What would you do with 100 words a day?

For fans of:

The Handmaid’s Tale

Feminism

Dystopia

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Vox [väks] (n.): Vocals; voice. 

 

Set in a world not so unlike our current political climate, the future world Christina Dalcher creates is exactly like the one you and I walk around in every day with one big difference: all females wear a wrist counter that counts every word they speak. And these bracelets aren’t some fashion trend they can simply remove any time they want. They are a government sanctioned accessory they must wear 24/7.

What happens if she surpasses her 100-word limit? She gets zapped with an electrical charge that gradually increases with every word she speaks. These low-key torture devices are a threatened patriarchy’s response to the “broken home.” The government, now entirely populated by the male sex, hopes the counters will return American society to its pre-women’s movement days. The glory days, they might say.

We follow Jean, her husband Patrick, and their four kids (three boys and a girl). Jean is a neurolinguist, someone who deals with the part of the brain that gives humans our speech, so when the president’s brother suffers a traumatic brain injury that requires Jean’s attention she’s offered a special deal most women don’t even know exists.

Told through flashbacks of her college years, Vox is a tale of bitterness and men of ill repute, of love and lust, of family and revenge. The novel begs the question: What will powerful men do to keep their power? And what lengths will women go to in order to save their freedom of speech?

It’s a solid 4 out of 5 stars from me and would make a great movie or TV show, like The Handmaid’s Tale, only without the red cloaks.

VOX hits bookstores August 21, 2018.

 

Happy reading!

 

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