Name: Vox
ISBN: 9781785418174

Christina Dalcher

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...

'This book will blow your mind' PRIMA 'Disturbing' LEE CHILD 'A petrifying reimagining of The Handmaid's Tale' ELLE 'Left me speechless' DAILY MAIL 'Terrifying' RED 'A novel ripe for the #MeToo era' VANITY FAIR 'Extraordinary' LOUISE O'NEILL

Vox: The Gripping Debut of 2018 That Everyone's Talking About!

Having a great idea doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll know how to greatly execute it. I saw this book in countless feminist-read lists and the premise piqued my interest (as I’m sure it did a lot of the people that picked it up). The influence of The Handmaid’s Tale is clearly there and from the get-go it predisposes you to expect similarities from it (at least it did for me).

For a “feminist” book, it spent a lot of its length centering around men, and not even in a critical way, but rather about men as the axis of the story (when it should’ve been about the struggles of women under this newer and, unrealistically short-lived system). 

I still don’t know how I feel about the short chapter system because despite making it a quick read, it ultimately works against the full body of work as the last 10 chapters pack most of the action. However, the story is so abruptly wrapped that it feels sloppy and unresolved. Not to mention the “happy ending” also adding to the unrealistic timeline and outcome of such an insidious ideology.

Danniella

Having a great idea doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll know how to greatly execute it. I saw this book in countless feminist-read lists and the premise piqued my interest (as I’m sure it did a lot of the people that picked it up). The influence of The Handmaid’s Tale is clearly there and from the get-go it predisposes you to expect similarities from it (at least it did for me).

For a “feminist” book, it spent a lot of its length centering around men, and not even in a critical way, but rather about men as the axis of the story (when it should’ve been about the struggles of women under this newer and, unrealistically short-lived system). 

I still don’t know how I feel about the short chapter system because despite making it a quick read, it ultimately works against the full body of work as the last 10 chapters pack most of the action. However, the story is so abruptly wrapped that it feels sloppy and unresolved. Not to mention the “happy ending” also adding to the unrealistic timeline and outcome of such an insidious ideology.

It was so thrilling and so captivating to read something like this, whilst I've never read the Handmaidens Tale I'm sure this falls along the same lines as it. The horror that women are put through with the counters, as well as the scene with Olivia after her daughter Julia is taken. It's so breathtaking.

I ate this book up physically emotionally and theoretically, every ounce of the words, every hidden meaning behind the references to God, the Bible, neuroscience, everything. 

Applauding for Christina Dalcher, what a book.

Megan McMillan

Wow this book!

It was so thrilling and so captivating to read something like this, whilst I've never read the Handmaidens Tale I'm sure this falls along the same lines as it. The horror that women are put through with the counters, as well as the scene with Olivia after her daughter Julia is taken. It's so breathtaking.

I ate this book up physically emotionally and theoretically, every ounce of the words, every hidden meaning behind the references to God, the Bible, neuroscience, everything. 

Applauding for Christina Dalcher, what a book.

THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER • ONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY'S AND SHEREADS' BOOKS TO READ AFTER THE HANDMAID'S TALE “[An] electrifying debut.”—O, The Oprah Magazine “The real-life parallels will make you shiver.”—Cosmopolitan Set in a United States in which 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 one hundred words per day, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial. This can't happen here. Not in America. Not to her. Soon women are not permitted to hold jobs. Girls are not taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words each day, but now women have only one hundred to make themselves heard. For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice. This is just the beginning...not the end. One of Good Morning America's “Best Books to Bring to the Beach This Summer” One of PopSugar, Refinery29, Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, Real Simple, i09, and Amazon's Best Books to Read in August 2018

Eva Ströberg

It’s like The Handmaid’s Tale authored by Michael Crichton. A good book, great narration but the idda feels inoriginal

'Intelligent, suspenseful, provocative, and intensely disturbing - everything a great novel should be' LEE CHILD 'Extraordinary' LOUISE O'NEILL 'A truly compulsive novel.' STYLIST'The book of the moment!' MARIE CLAIRE'This book will blow your mind' PRIMA'A petrifying reimagining of The Handmaid's Tale' ELLE'A fast-paced, twisting thriller that left me speechless.' DAILY MAIL'Terrifying' RED'A novel ripe for the #MeToo era' VANITY FAIR'A dazzling debut.' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING'Thought-provoking and thrilling. I was left speechless!' WOMAN & HOMESilence 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... [100 WORD LIMIT REACHED]

Emelie

2,5. Very slow up until the last 60 pages, where basically everything happened..

Julia Lotz

Stell dir vor, du darfst nicht mehr als 100 Wörter pro Tag sprechen. Schreiben und lesen ist dir verboten. Du hast immer gerne gelesen und selbst wenn nicht, Kommunikation über soziale Netzwerke, über Mails, per Telefon. privat mit deiner Familie ist elementar und gehört mehr zu deinem täglichen Leben, als du es dir überhaupt vorstellen kannst. So geht es Jean und allen amerikanischen Frauen und seitdem quält sie die Frage: Hätte ich es verhindern können, wenn ich nur früher meine Stimme erhoben hätte? Doch es wird noch schlimmer. Jean kleine Tochter ist in diese Zeit hineingeboren und durfte von klein auf nichts sprechen, nicht schreiben, nicht lesen. Normale Sprachentwicklung? Fehlanzeige. Und das macht Jean so viel Angst (und das völlig zurecht), dass sie anfängt zu handeln und zu protestieren. 

Vox ist eine erschreckende Dystopie, die leider nicht weit genug in der Zukunft liegt. Leider, sage ich, doch das ist genau das, was mich an dem Buch so bewegt hat: Es könnte vom heutigen Standpunkt aus viel zu leicht passieren. Das merkt auch Jean, denn die Geschichte setzt an mehreren Stellen in unserer Gegenwart an und Jean merkt, dass dieses Vergangenheits-Ich von ihr viel zu wenig getan hat. Diesen Fehler versucht sie in ihrer Gegenwart mit aller Gewalt wieder gut zu machen, riskiert damit ihr Leben und das Leben ihrer Familie und das alles bleibt so verdammt real, dass es mir wieder und wieder Angst gemacht hat. Unserer Gesellschaft wird von Christina Dalcher gnadenlos ein Spiegel vorgehalten. Vox zeigt uns, was passiert, wenn wir nicht handeln und dass unsere Fehler in der Zukunft nicht leicht ausbügelbar sind. 

Auch wenn Vox gegen Ende ein wenig zu schnell voranschreitet, bleibt mir Jean und ihre Entwicklung nicht nur sehr gut im Gedächtnis, sie zeigt Jean auch als eine durch und durch starke Frau, die sich für das Wohl ihrer Familie, ihrer Mitmenschen, aller Frauen einsetzt. Auch wenn euch dieses Buch vermutlich sehr wütend machen wird: Lest es. (Mit dieser doch sehr kurzen Meinung habe ich das Wörterlimit, das den Frauen in Jeans Welt aufgesetzt ist übrigens mit 323 Wörtern um mehr als das 3-fache überschritten.)

Jean McClellan est docteure en neurosciences. Elle a passé sa vie dans un laboratoire de recherches, loin des mouvements protestataires qui ont enflammé son pays. Mais, désormais, même si elle le voulait, impossible de s'exprimer : comme toutes les femmes, elle est condamnée à un silence forcé, limitée à un quota de 100 mots par jour. En effet, le nouveau gouvernement en place, constitué d'un groupe fondamentaliste, a décidé d'abattre la figure de la femme moderne. Pourtant, quand le frère du Président fait une attaque, Jean est appelée à la rescousse. La récompense ? La possibilité de s'affranchir - et sa fille avec elle - de son quota de mots. Mais ce qu'elle va découvrir alors qu'elle recouvre la parole pourrait bien la laisser définitivement sans voix...

Léa

Je ne pense pas être une féministe activiste. Je suis bien sûr pour les droits de la femme et pour une forme d’égalité hommes/femmes, mais ce n’est pas, à tord, un combat que je mène quotidiennement et sur lequel je me renseigne énormément. 
Du moins ça c’était avant la lecture de ce livre. 

Ce livre m’a tout simplement bouleversé, et encore je pense que le mot est faible. J’ai attribué la note de 5 étoiles à ce livre car je l’ai véritablement adoré, mais au vu du sujet qui est traité, c’est un livre qu’on adore autant qu’on déteste. Chaque phrase qui constitue ce livre est d’une justesse à faire peur. Le monde décrit par l’autrice est un monde dystopique certes mais dans un sens, criant de vérité. 
La plume de Christina Dalcher est incroyablement plaisante. J’admet avoir eu peur de m’ennuyer, de trouver l’écriture trop « intellectuelle », d’être confrontée à la manie de certains auteur(e)s qui est de faire une étalage de vocabulaire et de maniement de la langue, à tel point que la lecture en devient barbante à souhait. Là ce n’est absolument pas le cas et je le répète, la plume de l’autrice est un régal. 

C’est la première fois que je termine une lecture avec la boule au ventre et avec le besoin d’y réfléchir encore 20 bonnes minutes. 
Le sujet abordé me touchait déjà énormément, étant une femme, je me suis immédiatement sentie concernée par l’intrigue de fond de ce roman. Mais ce qui m’a le plus retourné c’est la peur que ce livre m’a fait ressentir. La peur d’un jour, me retrouver dans une société comme décrite dans le livre. La peur d’un jour, me retrouver avec un compte mot au poignet entravant ma liberté d’expression et toutes mes autres libertés. La peur d’être un jour, rétrogradé au rang de moins que rien. 
Cette lecture m’a surtout fait prendre conscience d’une chose : ça peut véritablement arriver et surtout, nous vivons actuellement dans une société où certaines personnes seraient d’accord avec ces idéaux et ces principes. Aujourd’hui, peut-être que mon voisin, mon patron, ma collègue de boulot, certains profs ect... seraient en accord avec ce mode de vie archaïque qui renvoi les femmes à l’état de purs objets. 
Et c’est là la force du livre, c’est dans cette demi-réalité que le livre trouve son point fort. Je n’ai jamais éprouvé ce genre de sentiment en lisant un livre. Je n’ai jamais fini une lecture en ayant envie d’aller hurler dans la rue que mes droits valent autant que ceux des hommes. 
Christina Dalcher a su trouver les mots pour me faire prendre conscience que la lutte commence maintenant et pas une fois que nous serons prisonnières de nos propres esprits. 

Le personnage de Jean est un personnage féminin que j’ai adoré suivre. C’est, encore une fois, un personnage avec un caractère d’une honnêteté et d’une réalité hors normes. Elle ne se cache pas derrière de faux-semblant et ses réflexions sont toujours très franches. Elle n’essaie pas de se voiler la face, à aucun moment et suivre ce genre de personnage fait du bien. On est en quelques sortes, déculpabilisées pour certaines de nos pensées, envies qui ne sont pas « normales » ou « bien vues ». Mais Jean se fiche de tout cela et même si ça lui arrache le coeur de devoir l’admettre, elle aura pleinement conscience de son envie d’étrangler son fils par moment. 

Maintenant passons aux points faibles... Pour moi, il n’y en a véritablement qu’un seul, c’est la fin. J’ai trouvé que tout allait un peu trop vite et le dénouement final m’a semblé un peu trop « happy ending » vibes, tout tombait parfaitement bien et tout s’arrangeait de soi-même... Mais bon, j’imagine que de toute façon il fallait bien finir le livre d’une manière ou d’une autre. 

A mes yeux, ce livre est un roman d’apprentissage pour le lecteur qui apprend au fil de sa lecture à enrichir ses horizons et à ouvrir son esprit à d’autres points de vue. Je ne peux que vous conseiller la lecture de ce livre.

Manda

beyond amazing 

This is the first book I have been interested in since the recent passing of my dad a d everything seemed to be grey and then I was recommended this book and I was hooked. Someone said it was reminiscent of the handmade tail but I think this is better than. That that I tried to read and couldn't seem to get into this was something else. We have just celebrated women's rights and what they sacrificed so they got the right to vote this is what could have happened and I don't think as a women we realise that in this world we should be proud and this I. A way celebrated that as women we are strong and if we stand United anything can happen we can change the world just one step at a time together .

Abigail Stainthorpe

Gets out of a heavily misogynistic society and home environment just to run off with another man learn your lesson to be quite honest. 

Shelby lilly

There aren’t many books that enlist a visceral reaction out of me like this book did. The synopsis captured me right away but I didn’t anticipate it to be such an easy read. With that being said, I did put it down quite a bit because of the anger it pulled out of me. Some of the reviews I’ve read are harsh towards the main character but I found her to be perfectly imperfect.

Katharina Hoffmann

I feel like this book could have been so much more. I feel like this book could have shaken the foundations of dystopian literature but it fell prey to petty story lines.

To every woman reading this: imagine you’re under a speaking embargo. Imagine you’re only allowed to utter 100 words a day with a devilish device counting every syllable, every word you speak. Imagine that this "bracelet" will send electronic shockwaves through your body as soon as word 101 has left your mouth.
That is the life of every baby girl, every woman living in the US. POTUS and his staff have come up with an idea, a plan, to bring every human with a vagina under their complete control. Women aren’t allowed to read in this society. They aren’t allowed to work. They aren’t allowed to vote, to have an opinion, to write, to complain. They are forbidden basic human rights.
Now imagine all that and try NOT getting angry.

Gianna "Jean" is one of those women. Mother of four kids, she is expected to cook and clean as well as be an obedient wife and mother. Before the system, before the oppression, she was one of the country’s leading researchers on language impairment. That is until they took her and every other woman’s job away and gave it to a "more competent" person, a man. Having to bottle up her feelings and being denied her right to voice her opinion, Jean tries to play along. That is until the president himself seeks her out and asks her to work on a project that could save his brother’s life. A brother that supposedly had a skiing accident and who is half brain-dead now. Jean agrees on the condition to get her voice back and the 100 words embargo lifted on her daughter and herself. She shows up to work and meets an old friend. A friend she slept with all those years ago when she had already been married. But infidelity is considered as one of the worst sins by the purist movement…

The premise of the book had me hooked. The first chapters had me shaking with anger and brought unshed tears to my eyes. But after the first half, the book dissolved in a puddle of the character’s personal affairs and feelings. I was missing the bigger picture. I was missing the impact. But the impact of everything was reduced to how the main character was dealing with it. The ending happened too quickly. It was too swift, too smooth, and disappointing.

I would have liked the author to expand the darkness. To let the whole world suffer from the "purity movement". This book could have challenged "The Handmaid’s Tale" but it ultimately fell short. What a pity.

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 a United States in which 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 one hundred words per day, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial. This can't happen here. Not in America. Not to her. This is just the beginning... Soon women are not permitted to hold jobs. Girls are not taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words each day, but now women have only one hundred to make themselves heard. ...not the end. For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.

Kath Lau

Thanks to Berkley Publishing for my free arc.

I wanted to love this book so much because the premise is really interesting and somehow timely. But sadly I didn't. Probably because it turned out very different from what I was expecting. Jean, the main character, could have done a lot of important things rather than being occupied with "other stuff". I didn't feel any genuine emotions from her which I found disappointing because she has a lot of potential as a main character. The writing was good. It's a quick read because the chapters are short but somehow it still took me a month to finish it. Also, the science/lab jargon quite threw me off the story. The ending felt very rushed and convenient. And ironically, most of the huge problems/issues in the story were solved by men. This book could have been executed way more better. It is still worth the read, in my opinion. It made me angry, even infuriated at some point, sad but most importantly, it made me think. It reminds us to step up, speak up, and do something before it's too late.

Nathalie Matsuda

the first half was a solid 5stars, super interesting, made me feel all the things, I wanted to know how dark it could get 
but it didn't get dark... the 1star ending was such cheap sensationalism that I wanted to scream. I could hardly finish it
this book had the potential to make me think and be angry at the world for allowing things like this to happen, but no
predictable and disappointing

letterrausch

Das war irgendwie nicht Fisch, nicht Fleisch. Die Prämisse ist natürlich total spannend - ein ultrakonservativer Bible Belt Typ schafft es (irgendwie), dass Frauen nur noch 100 Wörter täglich sprechen dürfen. Natürlich bleiben sie zu Hause und betüddeln die Kinder. Schon da wird es unlogisch: Wie man mit 100 Wörtern pro Tag Kinder erziehen soll und wer dann statt der Frauen in Pflege- und Dienstleistungsberufen arbeitet, wird nicht geklärt. Stattdessen begleiten wir Jean, eine Art Bella Swan mit Doktortitel, bei ihrem Versuch - tja, auch das wird nicht recht klar. Die Umsturz des reaktionären Systems ist natürlich Thema, aber Jean stolpert da eher unverhofft rein und ist meistens nur dabei, statt mittendrin. Außerdem ist sie damit beschäftigt, mit dem Absatz im Fahrstuhl hängenzubleiben, auf die Nase und in Ohnmacht und gegen einen Schimpansenkäfig zu fallen. Alles nicht so heldenhaft. Vieles bleibt nur angerissen (dass ihre Mutter einen Schlaganfall hat und ihr Sohn ausbüxt raubt ihr keineswegs den Schlaf) und am Schluss kriecht ein deus ex machina nach dem anderen aus dem Gebüsch. Fazit: Gute Idee, mittelprächtig umgesetzt.

Joanna Rosenwink 

** spoiler alert **
           This is a great book that really makes you think, in a similar vein to the Handmaid’s Tale. 
I did find the ending a little too convenient though which made it a bit too unbelievable for my taste. (There were also a few issues I had with the idea of the ‘trangressors’ being repeatedly shown on TV - was this the case for everyone in the whole country? Just a localised thing? It didn’t really work in my opinion.). However this did not spoil my enjoyment of the book as a whole.

Martine Ellis

Ju Berny

taryn

Abby Willett

Amy Buckley 

Roxy

Margriet Slatman

Science fiction. 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

Vox

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