After all that setup, almost all of the female characters – not just Jean and her daughter – are free to speak for most of the book. Then, the author rushes through the interesting bits in favor of a thin, clumsily constructed thriller plot. But sometimes I do.”)ĭalcher's premise is intriguing, especially in the hands of a linguistics expert, and it provides a good deal of momentum until the government lab conspiracy phase kicks in. Some of the dynamics are fascinating – Jean's concern for her daughter’s linguistic development, her resentment of her husband and sons. The best parts of the novel are actually in this slow-moving first section, when the potential is more or less intact. 'Vox' (Berkley, 324 pp., ★★½ out of four stars) is heavy with backstory and flashback, about a third of it spent setting the stage. The opening line gives away most of the present-day plot: “If anyone told me I could bring down the president, and the Pure Movement…in a week’s time, I wouldn’t believe them.” When the government shows a sudden interest in her work, Jean agrees to go back to the lab in exchange for the temporary removal of her word counter, as well as her 6-year-old daughter’s. She spends a lot of time wishing she’d listened to her gay former roommate, who was, for some reason, in love with her.)

(She didn’t even vote in the disastrous presidential election. Unless of course they break the law – then they provide labor as prisoners.īefore the Pure Movement took over, Jean was complacent, happy to leave politics to others while she focused on developing a cure for aphasia – a language impairment caused by brain damage. They’re also sequestered from reading material and removed from the work force. Women and girls – even small children – are fitted with metal bracelets that track their word count and shock them if they go over. “This is how things are now: We have allotments of one hundred words a day.” They’ve been effectively silenced by a theocratic government controlled by the puritan, misogynist Pure Movement.

In Dalcher’s near-future United States, women don’t get much say. Jean dismissed the premise outright: “This would never happen. Jean McClellan, recalls reading the back cover of an unnamed dystopian novel before her own world went full Gilead. The comparison is inevitable enough that Dalcher includes a nod, when her protagonist, neurolinguist Dr. The jacket copy of 'Vox,' the buzzy speculative fiction debut of eminent linguist Christina Dalcher, includes no fewer than three references to Margaret Atwood and her seminal novel ' The Handmaid’s Tale.'

Vox christina dalcher