Review: Q by Christina Dalcher
I received a free ecopy of this book in return for an honest review. Many thanks to @netgalley and Harper Collins for the opportunity.
I do like a good dystopian and the description of Q (also published as Master Class) caught my eye, but I was hesitant about reading it. I worried it would be tough going, and I kept pushing it aside in favour of lighter reads. Then, pow, Covid-19 happened and there was my sense of focus out of the window! Suddenly I had more time than ever before to read but nothing was holding my attention. I picked Q up, and, honestly, it was miraculous. I was instantly sucked in. I was through several chapters before I even became conscious that I was reading.
The lead character, Elena is a teacher and mother of two girls. Anne, the eldest is an all round grade A student. Freddie, the younger, not so much. In our world that wouldn’t matter, but in this world everything revolves around your Q or Quotient score. The Q score, however, is more than just an intelligence test, it is also calculated by attendance, lateness and other factors such as salary and Q score of other family members. Your Q score has a massive impact on life, from allowing you to jump the queue at the supermarket, down to which parent gets custody in a break up.
When Freddie fails her monthly Q tests and is packed off to a state school in Kansas. Elena is devastated and sabotages her own Q test in order to go bring her home. Of course it’s not as easy as that.
The narrative is punctuated by flashbacks to Elena’s youth. Choices and regrets are a major theme. As are a twisting of current values. The current mantra of Children’s workers, ‘No child left behind’ has become, “No child left behind means all children suffer.” Abortions are now encouraged and expected. The reminiscences of Elena’s ailing grandmother, about Nazi Germany highlight the urgency of Freddie’s situation adding a nail biting tension to the book while serving as a reminder of the perils in allowing freedom to slip too far and the stealth by which it can be taken.
The writing is intelligent but not heavy going. It sucks the reader in and before the end forces you to witness Elena having to make some horrifying choices. By then, of course, you are far too emotionally involved to let go.
The premise of Q is a manmade crisis and very different to the deadly disease currently ravaging humankind, but many of the emotions of fear, and loss of control are the same. I found this book to be the perfect buffer between needing to find a connection with reality, but also needing to escape for a while.