Q (Master Class) by Christina Dalcher

This title is sold as Master Class in the US and Q in the UK, but it is the same novel.

The Q has become the most important number in anyone's life. Every tests, every leson, every interaction adds or subtracts from your Q in various forms. Drop too low, and the yellow bus will come for you...



Christina Dalcher wrote Vox a couple of years ago, a novel where women and girls were limited to only 100 words a day. In this new novel, boys seem to be discriminated against equally - at least, there are some boys in the bottom ranked school - but tellingly, when the master plan is revealed it seems to focus only on women.

I can't say I exactly 'enjoy' reading Christina's novels. They're heavy, weighty topics, hard to get through. But I begged for this one as soon as I found out it was coming, and I've read it in less than a day. I'll keep reading them, because she says important things.

I was a little surprised that the narrator didn't recognise the Bund Deutscher Mädel, even in context. I might not have been able to reel off the name, but I know who they are. Maybe they don't learn that in America, though. Here in Ireland, we're closer to that part of history.

(I've just asked my two housemates and neither of them knew who they were either, even though they are two well educated adults! I rescind my surprise a bit. Clearly I'm reading the right/wrong kinds of things.)

I read it. I'll be thinking about it for a while. And I'll be watching eagerly for Christina's next book.

US version      UK Version

The future of every child is determined by one standardized measurement: their quotient (Q). Score high enough, and they attend a top tier school with a golden future ahead of them. Score low, and they are sent to a federally run boarding school with limited prospects for future employment. The purpose? Education costs are cut, teachers focus on the best students, and parents are happy.

Elena Fairchild is a teacher at one of the state's elite schools. When her nine-year old daughter fails her next monthly test, her Q score drops to a disastrously low level and she is immediately forced to leave her top school for a federal school hundreds of miles away. As a teacher, Elena knows intimately the dangers of failure in their tiered educational system, but as a mother who just lost her child, all Elena wants is to be near her daughter again. And she will do the unthinkable to make it happen.