ISBN: 9780440000785
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Publication Date: 8/21/2018
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: 4 Stars One of Entertainment Weekly's and SheReads' books to read after The Handmaid's Tale One of Good Morning America's "Best Books to Bring to the Beach This Summer" Set in an America where half the population has been silenced, VOX is the harrowing, unforgettable story of what one woman will do to protect herself and her daughter.
On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed more than 100 words daily, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial--this can't happen here. Not in America. Not to her.
This is just the beginning.
Soon women can no longer hold jobs. Girls are no longer taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words a day, but now women only have one hundred to make themselves heard.
But this is not the end.
For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.
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Praise
“Christina Dalcher’s debut novel, set in a recognizable near future and sure to beg comparisons to Margaret Atwood’s dystopian The Handmaid’s Tale, asks: if the number of words you could speak each day was suddenly and severely limited, what would you do to be heard? A novel ripe for the era of #MeToo, VOX (Berkley) presents an exaggerated scenario of women lacking a voice: in the United States, they are subject to a hundred-word limit per day (on average, a human utters about 16,000). Considering the threat of a society in which children like the protagonist’s six-year-old daughter are deprived of language, VOX highlights the urgency of movements like #MeToo, but also of the basic importance of language.”—Vanity Fair
“VOX is intelligent, suspenseful, provocative, and intensely disturbing - everything a great novel should be.”—Lee Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Chilling and gripping—a real page-turner.”—Karen Cleveland, New York Times bestselling author of Need to Know
“A bold, brilliant, and unforgettable debut.”—Alice Feeney, author of Sometimes I Lie
“With language crystalline and gleaming, and a narrative that really moves, Christina Dalcher both cautions and captivates. The names that come to mind are Margaret Atwood, George Orwell, and Aldous Huxley—had Orwell and Huxley had a taste of the information age. VOX is a book for the dystopic present. It woke me up.”—Melissa Broder, author of The Pisces
“[A] provocative debut...Dalcher’s novel carries an undeniably powerful message.” –Publishers Weekly
“A petrifying re-imagining of The Handmaid's Tale in the present and a timely reminder of the power and importance of language.”—Marta Bausells, ELLE UK
“This book will blow your mind. The Handmaid’s Tale meets Only Ever Yours meets The Power.”—Nina Pottell, Prima
About the Author
Christina Dalcher earned her doctorate in theoretical linguistics from Georgetown University. She specializes in the phonetics of sound change in Italian and British dialects and has taught at several universities.
Her short stories and flash fiction appear in more than one hundred journals worldwide. Recognition includes the Bath Flash Award short list, nominations for the Pushcart Prize, and multiple other awards. She lives in Norfolk, Virginia, with her husband. Read More
