A well-written science fiction. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys futuristic but still realistic novels.

This was an eye-opening crazy read I wasn’t prepared for! All women have been silenced, limited to 100 words a day.  All rights have been stripped or assigned to the husband to manage. This story was a shocking “what if” tale and it held my interest from start to finish.

With Vox by Christina Dalcher being compared heavily to Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale I decided that in order to do an accurate review I needed to push myself to actually read The Handmaid’s Tale all the way through before picking up this title. I know many have loved Atwood’s take on a dystopian future in which women were treated as property but had tried it before and didn’t care for the style. My second attempt did nothing to improve my feelings however and I was left with a rather unfavorable opinion which I’ll admit did worry me still having to read Vox.

After sitting down with Vox it became immediately apparent to me that my feelings were going to be drastically different with this title. The very first thing I noticed was the writing style flowed a lot easier than Atwood’s had and with that it made immersing myself into Dalcher’s world a lot easier of a transition than I’d experienced with Atwood’s world. The stories are similar in the generalist of comparisons but Dalcher has brought the idea into this era in time to make it easier to relate to.

Vox opens introducing readers to Dr. Jean McClellan who has been downgraded from her status as a leading doctor in her field of study to nothing more than a housewife cooking and cleaning and caring for her four children. With flashbacks into the past readers are given a look at how this world could have possibly come about where women are closely monitored and punished if they dare to speak more than 100 words a day. With a husband and three sons you easily see the comparison to how males are treated to how Jean and her young daughter are treated.

Writing styles aside between these two books Vox still wins hands down as my favorite for giving a reader the hows and whys to the world peppered throughout the story. Atwood’s title left me frustrated and annoyed with every turn of the page because it felt like the shock factor of the story was supposed to entertain me enough that I wouldn’t want to know why women didn’t fight back or how it came to be at all. As Vox goes on it really felt as if the author gave voice to the little questions that would plague me all the while weaving a tale that captured my attention and gained my sympathy to the character. And then when finished I will just say the outcome was also a lot more satisfying this time around too leaving me to rate Vox at 4.5 stars. I’d definitely say give this one a chance whether you actually were a fan of the original or only a fan of the concept.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Well, this was a let-down. It started out really good, almost a second "Handmaid's Tale" in its own way, but with the silencing of women instead of the childbearing. The plot was good enough to keep me reading until the end, but I was more and more disappointed as the book went on. I never warmed to the main character, and the romance subplot was really not great. The whole thing was just kind of flat, with unrealistic science and too-easy plot devices. (Admittedly, I'm not a science, so I could be wrong on the science part, but it didn't seem plausible to me.) The ending was particularly disappointing, with the main character effectively being rescued and spirited away without any real growth as a person. The husband was got rid of too neatly; the whole ending had too much of a deus-ex-machina feel too it. There are better books with this same theme - my recommendation would be to skip this one.

As someone who is drawn to science fiction, this was a fun read for me. The "Handmaid's Tale" vibe hooked me right from the get go... especially given the issues breeding in the United States right now- voices that have been silent are speaking out: feminist marches, #metoo movement, LGBTQ community etc. The whole concept intrigued me, though a little far-fetched that women would be forced to wear bands to monitor their communication (limited to 100 words per day).  However, I appreciated the way Dalcher portrayed a futuristic America and its slow transformation in removing women from society. Maddening. Scary. 
My issues came in the last half of the novel- the plot seemed to fall in line a little too easily. The coincidences and rushed ending (though fast-paced and exciting) made me drop my rating to 3 stars. 
Thank you to #NetGalley for the advance reader copy of #vox. All opinions are my own.

When I first heard about Vox months ago, it was in an ad in a Shelf Awareness email on April 1, and I originally thought it was a part of the April Fools fun. The premise of a dystopian America in the near future where women can only speak one hundred words a day is so outlandish that I didn't believe anyone would actually attempt to write that book. I was thrilled to discover it was a real book, and I was looking forward to something similar to The Handmaid's Tale or (the less successful, but still good) The Power.

Unfortunately, Vox failed me on every front. The premise of this book sets it up as an issue book, but the issues are never explored. The characters are underdeveloped, with some actual "bad guys" and a character who pulls a huge decision out of left field that is contrary to everything he represents but that conveniently moves the story forward. Many of the plot points were forced and/or unbelievable. I was annoyed when the book would sometimes preach at me—in the form of the main character lamenting her lack of political activism in the past. There was one lost opportunity in particular that had me throwing my arms up in frustration: early in the novel, there is a scene (Jean reading a bedtime story to Sonia) that is simply mentioned instead of presented. It was such a fantastic (missed) opportunity for us to experience Jean's vulnerability. It would have added so much depth to her character for us to see how a mother who hasn't been able to talk freely to her daughter for the last year would talk.

The premise behind this book really is fascinating. Readers who enjoy thrillers might not be as bothered as I was about some of the thriller tropes in this novel (the team tasked to save the world, secret plans, etc.). But I felt that those tropes along with obvious flaws in the structure and the writing cheapened what would have been more successful as a serious issue novel.

In the same vein as A handmaid's Tale, Vox is the story of a dystopian America where the female population is oppressed after a newly elected president and his cronies take steps to bring back the old days when women had no rights. Women are no longer allowed to work outside the home. They can still drive, and go to the grocery store, they can still care for their children, but they are allotted only 100 words per day and there is severe punishment should they speak more than that. They can not read, even instructions from their own doctors will be sealed in an envelope addressed to their husbands. Mail is also only for husbands. Children still attend school but with drastic differences for boys and girls.  There is punishment for sex before marriage, and outside of marriage, and for being homosexual. As Jean tries to do what she can to raise her children under such circumstances, she becomes aware that there is an even more sinister plan in the works. With the current divisiveness in the states this was certainly a timely read.

According to my lazy Google search, the average woman speaks around 20,000 words/day. In this frightening precautionary tale, women are restricted to speaking less than 100 words a day. Overage? Painful electrical shocks will be dealt from the Fitbit style wrist counter you're wearing. 

The premise is strong and all too real in this alternative reality where women's rights are slowly chipped away by a strong tide of religious fundamentalism until finally, we quite literally lose the language needed to speak up for ourselves. 

After the Pure Movement takes hold in political offices nationwide, women lose their rights to hold jobs or bank accounts. Girls are not allowed to study science in school. Females are effectively shut out of society by taking away our words. SHUDDER SHUDDER SHUDDER.

What happens when the country's leading linguist happens to be a woman and is called out of her forced retirement by the President himself? What does he want from Dr. Jean McClellan, a mother of four and our fearless narrator? Well, that my friends is the story.

I wanted to love this book. As VOX begins, I got definite The Handmaid's Tale vibes and I was thrilled with the idea of this timely narrative (#metoo). I had almost too much hope that it would be more powerful or meaningful than it ultimately is. 

The execution of the story gets so bogged down with technical, boring details that the whole plot feels, ironically, mansplained. Artemis left me feeling the same way. 

About 50% into the book, I felt so disconnected from the characters and the story, that it became a chore to finish. I really can't even offer much explanation for it either. I seem to be in the minority and if you are intrigued by VOX, I would not dissuade you from going for it. It is initially eye-opening, but for me, it just doesn't sustain the suspense or believability factor. 

VOX is scheduled to hit the shelves on August 21, 2018. Thanks to NetGalley for my early copy. All opinions are my own.

This book has a fascinating and well executed premise and Christina Dalcher is without a doubt a very gifted writer. But while the world she's created with Vox is certainly a frighteningly believable one there's a triteness and convenience to this story that ultimately pulled me out of the world too much and too often for it to have a real, lasting impact.

Dalcher's character's are just a shade too stereotypical and their actions too predictable. Our heroine is Dr. Jean McClellan, a neuroscientist who is tops in her field. She specializes in the study and treatment of aphasia. Aphasia occurs as a result of brain damage and affects the afflicted person's ability to comprehend and use language. 

This is super convenient because Dr. McClellan is now part of a United States where women are only allowed to say 100 words a day or risk a series of increasingly horrific electric shocks via the counters they are forced to wear on their arms. She's also no longer a doctor and like all women in the US must now accept her true, god given role as home maker and more or less silent servant to her husband. 

But how did this happen? Throughout the book Jean reminds the reader that "we never saw this coming" though we don't get much information about the actual rise of the current administration who in addition to regulating women's ability to speak have also stopped allowing anyone (women) to leave the country, hold jobs of any kind, and do the most mundane tasks like get the mail (wouldn't want women reading things now would we). They're also encouraging the youth in the country (who are being radically indoctrinated with far right religious propaganda and encouraged to engage in daily contests to see which girl has the lowest word count on her counter and forced to watch living examples of what happens if you go over your word count) to turn in anyone who doesn't obey the rules or even looks like they're doing something they shouldn't even if its their friends or parents.

We get some little hints of Jean's old life when she was a college student with a super feminist friend who said a lot of things like "wake up Jean!" and was always going to marches for things but Jean was too caught up in her education and desire to better the world with science to pay attention. This is another convenient, trite characterization that just didn't work for me. Characters in this world see things as either entirely good or entirely bad. Jean is stupid and blind for not being an activist protester like her friend. Her friend is a hero for organizing marches and publicly denouncing oppressing women. 

Also conveniently Jean's husband just happens to be the president's science advisor, again we don't find out how or why or anything, this is just what he does. So Jean's perfectly placed to come to the governments aid when a high placed advisor to the president abruptly develops, you guessed it, aphasia its all just a little too neat for me.

So there aren't a lot of surprises here. Dalcher is a very good writer and she definitely nails some truly horrific moments of daily life in Jean's world that made my skin crawl. But that gets hampered by the bigger picture stuff that plays too much like a smart action movie for my taste. I'm much more interested in how a world likes this plays out for the regular people just going about their lives. 

Unfortunately when that does happen its mostly Jean having dramatic fights with her radicalized teenage son or dealing with her dishrag, sycophant husband who just wants things to be "normal."

I wish Dalcher had trusted her own premise and literary skills a little more. She hit on a simple and very believable idea that is truly horrifying because it seems entirely plausible. Because its the kind of thing we would all hear about and go "that's absurd, no one would stand for that" or "that is total nonsense! You can't take away someone's ability to talk!" and then we'd go back to retweeting and declaring our political positions via sarcastic bumper stickers. 

I do appreciate Dalcher's hopeful approach to the horrors she visits on her characters. There is a bright thread of hope that runs through the blackness of this world that we only ever seem to see in the midst of great tragedy or upheaval. Even if we allow the darkness to fall we will not let it stay and we will not let it break us. The worst that the universe visits upon us often brings out the absolute best in us. That's a very good, very strong statement to make and it really does shine through in this story.

Thank you NetGalley, Berkley Publishing Group, and Christina Dalcher for the pre-pub access.

This was a very good and rather frightening book, about a possible immediate future, in which the women and girls of America are forced to leave their jobs, return to the home environment, and to wear electronic shock bracelets which reduce them to one hundred words a day, or less. A Pure society lead by a weak President and zealous Reverend is forcefully reversing history back to when "things were better," when women were submissive to their husbands (and all men).

The book is admittedly influenced by Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, but just as much by the currently political and social status of America, which is what makes this book not only so frightening but compelling.

Are you a fan of The Handmaid's Tale? Enjoy dystopian fiction? Vox may be the book for you. Set in a not-too-distant future America where the Bible Belt conservatives have taken the White House, and women's rights have plummeted to all time lows. The premise of the book is women are now limited to speaking 100 words a day - and wear "enforcing" electronic wrist bands to make sure they do not exceed their daily quota. Women are also no longer in the work force, and birth control, premarital sex, and more are all taboo. Homosexuals? Adulterers? they now live in remote work camps in places like Maine or North Dakota, and they were wrist bands to enforce no speech at all. 
When main character (former doctor of linguistics and language) Dr. Jean McClellan is suddenly called back into service to help the President's brother recover his speech after a brutal skiing accident, she realizes all is not what it appears to be. Adding to the mix, Jean is having an affair with a colleague, a revolution simmering, and Jean's concerns about her children and her husband. The ending is a little over the top, but the book will keep you riveted to the pages. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an e-book to review.

Thank you berkley publishing for allowing me to read Vox in exchange for my review.

Welcome to dystopian America, where woman are chained to a counter bracelet and defined by the few words they are allotted in 24 hours. Dr. Jean McClellan is an American linguistic scientist and mother of a daughter herself. Both of them are forced by this 100 word law where her husband and three other sons go about their daily business. Jean is suddenly approached by the President’s team and asked to come back to work to use her skills. Now that she has some power back, can she fight the system?

There’s something about this novel that I just can’t put my finger on. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it. The politics in this novel were over my head. I couldn’t follow them because they were so outrageous. The possibility of how quickly the law came into effect was just not believable. On the other hand, the feminist inside of me wanted to keep on reading. I had to make sure women got their say in the end with all my anger built up inside. I normally really enjoy science jargon in literature being a scientist by trade, but this bored me. I enjoyed the family relationship between Jean, her husband, and her children. The emotions they experienced were the most real thing in this book. They were completely heartfelt. I mean, to not be able to read to your daughter each night or comfort her when she’s sad? That got me right in the feels. In the end, this wouldn’t be something I would most likely pick up again.

3.5/5 Stars

I did not love this book the way I had hoped to love it based on the description of the plot. I found the characters to be rather flat, and the premise that women could be made to wear these word-count bracelets was intriguing, but never fully explained. Or rather, HOW all of this happened in so short a time was not fully explained. I wanted to be sucked into this world and made to believe this could happen and the how and why of it all. The beginning of the book made me feel nervous and a little bit afraid of the political climate we are living in but that little bit of fear was quickly banished by the inconsistencies in the writing. That thing the author does (too many times) where you are reading a detailed description of something that happened, and then are told, “No, that isn’t really what happened,” and then get a different version of what happened, became annoying very quickly. There were too many characters who suddenly went from menacing to being allies at JUST the right moment, the message of the story was too heavy handed, and the ending was way to easy, too neat, and too predictable. I wanted a build-up of righteous anger, and didn’t get, so the whole thing ws a terrible let-down. The author had an intriguing premise, but didn’t deliver.

Vox examines the price of literally silencing women with a bracelet that shocks them once they hit 100 words a day. What happens when a baby girl goes over her limit? What does forced silence do to a young girl? What does this bracelet mean for a highly trained scientist? And what happens when the bracelet is taken off the scientist’s wrist while she works on a cure for the president’s brother’s rare brain condition?  Will she sacrifice her family for the chance of a new unrestricted life? Will she ever stop talking again? Will she find a way to

Wow. Just... wow.

When I read The Handmaid's Tale when it first came out, my thought was that we weren't there, but we could be. And Vox gave me the same feeling (the science and technology aren't there yet, but give them a few years and... *shivver*). 

Read this. Look at the rhetoric that's coming out of several of our politicians, including the President. Then fight.

eARC provided by publisher.

Vox, though a bit heavy-handed at times, is a pretty spot-on attempt to catalog the fears of our country and culture in 2018. Obvious references will be made to the Handmaid's Tale to which the book certainly owes some textural inspiration. It also reminded me of another strong book that flew a bit lower under the radar, When I Woke by Hillary Jordan. All three novels confront an extremist society that has eventually run amok after years of rapid but steady decline. All deal with the thought process that has preceded most societal collapses and humanitarian crises - that things could never get as bad as what we imagine to be the worst case scenario. But sometimes, as we unfortunately know, they do. Vox picks up at this tipping point and reimagines much of our country's current strife through a lens of totalitarianism, while retaining a realistic, hopeful optimism. The sci-fi vehicle hammers home the feminist perspective of the novel - one that is greatly appreciated. It is refreshing to read a female author who is unabashedly utilizing feminist ideals to comment on current affairs. The genre itself is even greater affirmation that strong women are leading the charge. I believe I read somewhere that Dalcher wrote this book very quickly to respond to current events. That is admirable in my opinion. While churning out a book quickly means that it may lose some nuance and finesse, it also means that the response it gives is up-to-the-minute. Bravo Ms. Dalcher - we need you right now.

Jean was once a respected scientist, focusing on neurological research that could reverse aphasia.  Now, she is restricted to speaking 100 words a day, not allowed to work, and expected to be subservient to her husband.  To make matters worse, her daughter, and all the women throughout America have also been silenced.  When the president's brother suffers a brain injury, the government comes to her with a deal, continue her research, and her restrictions will be lifted until she finds a cure.

This was a fascinating book.  Jean was such a realistic character, I really felt her pain and struggles.  It was really interesting to read how society ended up this way.  I look forward to reading more from this author.  Overall, highly recommended.

I think that most readers will like this book, especially if you're searching for a strong female lead.  For my patrons who liked Girl on a Train and (maybe somewhat obviously) A Handmaid's Tale, I will recommend this book.  Unfortunately for me, it was not a hit.  I will not go into many details because I don't want to give the book away, but there seemed to be some unnecessary tangents that took away from the main storyline and the ending wrapped up all too nicely with a big bow around it in a very short period; it just didn't make sense when I saw how many pages were left and wondered how the book would come to a close with so few pages..  I will say again, though, I do think I am an exception and that others will get caught up in this scary utopia.

It’s okay.  It reminds me too much of the premise of “The Handmaid’s Tale”.  I feel like I am reading a different version of the “The Handmaid’s Tale” but not as interesting or as much action. Which, to me, makes it boring. It’s very slow moving. Unfortunately I would not recommend this book to friends.

When women are no longer part of the work force and are limited to 100 spoken words each day, powerful men rule with fear and conformity, as 1984 meets A Handmaid's  Tale.  Scary.