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A review by harlando
Vox by Christina Dalcher
3.0
Interesting concept with some irritating characters and plot problems.
I liked:
- The concept of a high tech silencing of women (I don't want to silence women, I just thought it was a neat sci-fi idea). It is a little bit of a riff on misogynist dystopia of Handmaid's Tale, but it's a different story and different concept even if a few elements, like fundamentalist christian villains, are the same.
Things that made me think:
-The bubble. All of the action takes place in the DC area. I have lived there and while it does have conservative elements it also has a vibrant left. One of the elements of the story is that fundamentalism snuck up on the heroine while she was focused on work. She didn't notice because she was living in a liberal bubble. We all live in bubbles and America is a big place. Is it ever possible to know what"America is thinking?' Is there such a thing as a national thought? I'm writing this as much of the country is on some variety of COVID related restriction. That dominates the media, but I don't think there is anything like a consensus.
Modern masculinity and femininity. Is modernity making my love life hard? If I am trying to be a good father, husband, and generally nice person am I making myself into and unattractive wimp?
Things I didn't like:
The heroine's love life: She's a married woman in her early forties. She labels her husband weak and relates that even when they were dating her friends warned her away from him because of his weak, unmanliness. He's a medical doctor, father, and the science adviser to the president. He drinks too much and rolled over a little too easily on the silencing of American women. Her ideal man is Lorenzo, an Italian biochemist who plays the mandolin and sleeps with married women. The book is hard on the husband and his soft hands and very generous to Lorenzo and the callouses on his fingers. The husband is contemptible and the Italian lover is thrilling, but they are really very similar. It bothers me.
The ending (spoilers). I was into the plot up until the last 20% of the book. I was sure that the reason the fundamentalists wanted a bio-weapon that destroyed the ability to speak was to cement their control over American women, but the heroine concludes they want to use it against the Europeans. Then monkeys, surgery, gunshots, husband sacrifices himself, and the heroine and children run off to Italy with the lover. It isn't that the ending doesn't make sense, but the action immediately preceding it doesn't make sense.
I liked:
- The concept of a high tech silencing of women (I don't want to silence women, I just thought it was a neat sci-fi idea). It is a little bit of a riff on misogynist dystopia of Handmaid's Tale, but it's a different story and different concept even if a few elements, like fundamentalist christian villains, are the same.
Things that made me think:
-The bubble. All of the action takes place in the DC area. I have lived there and while it does have conservative elements it also has a vibrant left. One of the elements of the story is that fundamentalism snuck up on the heroine while she was focused on work. She didn't notice because she was living in a liberal bubble. We all live in bubbles and America is a big place. Is it ever possible to know what"America is thinking?' Is there such a thing as a national thought? I'm writing this as much of the country is on some variety of COVID related restriction. That dominates the media, but I don't think there is anything like a consensus.
Modern masculinity and femininity. Is modernity making my love life hard? If I am trying to be a good father, husband, and generally nice person am I making myself into and unattractive wimp?
Things I didn't like:
The heroine's love life: She's a married woman in her early forties. She labels her husband weak and relates that even when they were dating her friends warned her away from him because of his weak, unmanliness. He's a medical doctor, father, and the science adviser to the president. He drinks too much and rolled over a little too easily on the silencing of American women. Her ideal man is Lorenzo, an Italian biochemist who plays the mandolin and sleeps with married women. The book is hard on the husband and his soft hands and very generous to Lorenzo and the callouses on his fingers. The husband is contemptible and the Italian lover is thrilling, but they are really very similar. It bothers me.
The ending (spoilers). I was into the plot up until the last 20% of the book. I was sure that the reason the fundamentalists wanted a bio-weapon that destroyed the ability to speak was to cement their control over American women, but the heroine concludes they want to use it against the Europeans. Then monkeys, surgery, gunshots, husband sacrifices himself, and the heroine and children run off to Italy with the lover. It isn't that the ending doesn't make sense, but the action immediately preceding it doesn't make sense.