Book Review: Vox by Christina Dalcher

Rating: ⭐⭐

The concept of this book definitely had potential; sadly, I don’t think the potential was seen through. There were *moments* where I felt immersed in this alternate future, so I did read the book quite quickly (no thanks to 4 plane rides in one week), but I was so mad at the ending and some of the plot points throughout that I really can’t give this more than a meh rating.

Overview

Vox drops us in a future, dystopian America where women have been practically silenced. They must where word-counting wrist bands that only allow them 100 words per day. Women have also lost their jobs and been removed from all government positions. So we follow one woman in this society who is married with four children and used to be a well-respected scientist. We follow some of the daily struggles in this new world until a freak accident happens, and our main character’s research and expertise from the “before” is called upon.

Review

Many things annoyed me about this book, so I will try to make my thoughts flow. I guess I can start with the one thing that I thought was good about the book. There is a twist about 3/4 of the way through, and I at least appreciated it and didn’t really see it coming. I thought it added a nice layer to the whole plot and motives behind individuals, so I enjoyed that bit.

Now to the things I didn’t like…

First, coming from a Christian point of view, I personally didn’t appreciate that a lot of the reasons behind the silencing of women and other bad things happening in the society was not simply because of a political perspective but also a religious one. I just don’t believe that Christians would actually ever believe this things and promote them the way the book portrayed, so I wish that the religious aspect had been left out.

I also felt like the timeline of this story was a little confusing. By the end of the book, we find out that the president who changed America into this demeaning society has only been in power for, like, a year! I don’t know how this all transpired in that amount of time or how he got so many people to essentially blindly follow him. I just didn’t get a good sense for why he was elected in the first place or how he made this all happen when it seemed like so many people disagreed with him.

The writing was okay, but at times the way that the “flashbacks” were written felt really forced. It also sometimes felt like a teenager wrote the transitions – so many times we read some form of “I remember”…

*Quick Spoiler Alert*

Scroll down to Conclusion if you don’t want to be spoiled.

My absolute least favorite part of the whole book was our main character’s affair with her fellow scientist. Every time it was brought up or she thought about him, I got so frustrated. I really didn’t feel like it was necessary, and it was even more infuriating when he husband sacrificially dies on her behalf at the end and she basically gets off scot-free from having to tell her husband that she not only had an affair but was also pregnant with his child. I was so angry.

Conclusion

I would not recommend this book. There are so many other dystopians, sci-fis, and fantasies that do a way better job of transporting you to a jarring alternate reality. Just read those. I feel like this book would’ve done better had it been longer or dropped us into a world that has been this way for years and years with seemingly no way out. So if you want a similar feel, read The Giver by Lois Lowry or Scythe by Neal Shusterman. Or maybe just read The Handmaid’s Tale since that’s what this is compared to (but that’s still on my TBR, so I can’t vouch).