I feel like the last little while has been fantastic for stories that examine societies' controlling of women and their bodies - the success of The Handmaid's Tale tv adaptation, as well as book like The Power and Red Clocks. Christina Dalcher's Vox. is the latest release to take on this topic, and just might be my favourite!

From the Harlequin website:

Silence can be deafening.

Jean McClellan spends her time in almost complete silence, limited to just one hundred words a day. Any more, and a thousand volts of electricity will course through her veins.

Now the new government is in power, everything has changed. But only if you're a woman.

Almost overnight, bank accounts are frozen, passports are taken away and seventy million women lose their jobs. Even more terrifyingly, young girls are no longer taught to read or write.

For herself, her daughter, and for every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice. This is only the beginning…

[100 WORD LIMIT REACHED] 

Vox drew me in immediately - I was equal parts intrigued, outraged, and terrified from the very first page. It looks at the importance of voice, and what happens when that is taken away. I found this creepier/scarier than some other books about restriction/control of women, because it felt so believable for now - it really wasn't a stretch to imagine things coming to this - and also because the impact on children is so clear (baby girls are fitted with a counter to control their 'speech' at the age of 3 months)

It is worth noting that this is mostly looking at what happens when voice is taken away - is from a community that currently has voice. There is some intersectionality with LGB issues, but racial intersectionality is only briefly touched on (there is a brief mention of the privilege of white feminism)

I gave this one 4 stars, and am recommending it to all my friends

***Vox***

Out now from Harlequin books.

On Goodreads

Genre: Contemporary/dystopian/sci-fi (a bit of everything?)

Source: Free book sent to me by Harlequin Books (Harper Collins)

Themes: Feminism, politics

Read it if you loved.. The Handmaid's Tale, Red Clocks

Find Christina Dalcher online here