Vox, A Scarily Accurate Dystopian Masterpiece
Vox
- Christina Dalcher
When I first saw this I instantly thought of The Hunger Games and the Voxes who have had their tongues cut out as punishment. Anyone else? This was one of my dissertation texts and it fit in with the theme of power and gender so well! So, excuse the slight academic tone to the review, because I have studied this novel inside out.
"But, first the synopsis:
"Silence can be deafening.
Jean McClellan spends her time in almost complete silence, limited to just one hundred words a day. Any more, and a thousand volts of electricity will course through her veins.
Now the new government is in power, everything has changed. But only if you're a woman.
Almost overnight, bank accounts are frozen, passports are taken away and seventy million women lose their jobs. Even more terrifyingly, young girls are no longer taught to read or write.
For herself, her daughter, and for every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice. This is only the beginning..."
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I feel like this is the 21st century's equivalent to The Handmaid's Tale! Dalcher has created such a unique and scarily accurate world that is hard to distinguish from our own. The internal monologue and the sarcastic comments remind me heavily of Offred and her limited means of rebellion.
Also, there are some secret scandalous affairs that occur in both.
I love the storyline of this novel and the way that it completely shakes my expectations and takes me on unexpected journeys.
There are times that you do not envy Jean and her position, there is something terribly heartbreaking about the situation and how real it could be.
I think it was great how there was a huge emphasis on language and speech therapy, it is something new that I have never seen before. I was also interested in how she would carry out the storyline using this theme, and I have to say that the great detail that Dalcher put into her research of language and speech therapy helped the narrative greatly.
Dalcher's writing is so good that you actually hate and love the characters with intense emotion! You can always judge a writing on how intensely they make you feel about a character and she was incredible!
There was the odd moment in the novel where I thought that the narrative was slightly slow and insignificant, but that is just me and they did not impact that story in a substantial manner.
Overall, I am so glad that I had the pleasure of reading this and I can't wait to see what she comes out with next.
5/5
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