Group Reads Discussion - Vox

[SRC Moderator, Moderator]

This is the discussion thread for the Spring 2023 Group Read Vox in the category Feminist Dystopia. Please post your comments here. This thread is not restricted to those choosing this book for task 20.10, feel free to join in the discussion. Warning- spoilers ahead!

The requirement for task 20.10: You must participate in the book's discussion thread below with at least one post about the contents of the book or your reaction to the book after you have read the book.

[Rachael]

I don't know about anyone else in this group, but I was left feeling a bit disappointed with how this book ended up resolving.

At the beginning of the story I was immediately gripped, I was getting serious The Handmaid’s Tale vibes and could see this going in a "reclaiming her voice" direction.

Ultimately what happened instead was the main character let the men around her finish, or completely do, the job themselves. She worked on the Wernicke's serum, but it was her male companion that made the serum used to poison the government officials. It was her husband who ended up actually administering the serum that would grant her and millions of other women their freedom again. It was her lover who got her an illegal passport to flee the country. It was the male guard who arranged their escape from the building after she killed Morgan and it was the same male guard who organized her and her children's escape to Canada.

I had high hopes that Jean herself would start taking control over the events taking place around her, that Jean herself would start some kind of rebellion or resistance. In the end, it felt like she just was along for the ride. It feels like a happy coincidence that she fell into this group working on resisting the government when she could have just as easily fell into a group that was strongly in support of it.

[Fly]

This was an interesting cautionary tale about the dangers of complacency. In the beginning, it had a strong "Stepford" vibe, but by the end all was not as it had seemed and the message about not really knowing people as well as you think you do went in the opposite direction. I appreciate Rachael's hope of seeing Jean take matters into her own hands, but I also enjoyed Patrick redeeming himself. For a smart lady, Jean made a lot of dumb decisions, but didn't quite cross over into TSTL territory. It had a few problems, but overall I enjoyed it.

[Kai]

I would echo Rachael's original pleasure and ultimate disappointment in this book. I found Jean to be unpleasant and unbelievable, especially how she treated her male children. You could definitely feel how much Dalcher wants to be Atwood, but the plot became increasingly erratic and full of obvious devices to get certain factors in place rather than the natural progression of events. Lots of stereotypical fictional lab work - just give them a deadline and they can solve an issue in a night that people have worked on for decades.

Dalcher mentioned Styron and Sophie's Choice a couple of times, but lacked the courage to demand actual impossible choices from Jean, much less growth. At the end, she is largely the same as she was 20 years before - bowing out of doing actual political and community work, taking it for granted that others will do the work for her and all other women.

[KmarieD, Moderator]

I agree with so many of the previous comments about this book. I spent much of the book mad at many of the chararcters. I was hoping that she would become part of a underground rebellion that eventually take back their society. When she discovered there was one, she really didn't do much to be a part of it.

I was also disappointed with the ending. In just a few pages it resolved what the previous 300 pages had been building up to. But by that point, I was also wondering how much longer I had to read the book. It had gotten to the point that I felt that there may not be a resolution.

[Julia]

I chose this book for the group read task because Lessons in Chemistry had such a long waitlist at the library.

I really appreciated (liked isn't the right word) the set-up - how women were restricted, not only from talking but from reading or other forms of communications. And how this impacted the family life with the difference in how girls and boys were treated.

The issue of how language was restricted reminded me of Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters which I really liked.

After this evolved from the restrictions and language into Jean's research and what was going on with the government's need for the serum or anti-serum I was less impressed. I didn't understand what the animals were being used for, since the aim was related to language and speech. And I didn't appreciate the shoot-out at the end as a way to resolve the situation.

[Amy]

Amy B

I'm kind of in the same camp as the rest of the reviewers. I was happy to see this as one of this challenge's selections because I love Feminist Dystopia and this sounded like a really intriguing premise. And it had promise. But I was just rolling my eyes or shaking my head at the end. She was all like, "ew, I can't touch mice or drill a hole in someone's head...someone else has to do it." The second half of the book in particular kind of baffled me. So, was the plan for the government to administer the "you can't talk" serum through the water supply to shut up the American female population and then use the antidote to "save" all the men? Or was it as the MC thought, that they were going to use this to decimate the rest of the world? I was just puzzled at a lot of what happened at the end and it devolved into men save the day, the women were pretty much helpless and I was happy it was over.
I had really hoped for better.

[Caraina]

I was a little disappointed in the book. I feel the characters were not as developed as they could have been. I too was hoping for some sort of rebellion on Jean's part. The ending was rushed and undeveloped. As a woman and feminist, I was not a fan of the premise of the book where women were silenced and controlled by men.

[Emily]

I finally got around to reading this book, and I knew within the first few chapters I was going to either really love this book, or be super disappointed by it. This concept held so much potential and I feel the author could have really created a super dynamic setting with the characters and the plotline of this book, and quite often the way the author described things left me with more questions than answers. I was confused as to how the entire world turned a blind eye to the contents of what was happening with the women of America, and also could not understand if this was only happening to select few states within America, or all of them. The relationship between the mother and her own children was incredibly strained, and Patricks death happened so quickly I barely even registered that it had happened. Considering this was meant to be a woman takes back power novel, I found majority of this book the female main character was allowing the men of her life to do the hard work for her, she was more or less going along with their decisions, sort of like she was just there at the right time and right place and rolled with the punches. I really was hoping for more from this novel, the concept had much more depth potential.