Vox by Christina Dalcher

"Maybe this is how it happened in Germany with the Nazis, in Bosnia with the Serbs, in Rwanda with the Hutus. I've often wondered about that, about how kids can turn into monsters, how they learn that killing is right and oppression is just, how in one single generation the world can change on its axis into a place that's unrecognizable". 

While browsing the aisles at my local bookstores my eye naturally wandered to the tag on the shelf showing that this book was recommended by one of the employees. A quick glance to the back of its cover and I was sold on the idea. A world where government and religion have collided to ultimately oppress women and limit them to 100 words per day? Immediately my mind thought of this book as a modern Handmaid's Tale which caused my expectations to be rather high- perhaps too high. 

Vox started out strong introducing the main character, Dr. Jean McClellan, and her family. However you quickly realize this is no ordinary family. Dr. Jean and her daughter are both fitted with bracelets that will shock them if they speak more than their 100 word allotment per day while the 3 male children and her husband are free to do as they please. Jean, a former distinguished speech pathologist specializing in Wernickes aphasia, has a great difficulty adjusting to this new "ideal Christian lifestyle" that has been imposed by the current president of the United States. Things start to get interesting when the president's brother is involved in a skiing accident that damages the exact area of the brain Dr. Jean specializes in. Will she help the country that has worked to oppress her? 

While this concept sounds like it would be very interesting to read about I really have to point out how poor the character development and plot was throughout this novel. Despite a strong start, the majority of this book up until the last 100 pages are nothing but a rant about government, feminism, and oppression. While I understand that this is the point that the author wanted to get across it derails the book so badly that it causes the content to suffer. A majority of the characters are overshadowed by these tangents leading to essentially no character development. By the time you finally make it through the middle of this book the end is so rushed that you do not have time to actually enjoy how the plot is resolved. Less ranting and more story would have really helped this book in the long run. 

Overall Vox was a really neat idea but the delivery fell completely flat due to the authors writing.