I love a dystopian book and really enjoyed her previous book - Vox so was really excited to read this one.
As with VOX its a disturbing portrayal of something that could happen and isn't out of the realms of fantasy. Its about the education system - Its set in a future not unlike ours - Everyone has a Q score and these are determined from school age where once a week children are tested and depending on their score they are sent to a Silver, green or yellow school - Silver is the Elite school. The story is about Elena who is a teacher in a Silver school and her 2 children also attend. Her husband (Malcolm) is the deputy secretary of the department of education and Elena and Malcolm don't see eye to eye about many things and the weekly testing is one of them. The youngest daughter Freddie scores low one week and is sent off to a yellow school - this is a boarding school in a state thousands of miles away and you can only visit 4 times a year. Elena sets out to get her back and discovers a lot about the school system and what the public are not supposed to be hearing.... This book is inspired by historical events - the American Eugenics movement of which I didn't know anything about - scary stuff .

I haven’t read much dystopian fiction but I do like to dip my toe in now and again and this looked such a fascinating read.

Q is a story based around a nightmare scenario that you think couldn’t possibly happen… could it?

In this world, everyone has a Q number which affects every aspect of their life, even babies are allocated a number at birth based on their parent’s Q. Q is a quotient number – based on intelligence, income, parents’ education, exam results, attendance records, performance and other factors and it is recalculated each month based on testing. For adults it may determine which jobs you can have, or even which supermarket queue you can use. Whilst children with the highest Q go to the elite schools (silver) and receive the best education, those with the lowest are sent far away from their families to federal schools (yellow) with green in the middle. No-one wants to be sent to a yellow school.

Teacher Elena Fairchild is married to Malcolm, one of the heads of the Department of Education responsible for making the rules and a more despicable man you could not meet! A cold man yet one who shows favouritism within the family, he is insistent that the rules must be followed even when it affects his own child, Elena has to make a desperate choice when the Q number for her youngest child Freddie falls below the desired level and she faces being sent to a yellow school.

The concept of eugenics is a focus of this story, and although it may seem far-fetched, who knows what could happen if something like the ‘Fitter Family Campaign’ actually became a reality. If parents separate, then a child is placed with the parent with the highest Q number, who earns the most, who takes the least time off work – which is usually the man.

I could get completely behind the character of Elena as she fought the system that her husband was complicit in implementing, to help her child. As a university student together with Malcolm, she heartily agreed with his views but then her feelings changed, both for Malcolm and for the whole programme. For her grandmother Oma, it invoked memories of the Nazi eugenics programme.

Both suspenseful and disturbing, Q was an unsettling tale of a society where perfection was rewarded and anyone who didn’t make the grade – well they didn’t matter. I was totally absorbed by this chilling and thought provoking story – right to the very last page.

A really interesting take on a dystopian future, if one that is disturbingly easy to see becoming reality.

The characters were really intriguing, even if I did want to shake a few of them quite often early on in the book.

This book held me right to the end and didn't end as expected. In fact I filled up at the last few paragraphs.

Children have to achieve certain standards or they get demoted to a lower school. The lowest schools are those where the children have to leave the family home and go to a state school somewhere else in the country.

Some unexpected transfers occur in the street where El lives, two girls in the neighbourhood get dropped from Silver to Yellow, unheard of before. And there was no sign of the girls failing before that.

Then El's daughter Freddie is transfered too. El cannot stand the idea of Freddie in a yellow state school on her own. She asks her husband Malcolm to intervene, as he is in the top level of the management team for the Fitter Family Programme, but he refuses.

So El deliberately flunks her own teacher assessment to be transfered too.

What she expects and what she gets are so far apart as to be unbelievable.

Normally a reader of historical fiction I quite like a change of scene with dystopian novels, loved Handmaids Tale. Vox by the same author is on my TBR list and I found myself engaged with the storyline given by Christina Dalcher in “Q”. We see the culmination of childhood teasing and bullying developing into something darker, drawing parallels with the horrors of WW2, the ease in which it develops is quite shocking and until a family member is affected Elena Fairchild appears to accept the regime. Slowly niggling concerns shine a light on the disturbing atrocities that are developing. I enjoyed the backstory of her grandmother too, of history repeating itself.

Thank you to Netgalley the author and Berkeley publishers for an ARC of this book.

I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review. Many thanks to @netgalley and @HarperCollinsUK for the opportunity

Q by Christina Dalcher is an okay book, but it just wasn't for me, it didn't hold my attention and I had to force myself to finish the book.

I'm sure it will become a best seller as many people like her books.

I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review. Many thanks to @netgalley and @HarperCollinsUK for the opportunity.

The most frightening thing is about that is an inch away from our everyday lives. Would you make the grade? What is the master class? Have you got a high emotional quotient? What is enough?

Full disclosure, I will read anything Dalcher writes. Vox was terrific, and this certainly did not disappoint, only that it was over too quickly. I love language and the way that Christina plays with it and how she creates the most frightening vision of life. An image of life that is just one step on the way to where our society is heading.

This captivating novel has it all; a fully realised central character, a focused and concise storyline, and some terrifying moments which leave you thinking 'what would I do?'

If that's not enough, it can meet tonnes of reading prompts:
it passes the Bechdel test
published in April 2020
a book with only words on the cover
writing about women in STEM...

I am desperately avoiding a comparison with Margret Atwood, but this novel is definitely for fans of The Handmaid's Tale, Vox and The Power.

Q is a very timely dystopian thriller set in a world where every child undergoes routine testing to find out their Q, quotient. Any children who score low are sent away to government schools, of which no one knows much about. The children who score above the standard go to elite schools, of which our protagonist is a teacher. When one of her daughters scores lower than expected and is sent away, she intends to follow suit failing her own teacher exam. What she is going to find out will shock her. This is very thought-provoking and will have you scared for the future. Highly recommended to readers who enjoyed Vox or other timely dystopian thrillers.

I was really excited to read this book, after loving Vox and for the first part I did. However, towards the end I found myself getting slightly bored? The plot just didn't work in the second part of the novel and I couldn't connect to the characters.

Q by Christina Dalcher tells the story of Elena Fairchild, a teacher and mother living in a near future America obsessed with perfection (in women at least). Every child must undergo routine testing to establish their quotient (Q) score and those that don’t make the grade are shipped it to government school, miles away from home and shrouded in secrecy. When one of her daughters drops below the required standard, Elena is forced to risk everything in an attempt to save her and uncovers the terrifying truth in the process. Q is a smart, fast paced and thrilling book. It builds in such a way that you’ll find yourself as desperate for the truth as Elena. A worthy follow up to Dalcher’s excellent debut Vox. Highly recommended if you are looking for a gripping distraction. It also has the benefit of leaving you feeling like the current situation isn’t all that bad after all.

What can I say about Q. There was so much hype around this book and after previously enjoying VOX I can understand why. When I first started the book it started out brilliantly. I was really enjoying it. However, midway through I did find the pace slowing a little and was a little bit disappointed by that. I did generally like the writing style and feel perhaps it was just my mindset when reading this making it difficult for me to keep interested. In summary I liked this book but I was hoping for a bit more at the halfway point.

Q is a work of fiction, but it is terrifyingly prescient. Set in the near future, every human being is tested to get their quotient score or their 'Q'. This score is ostensibly based on intelligence, but includes ethnicity, marital status, sexuality, and more. Elena is a teacher, she is married to Malcolm and has two daughters. When her youngest, Freddie, fails the Q testing, Elena knows she has to find a way to stay close to her. Her husband Malcolm is one of those responsible for writing the new laws, and when he refuses to intervene to save Freddie from the fate of being taken miles from home to a state 'school', Elena knows their marriage is over.

When she purposely fails the teacher assessment, and forges a document to ensure she is demoted to the same school that Freddie's been taken to, she soon realises that these state schools are not schools at all. The intention is to eradicate anyone who is seen as less than 'perfect'. In other words, eugenics are the future. With no other way to save Freddie, Elena agrees to take part in an experiment which will have devastating consequences.

This is the first Dalcher book I have read. The basic story line is promising - a government trying to achieve the highest standards of education at the expense of the less able. Dalcher draws parallels between the Nazi regime and actual similar studies in early 20th century USA. Unfortunately, neither of the 2 main character, Elena and her husband Malcolm, are likeable. Elena is the narrator and the story consistently jumps between the present and the past. Although it adds more background information, it just slows the story down. I wonder if the author got as bored as I did as the story rapidly ends.

It was a good, well-paced thriller that was thought-provoking.
I really enjoyed my time and the writing. I'd definitely recommend if you're looking for a gripping read.

Thanks a lot to NG and the publisher for this copy.

Summary:
Elena Fairchild is a teacher at one of the state’s new elite schools. Her daughters are just like her, which is a good thing as the recent mandate for the country is one about perfection. Everyone must take routine tests for the quotient, or Q, and any child that doesn’t score high enough is placed into state, or yellow, schools. The teachers are then able to focus on the gifted. Elena tells herself it isn’t about eugenics, but when one of her daughters scores sinks below the desirable Q, Elena fails her test to go with her. But she isn’t aware that what she will find is far more terrifying than anyone could have imagined…

Review:
This was an interesting and thought-provoking read. It is almost a modern day Nazi party situation that Elena finds herself in, made more apparent with the comparisons made throughout the book. The plot and the story were well-written and I wanted to know what was going to happen throughout the course of the book. I do think that the ending was wrapped up all too quickly and I although this book was marketed as a thriller, it would be more suitable to classify this as a dystopian novel.

Where this book fell flat for me was the lack of connection I felt with the characters. One of the main things I look for in a book is the connection to the characters and I just didn’t get connected with the characters. The characters were ok, but they didn’t stand out for me. I am also a crier and I believe that if had been able to truly connect with the characters, the situations they found themselves in would have made me shed a tear. I was a little disappointed that the characters weren’t as well written as the story was.

As a result of this, I couldn’t rate this book higher than a 3. This was an ok read and I did like reading this, however, if the ending wasn’t wrapped up too quickly, and the characters matched the stimulating plotline, I believe this book would have been worthy of a four-star rating.

Elena Fairchild is a teacher at one of the state’s elite schools. Her daughters are exactly like her: beautiful, ambitious and perfect. A good thing, since the recent mandate that’s swept the country is all about perfection. ⠀
Now everyone must undergo routine tests for their quotient, Q, and any children who don’t measure up are placed into new government schools. Instead, teachers can focus on the gifted ⠀
Elena tells herself it’s not about eugenics, not really, but when one of her daughters scores lower than expected and is taken away, she intentionally fails her own test to go with her. ⠀
But what Elena discovers is far more terrifying that she ever imagined. ⠀
•⠀
The idea for Q is bred from a bitter, offhand comment made from a scorned teenager, fed up of being left behind because she wasn’t the ‘pretty girl’ or friends with the cheerleaders, it just happened that that comment made its way into the mind of someone evil who spawned it into a nationwide assault on anyone who dared to be different. Gripping from its very first page, the content leaps off the page and settles into the part of your brain where fear breeds. Dystopian fiction is thrilling in a way that other genres aren’t, usually because they’re laced with a layer of truth and in this case, history. A history that isn’t all that historical in the grand scheme of things. ⠀
•⠀
Dalcher’s words on eugenics and chemical sterilisation are a scary and but eye opening window into a history that isn’t taught in schools. A part of the past that I’m sure people would rather we didn’t talk about.⠀
•⠀
As with VOX, I read Q in a day. Only stopping to sleep. I’m sorry to add to your ever growing TBR piles but I urge you to add this one to it immediately. Thanks to @hqstories and @cvdalcher for this advanced copy of Q

I enjoyed this one more than I thought I would. The storyline was original and interesting and held my attention throughout.

Another thought provoking thriller from this author. It might be described as dystopian but, worryingly, I don't think it's that far from the real world in some ways. Elena is a teacher and lives in a world where everyone is graded by their Q number, a rating that dictates their position in society. Elena's Q number is high, as is her husbands and two daughters. But when her youngest daughter's Q slips, she's sent away and Elena begins to question everything. I really enjoyed the first half of the book-setting the scene and finding out how this family live and interact within this world. The second half wasn't as gripping, despite the fact it was more action packed. As well as the present day storyline, we learn how the Q system was introduced through flashbacks to a young Elena. This was useful and perhaps more interesting to me. I think my main problem with the book is how similar the plot and characters were to Vox. Other than that, it was an okay read.

Q
Wow..this is absolutely unputdownable.
This is an incredible & timely book. With life so difficult at the moment this dystopian thriller seems very relatable & in a nutshell...just read this book. .its amazing.

I loved Vox & I loved Q. I adore how Christina Dalcher writes. I love how we are dropped into the middle of a story, in an unrecognisable but familiar world & then we piece it together gradually throughout the book.

There were a few times I was confused by the timeline...& if there is one tiny complaint then I wish the timeline in flashbacks was a bit clearer & how the state that we are experiencing came to be. I couldn't quite work out how long it had been in place. However wanting more information is really a good thing!

This book also highlights an extremely important part of history that is often forgotten...and one I didn't really know about at all...How great is that? Its woven in there so well.. you almost don't realise you are learning...which given the subject matter fits well.

There is nothing I can really say about this book without giving too much away. The story is mind blowing & the dystopian feel made my heart race. The characters are great & the feelings I had about them were strong.

I love Christina Dalcher as a writer. I love this book. Read it...you definitely won't regret it.

Thanks to the author, publisher & Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I loved it!

As with her first book, this is another tale that will really get the reader thinking about society and where we are heading. In this book, each individual is given a Q rating. This isn't just based on their own level of intelligence, reliability, moral standing etc but can be effected by that of their family, so a child having too many sick days can pull down the parents rating. All of their life is affected by their Q rating, what school they can attend, what till they can use in the supermarket, every aspect. When Elena's youngest daughter's rating drops, she gets shipped out to a "state school". Elena is determined to follow her and manages to secure herself a teaching job at the same school. Whilst trying to save her daughter, Elena has to challenge the whole system. I loved Christina Dalcher's first book "vox" and when I read it I nagged all my friends to read it too. This is just as good. Don't take my word for it. Read it, you won't regret it. Looking forward to her next book.