Master Class

by Christina Dalcher

From the critically-acclaimed author of the international bestseller VOX comes a suspenseful new novel that examines a disturbing near future where harsh realities follow from unreachable standards.

It’s impossible to know what you will do…

Every child's potential is regularly determined by a standardized measurement: their quotient (Q). Score high enough, and attend a top tier school with a golden future. Score too low, and it's off to a federal boarding school with limited prospects afterwards. The purpose? An improved society where education costs drop, teachers focus on the more promising students, and parents are happy.

When your child is taken from you.

Elena Fairchild is a teacher at one of the state's elite schools. When her nine-year-old daughter bombs a monthly test and her Q score drops to a disastrously low level, she is immediately forced to leave her top school for a federal institution hundreds of miles away. As a teacher, Elena thought she understood the tiered educational system, but as a mother whose child is now gone, Elena's perspective is changed forever. She just wants her daughter back.

And she will do the unthinkable to make it happen.

• ISBN10: 0440000831
• ISBN13: 9780440000839
• Publish Date: 21 April 2020
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Berkley Publishing Corporation,U.S.
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780440000839

Reviews

[Kim Deister]

From the moment I began reading Christina Dalcher's first book, Vox, I've been a fan. Master Class just solidified that. This book was dark, with implications that are absolutely chilling to consider.

The world of the book is easily imaginable as our own, which adds to the feeling of horror. It is a perfect example of how an idea that can sound positive in the beginning can then morph and become corrupted until it has become something else entirely. It is terrifying because it shows just how easily something like that could and does happen in our own reality.

In Master Class, the US has created a system much like the social credit system that China is developing in the real world right now. It started out as a system based on education, with tiered schools based on ability and performance. Teachers, too, are tested monthly. At first, that is the limit of the "Q" number. Education.

But then that number becomes the center of everything. The wrong people come together to corrupt its significance in ways that are virtually unimaginable. And that is when the story becomes truly horrific. The capacity for humanity's ability to be evil is astonishing.

It is a story about family, about what it means to be a family. It's about love. It's about freedom, the freedom to be yourself, and about equality. It's a story about empowerment, about having the courage to stand up and speak against the atrocities of life.

But most of all, this is a novel is a cautionary tale. A reminder of how easily one can begin with good intentions and then fall down the rabbit hole to something much worse. It is utterly brilliant as much as it is terrifying.

my recommendation: This is an important read, a life-changing read. It is chilling, thought-provoking, and brilliant. I HIGHLY recommend this book, as well as her first book, Vox.

[shannonmiz]

You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight

4.5*

You ever take a second chance on an author whose first book you didn't quite love? Happened to me, right here! Vox wasn't awful, but it definitely wasn't my favorite. But when I saw the synopsis for Master Class, I just knew I had to give the author another go. And I am SO glad I did! So consider this review a reminder of why it's always nice to give second chances- and why I'll certainly be picking up her next book!

Master Class drops us into a world where the only real measure of success is a "Q Score". This score, in theory, is based solely on a person's intelligence and ability to succeed academically. But of course, it's more than that. Get a divorce? Lose points. Late for work? You're getting docked. Poor? Forget it, you've got no chance of a high score. And so, like every other system designed to divide and disenfranchise, this one was working great for those at the top. Until one of its own began to see through the façade.

Elena is at the top of society. A teacher in a prestigious school, mother of two, and married to one of the head honchos of this system, she has been seemingly enjoying all the benefits the Q system has offered her. Only, behind the scenes, things aren't as rosy. Her marriage is a sham, her husband being kind of The Worst™ in general, but especially to their younger daughter. And said younger daughter doesn't really wish to follow this system, and struggles to maintain her scores. When the unthinkable happens, and Freddie's score drops, she's sent to a federally-run school in the midwest. And Elena can no longer turn a blind eye.

One of the greatest parts about this book is that I was able to understand Elena's actions and decisions. And make no mistake, they are terrible decisions to make. And she's been making them for awhile! At the start, I wondered why on earth she'd stay with Malcolm, who is actual garbage, but it all becomes clear as the story progresses. She also has to make what has to be the toughest decision a mother could be forced to make, whether to stay with her older daughter Anna, or go after Freddie. It's an incredibly emotional story, and I could not help but feel for Elena all the way, despite some of her past mistakes. And really, her mistakes (and willingness to correct them) are a big part of what makes her so relatable and worthy of rooting for. 

The book also illustrates the hows and the whys of the ways of the world. What led to such a system, and how it went so very wrong in the process. Elena is never alone in her journey either, though the decisions she must make are lonely. Her family (parents and grandma) are absolutely wonderful throughout the story, and their love and support keeps Elena going. She also meets some unlikely friends along the way who really do a great job of highlighting what is happening in other parts of the country.

But more than anything, this book is incredibly thought provoking. It asks questions that you may not quite know how to answer. Not only does it present great moral debates, but asks what is the measure of someone's worth.

Bottom Line: Incredibly thought provoking and so emotionally driven, Elena is a compelling character whose journey will elicit many emotions, and many moral questions.