At the start we find out she hates her husband because he plays favorites with the older daughter and disregards the younger. She's way better than him! The horrible monster! Suddenly passionate to find out the truth behind these schools, Elena takes off in search of answers knowing that it will lower not only her Q points but also that of her entire family and in doing so will destroy everything she once held dear. I mean, I get the idea of the school system, but parents and other people in the family are not supposed to fit in. My parents are poor but I’m a genius, why I can’t go to the best school? Also, you can’t really pretend to make a six-year-old girl study all day; kids have to be kids. I liked the ending, was a very different one from the one I was expecting. Not all neatly tied into a happily ever after scenario. A very interesting, thought provoking read? Can it happen here? Again or have we learned our lesson? Somehow I doubt it. Frédérica Fairchild, nine years old, sweet as sugar, no problems or hang-up aside from the problems and hang-up of any girl her age. She spikes a mean volleyball, gives Malcolm a run for his money at chess, loves everything except Brussels sprouts. But here she is, terrified because it’s testing day.”

Elena Fairchild has a very busy morning. She has nine alarms set to make sure that her daughters don’t miss their school bus. Our protagonist is basically Serena from The Handmaid's Tale. She is married to the guy in charge of this ridiculous system in which children are "graded" and sent to schools according to the Q levels - a rating system. Her past unfolds in occasional chapters to show that she is basically an asshole who wanted to make all the cool kids pay for being cooler than her. She helped set-up this system, but now regrets it because her youngest daughter is not cutting it. El potencial de todos los niños regularmente es determinado por una medida estandarizada: su coeficiente intelectual (iq). Si la puntuación es elevada, el camino hacia un futuro dorado pasa por un colegio de nivel superior. Si la puntuación es demasiado baja, el futuro pasa por un colegio público con perspectivas muy limitadas. ¿El propósito? Una sociedad mejorada en la que los costes de la educación estén controlados al máximo posible y donde los profesores se centren en los estudiantes más prometedores.Elena is a teacher at one of the most prestigious schools in America. Her daughters are just like her: ambitious, smart, beautiful and perfect.

In fact, Freddie scores so low on one of her tests that she is sent to one of these boarding schools in Kansas. Elena does what any drastic mother would have done in that situation, she botches her own test so that she can stay with her daughter, but the boarding school isn’t like what they have been made to believe, it is hell on Earth. To start with, the Q system makes no sense. We’re told that it’s such an objective measure of a person’s intelligence and aptitude that it can be determined prenatally, but also that being late for school or work can cause one’s score to fall. What, then, is it supposed to be measuring? Is a person’s Q innate or not? This contradiction isn’t a problem diegetically because the whole Q system is a fig leaf cooked up by the villains to justify their actual agenda, but it is an issue that more people don’t notice the obvious contradiction. I am quite happy to announce I am part of the Blogger Takeover for Q by Christina Dalcher. Many thanks to Izzy and the HQ Team, for sending me an ARC copy of this book!This thought-provoking and chilling narrative also provides a necessary education for the reader in some of the horrific solutions that were previously used by the American Eugenics Program to try and improve the genetic quality including euthanasia and sterilisation. As the author points out in the notes at the end of the novel, this awful part of American history is so rarely talked about or taught in history classes, and while many American citizens may be aware of what went on in Nazi Germany, they may be unaware that this movement was actually inspired, in part, by what went on in America prior to World War Two. Elena’s life is in turmoil as she faces the prognosis of her younger child after she falls into the third tier. What can she do? With schools encountering added challenges and budget constraints how do you educate children with so many individual circumstances and learning abilities? How does everyone receive the best schooling possible?