Author: Christina Dalcher
Published: April 21st 2020 by Berkley
Format: eBook, Hardcovr 336pgs
Genre: Near Future Dystopic
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Gut wrenching, intense, and viscerally painful to read.
There were times I had to put the book down. To force my mind away from the awful reality of what the near-future dystopian genre shows when do not pay attention to the signs. The slow boil of a frog as they say; where little changes here and there, can lead to consequences no one saw coming.
From the outside, Elena and Malcolm Fairchild are the epitomes of success. The right look, the right education, but most importantly the right 9-plus Q score. The number which says you have the right stuff, that you are of a certain ‘tier’ in society. Now, let’s flip that. What if Elena and Malcolm have two daughters. One is easily in the 9-plus range and attends a ‘silver’ school, the school full of children with the inherent gifts from cohesive nuclear families. But the second, not diagnosed on any spectrum, only qualifies for the ‘green’ school, a step lower, but not the worst. Yet has anxiety and is beginning to fall in the below 9 range on her monthly tests. This Monday will be different, Freddie will be sent off on the ‘yellow’ bus to a state-run school where education and resources are not wasted.
The intensity of this book is overwhelming. History is repeating itself with one question, “Should generation after generation continue to reproduce substandard intellect?”, opens a door that was closed generations ago with the first discussion of eugenics. So, the next time someone questions one more test or a small evaluation change, think about where it could lead.
There were times I had to put the book down. To force my mind away from the awful reality of what the near-future dystopian genre shows when do not pay attention to the signs. The slow boil of a frog as they say; where little changes here and there, can lead to consequences no one saw coming.
From the outside, Elena and Malcolm Fairchild are the epitomes of success. The right look, the right education, but most importantly the right 9-plus Q score. The number which says you have the right stuff, that you are of a certain ‘tier’ in society. Now, let’s flip that. What if Elena and Malcolm have two daughters. One is easily in the 9-plus range and attends a ‘silver’ school, the school full of children with the inherent gifts from cohesive nuclear families. But the second, not diagnosed on any spectrum, only qualifies for the ‘green’ school, a step lower, but not the worst. Yet has anxiety and is beginning to fall in the below 9 range on her monthly tests. This Monday will be different, Freddie will be sent off on the ‘yellow’ bus to a state-run school where education and resources are not wasted.
The intensity of this book is overwhelming. History is repeating itself with one question, “Should generation after generation continue to reproduce substandard intellect?”, opens a door that was closed generations ago with the first discussion of eugenics. So, the next time someone questions one more test or a small evaluation change, think about where it could lead.
No comments:
Post a Comment