Review: VOX

By Delilah Kealy-Roberts

Photography  by Nong Vang, via Unsplash  

In the Bechdel Book Club we, as you all know, celebrate the voices of women and non-gender conforming characters. Any moment in a novel when two female characters are having a chat we feel a small sense of victory. Any female-led monologue leaves us inspired and refreshed after a lifetime of putting up with same-y male narratives. Women chatting to women about women; about politics; about culture; about trashy TV; about pretty much anything. That is what we are here for.

So, imagine a world where that was all suddenly and violently shushed. Where female voices are muted and the patriarchy creeps up on our very ability to communicate, policing our precious vocal chords. The result would be a dystopian reversal of the Bechdel test and it is realised in Christina Dalcher’s speculative novel VOX.

The concept of this book got my mouth watering and my brain ticking: set in a parallel America in which the newly elected president (who just came into power succeeding the first ever black president. Starting to sound familiar yet?) clamps down his authority and devises a society in which women are only allowed to speak 100 words a day. Using “wrist counters”, each woman and girl is constricted to these vocal limits and controlled by the threat of receiving an electric shock which increases in voltage at every extra word spoken.

Feminist dystopia. Policing the right of speech. Purity and religious extremism. An inevitable badass rebellion… Pass me the popcorn! I knew this was going to be right up my literary street.

After completing the novel however, I feel like the very concept remains my favourite part. Don’t get me wrong, the book serves its purpose as a quick read and a playful thriller, but sometimes it becomes silly and unbelievable rather than really driving the concept home. The characters’ stories link together almost too ideally, and their relationships are often difficult to fully believe. Our main character Jean for instance, gets enlisted specifically by the evil president for her scientific expertise about the part of the brain that produces language. I don’t know about you, but I don’t remember the last time I got regular phone calls from the White House. The thriller unfolds, but by the end you’ve almost forgotten about the gravity surrounding the wrist counters, as if the policing of language becomes a mere secondary element to the plot. To add insult to injury, guess who runs in to save the day at the end? That’s right, a man (ultimate facepalm moment right there.)

Ok, this might all sound weird as I usually just choose a book to rave about each month and try to convince you to run out to Waterstones and buy it RIGHT THIS SECOND. Although VOX did not have this intoxicating effect on me, I still wanted to talk about it here purely because the concept is so integral to resisting misogyny.

We have words; we are lucky. We must never fail to use them. Whether we use language to speak out for something we believe in, cast a vote, voice an opinion or simply have a nice chat over a good cuppa, it is important that we don’t forget how important it is. This is why I feel so passionately about shining a light on, and supporting, female narratives. Listen to people’s stories, lend an ear, let the world hear your opinion and be thankful everyday that your life passes the Bechdel test with flying colours.

Some Bechdel Book Club Questions:

1. How do you think you’d use your allotted 100 words?
2. Do you think this descent into female silence is a feasible dystopia?
3. The book holds many parallels with reality. Do you think that Christina Dalcher is writing a warning or is it purely to be regarded as fiction?