Vox

Everyone was all atwitter the other day when Margaret Atwood announced she was writing a sequel to The Handmaid's Tale (See my post of 7/14/17.)  As you can tell, I did not care for that book.  I think Christina Dalcher's dystopian novel Vox (#790) is far superior.

In an America in the not-too-distant future, a theocratic government has taken control and effectively silenced women by limiting them to one hundred words a day.  Beyond that threshold, the wrist counter that all females (even infant girls) must wear will administer a painful shock which will grow in intensity with each added word.

In this male-dominated society, women's place is in the home without access to reading materials, cell phones or even snail mail without their husband's express permission.  Dr. Jean McClellan, one of the world's foremost authorities on neurolinguistics has been sidelined at home for the past year since government edicts denying women jobs went into effect.  That is, until the day the president's older brother and chief advisor, suffers a brain injury in a skiing accident.  Her ground-breaking work in aphasia is suddenly in demand by the White House.  Yet despite being freed from the onerous counter on her wrist, nothing about the lab or the team recruited with her to do the work seems quite right...

Vox morphs seamlessly from dystopian female manifesto to high-tech chilling thriller.  Jean's work is pivotal to a ruthless and devastating power grab.  Can Jean, who never even bothered to find the time to vote, seize the slim chance to avert catastrophic events?  Can she find the courage to kill if necessary?

The reason I liked this book so much is that I felt it was plausible, in a way that The Handmaid's Tale with its mythological memes was not.  It was frightening enough to keep me awake at night, thinking how easily it could happen here.