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dystopian

Vox by Christina Dalcher

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Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Release Date: 08/21/18 | Speculative Fiction | 9 hours 27 minutes | Penguin

Vox takes place in the near, near, near future where the government has limited women to 100 spoken words a day in an effort to Make America Great Again reinforce traditional gender roles. Dr. Jean McClellan is a cognitive linguist who has never quite adjusted to the new rules of society and brings the entire system down–which by the way isn’t a spoiler. It’s literally the first line of the book.

I added this book to my to-reads shelf the minute I heard about it on the What Should I Read Next podcast and was so excited to get into it…but this book really disappointed me. I think it’s because I went into this book thinking it was supposed to be this feminist dystopia but when you read Dalcher’s interviews you find out she’s a linguist who just wanted to write a book about her passion.

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Book Review : All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin

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“Daddy always said you only explained things to the people that actually mattered.” 

― Gabrielle Zevin, All These Things I’ve Done

Synopsis : In 2083, chocolate and coffee are illegal, paper is hard to find, water is carefully rationed, and New York City is rife with crime and poverty. And yet, for Anya Balanchine, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the city’s most notorious (and dead) crime boss, life is fairly routine. It consists of going to school, taking care of her siblings and her dying grandmother, trying to avoid falling in love with the new assistant D.A.’s son, and avoiding her loser ex-boyfriend. That is until her ex is accidently poisoned by the chocolate her family manufactures and the police think she’s to blame. Suddenly, Anya finds herself thrust unwillingly into the spotlight–at school, in the news, and most importantly, within her mafia family. 

Anya Blanchaine is  the daughter of a Russian mob boss, but she isn’t exactly Growing Up Gotti. All These Things I’ve Done is a novel comprised of  17-year-old Anya’s confessions.She has the world on her shoulders; having to take care of her ailing grandmother and siblings while trying to keep out of the notorious family business of selling chocolate–which has become illegal in 2083.

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