Vox in SpecFic Buddy Reads

Sep 07, 2018 Bradley rated it really liked it

Shelves: dystopia-yes-pls, sci-fi, 2018-shelf

Sometimes, this book fills me with rage. Other times, incredulity.

Still other times, a bit more incredulity.

And yet, I can say that I definitely liked this book. Not love. But I certainly liked it.

The good:

Clearly emotional text, a story I can wrap myself in, and an absolutely disgusting near-future where all women are literally silenced. No more than a hundred words a day.

Sounds like the premise to a misogynist joke, right? Oh, but wait, all women have a choice to be good silent angels or they ...more

44 likes · Like · see review

Mar 17, 2018 Justine rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018-read

3.5 stars

I enjoyed this and it was a very quick read, but it wasn't quite as substantial as I wanted it to be, which lowered the rating for me.

What I liked about this book, and what I think is it's strength, is the way it shows how terrible things can happen almost before you know it simply because people aren't paying attention. The lack of motivation people feel to get out and try to change things for the better, their feeling that nothing really bad will actually happen, is definitely an issu 3.5 stars

I enjoyed this and it was a very quick read, but it wasn't quite as substantial as I wanted it to be, which lowered the rating for me.

What I liked about this book, and what I think is it's strength, is the way it shows how terrible things can happen almost before you know it simply because people aren't paying attention. The lack of motivation people feel to get out and try to change things for the better, their feeling that nothing really bad will actually happen, is definitely an issue we see around us. In the US, there is the added problem of the Trump administration, a weird combination of dangerousness and laughability, the latter of which serves to soften it's insidiousness into something more palatable and a seemingly less imminent problem.

That's not to say that the rest of the world's political leaders are any better. A lot goes unnoticed or unremarked in the rest of the world, looking "not quite so bad" in comparison to the show going on in the US. And that is really the bottom line in Vox. Distraction and inertia are real dangers and we won't see what's coming until it's too late.

While I agree with this underlying premise of Vox, as a story I thought it needed slightly better execution. The ending in particular felt rushed compared to the steady build up in the first half.

The other problem I felt Vox suffered from was laying far too much direct responsibility at the feet of the fundamentalist Christian right. Although I agree this faction is a problem, pointing the finger at one specific group implies that "if only" this influence were lacking, everything would have been fine.

A very good comparative book is The Power by Naomi Alderman. That book, like Vox, looks at the effects of oppression, but in a much more substantial way. The Power examines the fundamental nature of oppression, albeit using a fictional device, whereas Vox points to a very current reason for long embedded oppression, and so it doesn't quite succeed. It entertains more than it provokes real thought about the roots of the problem.

That said, entertainment is not a bad thing, especially if the end result is to get the reader thinking about the implications of the story long after it us over. If Vox does this for people, then I'll call it a success overall. ...more

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Dec 25, 2018 Emma rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia

I didn’t find this particularly well written and It didn’t really hold my interest. I love dystopia usually but this didn’t inspire me. Still- always interested to see what another’s version of dystopia looks like.

11 likes · Like · see review

Oct 29, 2018 Linda rated it liked it

Shelves: 2018, audio

This book has a great, and certainly frightening, premise which made this a quick read. With the U.S midterm elections in full swing now, if you’re at all ambivalent about voting, this book is enough to get the kick in the butt needed to just get out and vote already.

The first 2/3 of the book had a nice buildup, however the ending felt very rushed and the ending was just a bit too tidy. Still, it is a worthwhile read.

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Sep 10, 2018 Jo rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I had been waiting to read this one for a while, ever since I saw the synopsis a few months ago. The story is set in a dystopian United States where under the "Pure" regime, women are shackled with bracelets that zap them with increasing intensity if they speak over 100 words a day. Scary.

I was definitely entertained by this book. The first half of the book was a lot stronger than the second- the ending felt too rushed, and everything was tied up a little too neatly (and unrealistically) for my ...more

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Dec 28, 2018 Christina Pilkington rated it liked it

I absolutely was enthralled with the premise of this book. It took me longer than usual to finish this novel because I would often put the book down and imagine myself in the same situation and think about what I would do. It brought up real feelings of anger, helplessness and outrage.

But other the other hand, there were many moments that the story felt a little too far-fetched, where the character's suppression worked when it benefited the plot line, and her anger is almost non existent in pla ...more

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Jul 19, 2018 Candace rated it liked it

Shelves: female-author, dystopian, feminist, 09-sept-read, 2018-read, 2018-release

I enjoyed the first two-thirds. I liked reading about linguistics. The world Dalcher had created made me think - not necessarily just about a world where women are silenced but I took a more general view and thought of women living without several different rights or privileges.

What would you do to be free?

However, when I hit the last third of the book, I was very disappointed with the author. If the author wanted us to see her book as something that could be true, she should have written it as ...more

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Sep 17, 2018 Juliana rated it liked it

Shelves: books-sent-to-me-by-justine, specfic-buddy-reads, september-2018

3.5 stars.

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Dec 10, 2018 Dayna rated it liked it

This book pissed me off so many times with so many characters but there were some who certainly deserved better than what they got. And that's all I can say because I have no idea how to talk about this book without giving anything important away. ...more

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