Beauty & The Books

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....

Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandle  This is a text that was on my set reading for my Literature and Theory module and I just fell utterly in love with thsi novel! Before we get into the review here is a little synopsis from Book Depositary: Buy the book HERE! " What was lost in the collapse: almost everything, almost everyone, but there is still such beauty. One snowy night in Toronto famous actor Arthur Leander dies on stage whilst performing the role of a lifetime. That same evening a deadly virus touches down in North America.  The world will never be the same again.  Twenty years later Kirsten, an actress in the Travelling Symphony, performs Shakespeare in the settlements that have grown up since the collapse.  But then her newly hopeful world is threatened.  If civilization was lost, what would you preserve? And how far would you go to protect it? " Okay so now you are as hooked into the story as much as I was, I will te...

As you can probably tell this review is about 3 novels from the dystopian genre that will greatly impact your life. You guys may not know this (unless you follow my instagram) but I am currently in the process of writing and researching my final year dissertation. AKA my stress levels have never been this high before. My topic for this dissertation is the concept of power in association with gender and how that is represented in the dystopia. So that leads me to these 3 amazing novels! The Handmaid's Tale , by Margaret Atwood (a classic of this genre, and would be an insult to literature if I did not include this) The Power , by Naomi Alderman  Vox , by Christina Dalcher (the little newbie of the bunch) Before I get into each review I'll give you a little synopsis courtesy of Book Depositary. The Handmaid's Tale , by Margaret Atwood "Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She has only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, li...