.  It made me look into the past and feel concern over the future.  Its a work of fiction that straddles reality.


The story focuses on Elena and is set in a world where people are graded not only in school, but in work too throughout adult life.  Elena soon discovers what happens when a grade gets lower, and it tears her world apart.


The story speaks to me on so many levels, as its an echo of our most disturbing times in human history, yet a chilling and foreboding vision of what can so easily happen in the future to our world.


I read this book in one sitting, and when I finished reading I then started looking back at some of the instances the book talks about in recent history.  Its a chilling and thought provoking read that I would highly recommend it.


Thank you to Net Galley and HQ for an advanced copy of the book.  The book is published on 30 April 2020.

I loved the authors debut book Vox even though I don’t normally read dystopian fiction so was very excited to read Q. Unfortunately, this was only a so so read for me. The main characters and the overall premise felt too similar to Vox. It read like a rehash with the difference being in this dystopian future perfection is the end goal of the lawmakers rather than the repression of women. At least the ending wasn’t as rushed in this one, unlike in her first book. I don’t think I will read another one by this author. Not for me.

I really enjoyed the debut novel by Dalcher, VOX, so was immediately interested in this second novel of hers. I did think that her initial novel was slightly less strong in the second half, but that the premise and plot was fascinating and well thought out.

I actually enjoyed Q more. I didn't think that it slowed down in the second half at all, which is a welcome change from Dalcher's first novel. While the characters were unfortunately a little flat (and very similar to the main characters in VOX), I found that the plot was stronger in Q. I found myself gripped by the premise and the journey of the main character to help her daughter.

What is your Q score?

Everyone is tested monthly, at school and work to find your score. It’s based on IQ, your timeliness (you lose points if you’re late for class or work), health and family wealth.

Elena is a teacher, her husband Malcolm works in the Department of Education, so Elena’s score is improved by his status. They have two daughters, Anne and Freddie, both are doing well, even if Freddie needs a little help. But then Freddie’s score inexplicably drops…..with terrible consequences.

Q is a dystopian thriller, that’s truly terrifying as it feels so possible. In these current times we hear that if you are no longer young and healthy, you are expendable, so what if someone decided only those with a specific IQ, health and social standing score were worth life? It’s then only a small step away from the eugenics of Q.

But, this is also the tale of maternal love, how far will Elena go to keep Freddie safe?

I found Q to be a gripping, disturbing thriller and I read this in one sitting, I just had to know how it was going to end…..oh my !

It’s well written, with great characters and a very clever plot. I loved Elena, even with her spiteful past, Lissa and Ruby Jo are brilliant and Malcolm is a truly despicable excuse of a man, which makes this a tense, terrifying and heartbreaking read. Utterly compelling.

Thank you to HQ, the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read Q for free. This is my honest and unbiased review.

Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true!

Elena, her husband Malcolm, and their two daughters Anne, and Freddie live in a world where everyone has a Q. Your Q decides what school you go to and where you are allowed to work. You are tested every month and if your Q score drops then you are moved to a lower rated school or lose your job.

This is a thought provoking dystopian tale about eugenics that will leave you gasping and questioning society and how easily we can fall into new rules.

Highly recommended!

I was very happy to receive an ARC of Christine Dalchers new book "Q" as I really enjoyed Vox. The dystopian theme is continued in Q where in society your value is based on how high your education al scores and how high earning your job is in other words your Quotient. The story revolves around Elena and Malcolm Fairchild and their daughters Anne and Freddie. Schools are divided into 3 colours silver, green and yellow. Elena teaches in a silver school and the girls attend schools in the same tier. Staying at silver is hard both pupils and teachers are required to take tests monthly to stay top of the heap. Malcolm, Elena's husband works at the Department of Education and is a true believer of the Quotient system as promoted by his superior Madeleine Sinclair. There are multiple strands in the story, how easy it is to manipulate people into endorsing a system that is racist, albeist and misogynistic. Elena's grandmother's German past, Elena's own lack of self esteem when she was younger and what happens when one of your adored children doesn't make the grade. Q examines our ability as a society to be convinced that once you are top of the hill, that's where you belong and anybody whose ability and chances are not equal to yours belongs lower down the chain. Q made me think how easy it is to be judgemental and regard others as lesser. Q is also full of great characters and surprisingly humour as well. I am a fan of dystopian fiction generally and am certainly a fan of Christine Dalcher's books. I wasn't disappointed with Q and I believe you won't be either.#Q #Netgalley

Q by Christina Dalcher
I rate this book 4 stars
After reading Vox l was very excited to get a chance to read another dystopian book by the same author.
ONLY THE PERFECT WILL SURVIVE!
Everyone must undergo routine tests for their quotient, Q, and any children who don’t measure up are placed into new government schools. Instead, teachers can focus on the gifted.
Its certainly something that is extremely disturbing,scary and gets you thinking!
I read this quickly and it had me hooked from the first to the last page.Make sure you read the authors note at the end! Highly recommended.....tense,powerful,
gripping and tragic!
With thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publishers

Elena is married to Malcolm her child hood sweetheart, but things have changed beyond recognition, everything depends on the Q result is it high or is it low, people with a low Q result are the lowest in society seen as stupid and unworthy, children with a low Q are sent away to state schools with no visiting from their parents. When Elenas daughter Freddie fails her test and is sent to a state school, Elenas motherly instincts roar into life to save her.

A fantastic book. Much much better than Vox. Thank you for allowing me to review I have thoroughly enjoyed Q and can’t wait for Christina’s next book.

BOOK REVIEW: Q by @cvdalcher
4 stars

Christina Dalcher is the new queen of dystopian literature. I thought her first book Vox was brilliant but Q blew me away.
I didn't know the background surrounding the horrific inspiration for this book and I won't say about it as it would give away spoilers. What I will say is that I think everyone should read this book! The best kind of dystopian fiction are based on modern day truths, which is what made this book so gripping and heartbreaking.
The writing is fantastic, the storyline utterly compelling and I could not put it down. I felt a real connection to the lead female character Elena. She is a smart, brave and strong woman that just wants to take care of her girls. Her character made me feel real emotion and I doubt anyone could read this book without feeling emotional.
This is not an easy read, so if you get triggered by anything involving abuse, then it is not the book for you.

Thank you Christina and HQ for such a powerful read.

Please note that I was gifted this book in exchange for an honest review.

"It started with fear, and it ended with laws."
I love dystopian fiction, and Christina Dalcher does these kinds of nightmarish scenarios brilliantly. In Q, it starts as a way of improving education and reducing overcrowding in schools, ensuring that all children are taught at the appropriate level for their abilities. Segmenting children in this way is not a new idea, but Dalcher takes it to extremes in this novel as children are assigned to a silver, green, or yellow school depending upon their Q – quotient – with regular testing to ensure that standards are maintained. In this way, those children who are perhaps a little slower to learn for whatever reason are no longer subjected to the same pressure as the child prodigies, and the latter group isn’t held back by those who need more attention. It even makes a certain amount of sense when put in those terms, and that’s one of the things that makes this such a fantastic story – it’s worryingly plausible.

"We are not all the same."
It’s not just children that that are assigned a Q score and tested regularly – everyone has one, and this determines a great deal, even down to mundane things such as which queue at the supermarket checkout you can use. For children, it determines the school that they attend and who teaches them, with the top tier schools looking for teachers with a PhD in order to qualify. Even unborn children are assigned a Q score, and if you’re not happy with how your child might turn out, well… there are options available to you. Your Q score is based upon various factors – knowledge, but also wealth and family composition as the Fitter Families Campaign dictates that children need two parents – one male, one female – in order to thrive.

I don’t want to say too much about the plot, but, at the beginning of the novel, Elena Fairchild is a teacher at a top tier school, and her daughters both have excellent Q scores. That is until the latest round of testing when her youngest daughter, Freddie, fails to make the grade. Deliberately failing her own test in order to join Freddie, she is forced to remove her rose-tinted glasses and finally begins to understand what the tier system means for those with the lowest scores. It’s brilliantly done, and horrifyingly plausible. Nor is it entirely fictional, as it touches upon ideas of eugenics that were around not that long ago.

Dalcher’s characters are fantastic – as with VOX I found that they evoked a whole range of emotions from sympathy to all-consuming anger (Malcolm). I really liked Elena, who even before she understands exactly what is happening doesn’t seem to entirely believe in the system. There were, however, elements to Elena’s character that made me question my judgement, and I loved that she’s shown with all the shades of grey you can find in a person. Despite this, I thought that her decision to deliberately fail her own test was utterly selfless, particularly as she sacrifices what is an incredibly comfortable position to do so.

I think that anyone who enjoyed VOX will also enjoy Q. There are some similarities in the structure, although I found the plot to be quite different. This is a novel that I read through in no time at all – I found it to be utterly engaging and terrifying for its plausibility. I thoroughly enjoyed it.