Review: Master Class by Christina Dalcher

Master Class

by Christina Dalcher

Publisher: Berkley

Pages: 336

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  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.


Kritters Thoughts:  Elena Fairchild is a teacher at one of the elite schools and she has two daughters, two very different daughters.  One daughter excels at school and loves living by the Q score.  Her other daughter has struggled for a bit and after a failed test is doomed to move to a state school where she will be put to work at a camp and life sounds more work than school.  

With hints of history repeating itself and without wanting to spoil a thing, I will keep my review short and simple.  I loved the plot and the ability for the author to make nods to the past and making the reader really think about how this society was set up and the good and the bad that can come from it.  I loved the characters.  The characters are amazing.  They have depth and they are put in crazy situations and their reactions are just so interesting to follow.  

The "world" in this book doesn't seem as far off from reality as her first book.  I think because it was closer to reality it was easier to get into this book and it flew by.  I read this in one sitting.    

I read Christina Dalcher's first book, Vox, and LOVED it, so the minute I heard about the second book, I was counting down the days.  I had very high expectations for this book and it outdid them all!  I love when a sophomore novel lives up to all the expectations, now I will read Dalcher's books without even reading a synopsis.  


Rating: absolutely loved it and want a sequel

  Ebook 2020 Challenge: 34 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Berkley.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.