comefromaway's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This surprised me - I liked it much more than I expected to.
Incredibly compelling, probably because it’s something that could happen to the world we live in now.
Ending was a little quick for me, I understand why it wasn’t but I’d have liked more of what was going on.
Incredibly compelling, probably because it’s something that could happen to the world we live in now.
Ending was a little quick for me, I understand why it wasn’t but I’d have liked more of what was going on.
wibblywobblywoo's review against another edition
4.0
A speculative fiction with the right mix of potential 'what-ifs' and normal life to immerse you straight into a thought-provoking concept. A satisfying, uncomplicated read.
hanbu's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
waddlealot's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
echitchins's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
msjacquip's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Another great piece of dystopian fiction from Christina Dalcher. The letter Q stands for quotient and, in this society, everyone is ranked in accordance with their Q score - a number between 1 and 10. The higher the the number, the more prestige. Monthly testing controls everything in your life, from your job, to where you can shop and where you can get an education.
Elena Fairchild is a teacher at a silver school, her Q score in the 9’s. But when her daughter (who is at a green school - the middle of the road) is told that her test scores have dropped so low that she must attend a yellow school (the lowest of the low) in the middle of nowhere, she knows she has to do something to help.
I absolutely LOVED Q! It reminded me of Gattica, where society turned to the seemingly “perfect” to be in positions of power.
Elena was a formidable character and the reader is taken on a journey with her. Fantastic book!
Elena Fairchild is a teacher at a silver school, her Q score in the 9’s. But when her daughter (who is at a green school - the middle of the road) is told that her test scores have dropped so low that she must attend a yellow school (the lowest of the low) in the middle of nowhere, she knows she has to do something to help.
I absolutely LOVED Q! It reminded me of Gattica, where society turned to the seemingly “perfect” to be in positions of power.
Elena was a formidable character and the reader is taken on a journey with her. Fantastic book!
elliesjenna's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
sambora's review against another edition
1.0
I received an uncorrected proof copy of Q (titled Master Class in the US), in exchange for an honest review.
And honest I shall be...
This is the second book written by Christina Dalcher. I read her first book, VOX, last year and unfortunately I really didn't enjoy it. My spoiler-filled, and equally loathsome, review for that can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2965112561?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
I was initially going to pass on reading this because of my bad experience with VOX, but I was interested to see how (and if) Dalcher's writing and storytelling had developed.
This review will reference VOX fairly often, but I hope to make my points clearly enough so as not to have made it necessary to have read it to understand my criticisms.
In addition I shall add that you may even prefer this book if you haven't read VOX, because at their core they are ostensibly the same book. I shall break it down.
Spoiler-free Story Overview:
Q is the story of Elena Fairchild - a teacher at an elite school, and her family.
A recent mandate has swept the country that is all about striving for "perfection".
Everyone must undergo routine tests for their quotient, Q, and any child who doesn't measure up is transferred to new government schools, so that teachers may focus on the gifted and the perfect.
When one of Elena's daughter's Q scores takes a dive she is taken away and Elena does what she can to get her back.
I shall start by saying that the writing itself, whilst I still think it a far cry from "great", has improved somewhat since the last book.
There aren't half as many confusing tangents or ill-fitting scenes pasted throughout the book. I found it easy to read quickly, which I appreciated.
Take that as you will.
VOX was a short story that was padded out and sold as a full length novel at the perfect time. It had some themes and not-so-subtle complaints and criticisms about the then current state of affairs in the US, and it found it's market amongst people who were looking for more 'Handmaid's Tale' type stories.
Q, however, is just a lazy re-skinning of the same plot, characters, messages and themes of VOX with the names swapped out and the central idea being based around the education system, rather than women's rights and linguistics.
There are far too many similarities to write about them all, but I shall compile a key few of them into concise bullet points:
• The 'Pure Movement' is now the 'Fitter Family Campaign'. Badges, figurehead, iconography and all.
• Instead of the Italian sub-plot we saw in VOX, we have the German one here in Q.
• It features the same bland, first person POV, from a mother of a nuclear family. Highly educated and very middle class. No deviation at all, to the point that they could have been the same character.
• A husband who works for the government, who is almost directly credited for the new system being implemented and enforced. Half of a very unhappy marriage. Patrick or Malcolm, you ask? Same difference. They both have offices that both hide crucial information on locked computers that both of our protagonists end up stealing at one point in the story.
• Our protagonists also both have a child who is indoctrinated by the new system(s), who both end up realising that oppression is bad! Aren't they smart? Steven and Anne play exactly the same roles as far as I could see.
BONUS SIMILARITY:
• Dalcher also seems to be somewhat fixated on the usage of the word "it". Her distain for the word appears in both books in exactly the same fashion, although thankfully less so here.
I have a two other key complaints:
1) It is mentioned that the LGBTQIA+ community, people with disabilities and those that suffer with mental health issues are specifically targeted groups of society under this new and oppressive mandate. But, not giving them any voice or representation past a single token lesbian character, who has no role within the context of the story, I found to be shameful.
Instead we again see what a hard time the straight, middle-class, highly educated, white woman (who somehow caused these systems to be rolled out in the first place) had when dealing with the repercussions.
If an author "cares" enough to acknowledge the struggle these groups face, why not do something to accommodate for them in their own story? It comes across as "fake-woke" to mention it and then to leave it alone. Instead they'd sooner write from inside their own little bubble of understanding. Only giving voice to those they can relate to personally. Anyway.
2) Less importantly, but still frustratingly, the insertion and active acknowledgment of one-sentence coincidences that have absolutely no relevance to anything at any point... Why? Why?! An example of this being a character called Dr. Mender, who's job it is to do what amounts to the opposite of "mending" his patients... What's the point in pointing out that "coincidence"?! Or even writing it in in the first place?!
There were elements that I thought were OK. The parallel timelines and flashbacks were well done, although I DID find it to be a little heavy handed to start each flashback with...
"THEN:"
Give us some credit! We can immediately see that this is the past.
But the story these flashbacks told were one of the more interesting arcs: Elena and her days in school, when she was the reject and the nerd that everyone pushed around and how, under these newly emerging rules and structures, she became a bully and a snob. Bitter and shallow.
Now I know what you're thinking, and admittedly, this is not normally what you look for in a main character, but I'd honestly take it over the bland, boring and two-dimensional version of herself that she becomes as she gets older.
I shall end this critique here. I have pages and pages of notes, but I really don't wish to spend any more time thinking about this book than I already have.
However "troubling" or "scary" the premise, the execution was far from it. I wasn't invested, hooked or emotionally moved at any point, and the blatant usage of the same storytelling framework as the previous novel comes across as extremely lazy.
Thank you again to the publisher, Harper Collins, for sending me a free copy of Q and giving me an opportunity to share my thoughts on it, particularly after my 1 star review of VOX. I am sad to be giving this one the same.
I honestly hope that others end up enjoying this more than I did.
Personally, I shan't be so optimistic about the next derivative excuse of a book from this author, and I am sure that I won't be reading it.
_________________________
Thank you for taking the time to read my review.
If nothing else this book has succeeded in making me very excited to read ANY other book. But luckily for me I am finally going to start Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson next!
Onward and upward!
Happy reading, folks!
And honest I shall be...
This is the second book written by Christina Dalcher. I read her first book, VOX, last year and unfortunately I really didn't enjoy it. My spoiler-filled, and equally loathsome, review for that can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2965112561?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
I was initially going to pass on reading this because of my bad experience with VOX, but I was interested to see how (and if) Dalcher's writing and storytelling had developed.
This review will reference VOX fairly often, but I hope to make my points clearly enough so as not to have made it necessary to have read it to understand my criticisms.
In addition I shall add that you may even prefer this book if you haven't read VOX, because at their core they are ostensibly the same book. I shall break it down.
Spoiler-free Story Overview:
Q is the story of Elena Fairchild - a teacher at an elite school, and her family.
A recent mandate has swept the country that is all about striving for "perfection".
Everyone must undergo routine tests for their quotient, Q, and any child who doesn't measure up is transferred to new government schools, so that teachers may focus on the gifted and the perfect.
When one of Elena's daughter's Q scores takes a dive she is taken away and Elena does what she can to get her back.
I shall start by saying that the writing itself, whilst I still think it a far cry from "great", has improved somewhat since the last book.
There aren't half as many confusing tangents or ill-fitting scenes pasted throughout the book. I found it easy to read quickly, which I appreciated.
Take that as you will.
VOX was a short story that was padded out and sold as a full length novel at the perfect time. It had some themes and not-so-subtle complaints and criticisms about the then current state of affairs in the US, and it found it's market amongst people who were looking for more 'Handmaid's Tale' type stories.
Q, however, is just a lazy re-skinning of the same plot, characters, messages and themes of VOX with the names swapped out and the central idea being based around the education system, rather than women's rights and linguistics.
There are far too many similarities to write about them all, but I shall compile a key few of them into concise bullet points:
• The 'Pure Movement' is now the 'Fitter Family Campaign'. Badges, figurehead, iconography and all.
• Instead of the Italian sub-plot we saw in VOX, we have the German one here in Q.
• It features the same bland, first person POV, from a mother of a nuclear family. Highly educated and very middle class. No deviation at all, to the point that they could have been the same character.
• A husband who works for the government, who is almost directly credited for the new system being implemented and enforced. Half of a very unhappy marriage. Patrick or Malcolm, you ask? Same difference. They both have offices that both hide crucial information on locked computers that both of our protagonists end up stealing at one point in the story.
• Our protagonists also both have a child who is indoctrinated by the new system(s), who both end up realising that oppression is bad! Aren't they smart? Steven and Anne play exactly the same roles as far as I could see.
BONUS SIMILARITY:
• Dalcher also seems to be somewhat fixated on the usage of the word "it". Her distain for the word appears in both books in exactly the same fashion, although thankfully less so here.
I have a two other key complaints:
1) It is mentioned that the LGBTQIA+ community, people with disabilities and those that suffer with mental health issues are specifically targeted groups of society under this new and oppressive mandate. But, not giving them any voice or representation past a single token lesbian character, who has no role within the context of the story, I found to be shameful.
Instead we again see what a hard time the straight, middle-class, highly educated, white woman (who somehow caused these systems to be rolled out in the first place) had when dealing with the repercussions.
If an author "cares" enough to acknowledge the struggle these groups face, why not do something to accommodate for them in their own story? It comes across as "fake-woke" to mention it and then to leave it alone. Instead they'd sooner write from inside their own little bubble of understanding. Only giving voice to those they can relate to personally. Anyway.
2) Less importantly, but still frustratingly, the insertion and active acknowledgment of one-sentence coincidences that have absolutely no relevance to anything at any point... Why? Why?! An example of this being a character called Dr. Mender, who's job it is to do what amounts to the opposite of "mending" his patients... What's the point in pointing out that "coincidence"?! Or even writing it in in the first place?!
There were elements that I thought were OK. The parallel timelines and flashbacks were well done, although I DID find it to be a little heavy handed to start each flashback with...
"THEN:"
Give us some credit! We can immediately see that this is the past.
But the story these flashbacks told were one of the more interesting arcs: Elena and her days in school, when she was the reject and the nerd that everyone pushed around and how, under these newly emerging rules and structures, she became a bully and a snob. Bitter and shallow.
Now I know what you're thinking, and admittedly, this is not normally what you look for in a main character, but I'd honestly take it over the bland, boring and two-dimensional version of herself that she becomes as she gets older.
I shall end this critique here. I have pages and pages of notes, but I really don't wish to spend any more time thinking about this book than I already have.
However "troubling" or "scary" the premise, the execution was far from it. I wasn't invested, hooked or emotionally moved at any point, and the blatant usage of the same storytelling framework as the previous novel comes across as extremely lazy.
Thank you again to the publisher, Harper Collins, for sending me a free copy of Q and giving me an opportunity to share my thoughts on it, particularly after my 1 star review of VOX. I am sad to be giving this one the same.
I honestly hope that others end up enjoying this more than I did.
Personally, I shan't be so optimistic about the next derivative excuse of a book from this author, and I am sure that I won't be reading it.
_________________________
Thank you for taking the time to read my review.
If nothing else this book has succeeded in making me very excited to read ANY other book. But luckily for me I am finally going to start Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson next!
Onward and upward!
Happy reading, folks!
proudlocks's review against another edition
5.0
Really enjoyed it! Shocked at the ending, but a mamas love knows no bounds!
gonzales04's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5