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Dana DesJardins
It wasn't similar to the Handmaid's Tale; it WAS the Handmaid's Tale, including the young daughter, the shaming rituals, and the sassy lesbian activist.
She added a hot Italian lover with his own cappuccino machine though.
She added a hot Italian lover with his own cappuccino machine though.
Michelle
I met the author today, Christina Dalcher, and she said this comparison was inevitable but her inspiration was actually The Stepford Wives, which I can totally see. I loved all of these books and believe they are all worth reading for their own unique yet cautionary points of view.
David Gill
The general plot arc is the same as The Handmaid's Tale but Dalcher doesn't engage in any of the subtlety that makes Atwood's novel so chilling. Dalcher usually just spells everything out and the villains have a cheesy network TV vibe to everything they say. A number of plot points and concepts are unnecessarily lifted from The Handmaid's Tale when Dalcher could have developed her own ideas. It's kind of like how The House of the Spirits is One Hundred Years of Solitude for high school students.
Kristina Coop-a-Loop
It's very derivative of The Handmaid's Tale and has absolutely nothing new to say on the subject. Jean, the "heroine," is weirdly out of touch with this new America and has a sarcastic (and irritating non-stop) internal dialogue. The consequences are not so dire, the Bad Guys are not so scary (they have to "look longingly" at Jean's coffee cup before she deigns to pour them some), and the whole thing ends in some kind of bad action movie rush. It's ridiculous and infuriating, the sex scenes with Lorenzo the hot Italian lover are frequent and inadvertently hilarious (when not just gross) and the whole thing is wrapped up very neatly in a bow. I hated this book so much I thought was going to have a stroke over it.
Yana
You know how in Handmaid's Tale the women aren't allowed to read? This book basically just takes that concept and creates a book around it, with the same concept of the ultra-conservative political faction taking over the country and instilling "purist" ideals and "traditional" roles, labor camps, LGBT exile, a resistance, etc.. There's several references to HT, at point the narrator says "blessed be the loopholes". And the 2 protagonists - Jean and June, those names seem like quite a coincidence.
Hope
I loved this book, which rarely happens. I would say the main difference between Vox and Handmaid's Tale is a feeling of hope throughout. This book encourages a fight, where Handmaid's almost sent me into a depression.
Gretchen
Similar in that both novels show a society where the rights and freedoms of women have been stripped away by a fanatical national movement. But I would not say that the plots are similar. I think you'd love this book, too. I did.
Jessica
This is close to The Handmaids Tale like processed cheese is to real cheese. Does that help? The Handmaids Tale is written in a much more compelling manner and evokes stronger emotions. Vox, while enjoyable to read, was predictable in many aspects. To be fair this is also a debut novel for the author (if I’m not mistaken) and so it can’t be held to the same level that a seasoned authors work can be.
Cheryl
Definitely some similar plotting but Dalcher is not nearly the writer that Atwood is.
Julie Needham
It was very similar to The Handmaid's Tale in the beginning, with some interesting and perhaps even better ideas on how the school system can change young people -- echoes of Nazi Germany. Then the book takes a nose dive into one over-the-top made-for-TV illogical event after the next. It's as if you accepted the premise of the Martian, and you're cheering for Matt Damon and his potatoes, and then zombies show up, and then it turns out Matt Damon has telekinesis, and then there's a female astronaut who was also stranded on Mars at the same time. I've rarely gone from loving a book so much to being so thoroughly disappointed.
Shelly
Similar but I thought this was a much simpler in terms of story and writing style to Margaret Atwood, this was more of an easy read/watered down version
Jessie
Yes in one word!
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