Vox

Vox by Christina Dalcher   326 pages

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.

Vox is very much in line with the resurgence of feminist dystopia novels that have scary elements of truth to our realities. To coin a term from 1984, we live in a NewSpeakian world, where the power of language, or words and how they are used and controlled, offers considerable insight into the non-science fiction reality we currently inhabit. Vox is not at all different from our societal  norm, that those in power want to silence those who object, whatever their gender. 

The story moves along at a good clip, making this a pretty fast read. It is engaging and anxiety-inducing, in a good way. But I found the resolution even more unlikely than the underlying notion. If tight plotting  is important to you, then you will probably be disappointed. But then this is not intended to be an action-adventure story; it is a warning about the cost of silence, and how not speaking up now can shut you up later, to the detriment, not only of yourself, but of generations to come.

Posted by: Regina C.