Tag: 4 stars

Audiobook Review: Vox by Christina Dalcher

Vox
Author:  Christina Dalcher

Narrator: Julia Whelan
Published: August 21, 2018
Audiobook
: 9 Hours 27 minutes

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: December 5-10, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars

Audiobook Description:

On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed more than one hundred words per day, Dr. Jean McClellan is in denial. This can’t happen here. Not in America. Not to her.

Soon women are not permitted to hold jobs. Girls are not taught to read or write. Females no longer have a voice. Before, the average person spoke sixteen thousand words each day, but now women have only one hundred to make themselves heard.

For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.

This is just the beginning…not the end.

Jessica’s Review:

I don’t think of myself as a feminist, but dang, this book got my blood boiling! In a future America where women have literally been silenced in multiple ways: They can’t have a job, vote, travel, use a computer or even read. And even more: They cannot speak more than 100 words a day. Females of all ages (even little children) have to wear a wristband that counts down how many words they utter. Once the counter reaches zero the women receive an electric shock and ff they continue to speak the shock becomes even stronger until… well we do actually see what happens in one case. 

This America has The Pure Movement which is responsible for everything. Yes, this book has political and religious undertones to it.  Many people think of The Handmaid’s Tale. Women are totally silent and men make all of the decisions everywhere, including the home.  It’s not just women who are silenced: There are punishments for premarital sex and extramarital sex.  But it is just the women who are punished. Homosexuality has also been deemed a choice and there are camps where the LGTBQ persons are housed. They are housed in rooms with one man and one woman and are expected to reverse their ‘decisions’ and become heterosexual again. 

Our MC is Dr. Jean McClellan who has four children: Three boys and one young girl, so she is getting opinions from all sides. One of those sides comes from her own son who doesn’t seem to have any issue with The Pure Movement. He even tells Jean his plans with a girl. And Jean says, “what does she (the girl) have to say about that?!?” I’m sure not much since females can’t utter more than 100 words a day!

I also like that Jean is realistic but also far from perfect. We also see how her decisions affect how events occur.

This is a strong debut novel from Dalcher, though the second half was almost like a second weaker story for me.  It was piggybacking off of the original story but going in its own way. There were also a lot of science terms used that might be confusing for some readers. I think listening to the book helped me versus if I had been reading it.  I was still invested in it and found myself listening to the book whenever I was able to!

Dalcher seems to like to write about controversial subjects looking at some of the other books she has written: Master Class which deals with standardized testing in the school system and The Sentence which deals with prosecutors seeking the death penalty put their lives on the line if the guilty are later found innocent. Both of those books I plan on reading/ listening to!

Julia Whelan is the narrator for Vox, and I can’t say anything bad about her! I just love her and could listen to anything she narrates!

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

Book Review: If You Could See The Sun by Ann Liang

If You Could See The Sun
Author: Ann Liang

Published: October 11, 2022
341 pages

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read:  November 5- December 3, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars

Book Description:

Alice Sun has always felt invisible at her elite Beijing international boarding school, where she’s the only scholarship student among China’s most rich and influential teens. But then she starts uncontrollably turning invisible—actually invisible.
 
When her parents drop the news that they can no longer afford her tuition, even with the scholarship, Alice hatches a plan to monetize her strange new power—she’ll discover the scandalous secrets her classmates want to know, for a price.
 
But as the tasks escalate from petty scandals to actual crimes, Alice must decide if it’s worth losing her conscience—or even her life.

In this genre-bending YA debut, a Chinese American girl monetizes her strange new invisibility powers by discovering and selling her wealthy classmates’ most scandalous secrets.

Jessica’s Review:

 If You Could See The Sun took me way too long to read, but it’s not the book’s fault: In fact after reading it I wish I had been able to read it quicker. I enjoyed this one and it was a fun read that actually had some unexpected action to it! 

We have a book that deals with the differences in class which is a much bigger deal in China where the book is taking place.  We have Alice who is going to school on a scholarship (with continuing to rise prices) but soon her scholarship might not cover the cost of school! Suddenly she develops a ‘power’ to become invisible!  Alice decides to monetize her new ability by creating an app.  She also ends up working with her crush who is also her highest academic rival. Not being able to control her ‘ability’ does limit what she can do, but the jobs she finds herself doing go from nothing too serious to actual crimes, yes crimes! Alice gets more than she bargained for with the app and her ability. She finds out more than just classmates secrets.  It was refreshing in this time of ‘superhero movies’ that the regular Alice didn’t try to help others, but help herself to be able to stay in school.  Not everyone wants to be a superhero!  That just seems like something most people would do: How can I help myself first of all!  Alice is just a real girl: She’s sarcastic, smart, knows what she wants but also clueless at the same time.  In fact: a regular teenage girl! 

Despite there being an invisibility aspect to the book and not getting any answers in regards to it, the book just seemed realistic.  Teens being teens and the consequences of what they do. 

This is refreshing book! If you are looking for a romance angle, don’t be as it is an extremely slow burn. For a debut novel, this book has so many strengths, I am excited to see where Liang goes next!

Many thanks to the publisher Inkyard Press for sending me a copy to review via Bookish First. I hate that it took me so long to actually read it.

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

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Audiobook Review: Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Fourth Wing
Series: The Empyrean #1
Author: Rebecca Yarros

Narrators:
Rebecca Soler
Teddy Hamilton
Published: May 2, 2023
Audiobook: 20 hours 43 minutes

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: November 15-27, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars

Audiobook Description:

Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros.

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away…because dragons don’t bond to “fragile” humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom’s protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

Jessica’s Review:

Fourth Wing has been the book of the year, and it is outside of my normal genres, so I wasn’t really interested in reading it.  I had also heard the narration was terrible, so it had two strikes against it.  Then I heard that the narration was redone and well… there are dragons in it… so I decided to go for it, the second book in the series had been released so I was thinking that I wont have to wait for it then if I enjoyed this one! Big mistake: After I had started Fourth Wing, my dear fellow book friends informed me that there are supposed to be 5 books in this series! NOOOOO! I had thought it was just two!  Oh well….

My main interest in listening to it was the dragons, and they were so worth it! I love these dragons!!  It almost seems like the author didn’t really know what type of genre she wanted because the characters at time seemed like horny teenagers, but this is aimed for adults. I guess the horny teenagers part is because these candidates don’t know if they will even make it through school. And some don’t! We get lots of death.

There is a lot of chemistry between Violet and Xaden. Do they want each other or not? DO they hate each other or not?  We do get some spicy scenes. A little bit too spicy for me! I apparently like the closed door/ fade to black romance/ sweet romance stories/ and don’t need much details. We do get details aplenty here!

We have lots of action and again: DRAGONS!!  I also liked Violet.  She starts out weak but does grow over the course of the novel. I can’t wait to see what happens with her next. And then we have that ending!

I had no issues with the narration, like I previously said they must have redone it and fixed all the previous issues.  There are two narrators, but mainly it is Rebecca Soler doing her job. She portrayed Violet well. 

I did enjoy Fourth Wing, but don’t see how people are going crazy over this book and paying extreme amounts of money for that rare first edition with the dragon sprayed edges. There are some gorgeous editions that are out there now with special book boxes. I’ll definitely listen to the second one sometime soon and then I guess I will have to wait for the next three books to be written and come out just like everyone else!

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

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