Vox

Locations
Call Number: Science Fiction / Dalcher, Christina, Adult Book / Fiction / Dystopian / Dalcher, Christina
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Pittsfield Branch, Traverwood Branch, Westgate Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Science Fiction / Dalcher, Christina	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Dystopian / Dalcher, Christina	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Dystopian / Dalcher, Christina	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Dystopian / Dalcher, Christina	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Dystopian / Dalcher, Christina	4-week checkout	On Shelf

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. For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Scary possibility submitted by steveiew on June 14, 2019, 10:45am What was most frightening about this book was how the oppression of women came about. It started in a time very similar to what we have now politically. Women are slowly stripped of their rights and voices. It was an intense story that kept me reading.

frightening because it could happen submitted by kerstinrh on June 26, 2019, 6:56pm This is a book I still think about months after reading it. It really makes you think about taking action and being vocal. What would you do it you only had 100 words a day?
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”

One Star Book - I Couldn't Even Finish It submitted by sfo_16 on July 22, 2023, 12:36am I gave this book one star for a few reasons. Vox is a dystopian fiction novel published in 2018 that lacks nuance, disrespects the intelligence of the reader, and makes some very bold connections between the oppression of women in the story and Nazi Germany. Firstly, you'd be better off reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood or Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. Both novels offer complex insight into the oppression of women in America through an intersectional lens. Vox strips this theme of its nuance and instead creates a world of two-dimensional characters strung together by a lethargic plot. Nothing is left to the imagination of the reader. Instead, the author hits you with weak "mic-drop" sentences that state the obvious. The content and writing feels targeted towards teenagers and young adults but the story is told from a mother of four children, the eldest being in high school. Now I did only read the first 100 or so pages before I decided to stop but in that time there were several allusions to the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1940s. The narrator, Jean, even mentions the excuse "I was just following orders" and implies that this was used by men after serving in the German Army during WII and what the men of Jean's world will say if the government ever changes hands. These kind of connections made me very uncomfortable as a reader. To compare the female oppression in the story to the systemic, state-sanctioned, eradication of millions of Jewish, Black, and queer people in WWII Germany feels extreme, insensitive, and historically incorrect. The women and girls of the story are only permitted to speak 100 words a day and are electrocuted when they go over. They cannot hold jobs, read, or write. However, they can still wear whatever clothes they want, sleep in their homes, and drive cars. It is briefly mentioned that married queer men and women had their children taken from them and may have even been forced into conversion therapy. This is not equal to the massive genocide committed by the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany and Hitler. These kind of comparisons were always a shock when reading and are borderline offensive in my opinion. The entire book feels like crude distillation of complex social issues without the imagination or care needed to accurately address them in a compelling way. Skip it and read Parable of the Sower and The Handmaid's Tale instead, please.