Ms. Hen reviews Vox

Vox

Christina Dalcher

Penguin Random House

2018

Ms. Hen decided to read this book because she had read it was similar to THE HANDMAID’S TALE, and she is interested in novels like that. She put it on reserve at the library, and did not receive it for about three months. It is a new release, and she thought that since it was in hot demand it would be brilliant. Was she ever so wrong.

The idea for this novel is fantastic: women in the United States are only allowed one hundred words per day by order of the government, and they wear counters on their wrists to keep track of how many words they say. They also cannot read or hold jobs. The protagonist fights for women to be free. The premise is great, but the writing in this novel is so bad, that Ms. Hen was horrified. This novel was written by someone who does not know how to write. There are a lot of impressive words in this novel, but the author does not use them to their full capacity. This is what’s called a plot-driven novel, which Ms. Hen does not enjoy. Ms. Hen prefers literary fiction because she has credentials, and she is a snob. There is no melody to this book, it’s not even prose; it’s just words on the page telling the story. Ms. Hen was so disgusted that she almost didn’t finish the book. But she did, because she waited for so long to get it from the library.

Ms. Hen decided to not write a full review of this novel because she does not want to waste your time. This novel proves that even a great concept can turn out to be an atrocious book.