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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
This was originally published as The Wordsmith in Ireland in 2014; the author is Irish and has published several books in Gaelic. Dystopian fiction is not my favorite genre but I had a hard time putting this one down. Letta is an apprentice wordsmith in Ark, a community led by John Noa after the catastrophic flood caused by global warming destroyed the rest of the world (or maybe not...). The populace of Ark, except for Noa and his close associates, are restricted to a list of 500 words. Letta and Benjamin, the older wordsmith, are charged with maintaining that list and supplementary lists for some vocations (healing, carpentry, etc.). They also find and save words no longer in use. There is a resistance movement, the Desecrators, outside the town limits and Letta finds herself involved, accidentally at first. When she discovers that Noa is planning to poison almost everyone with a drug that will remove all language and language ability from them, she races to stop him, with the help of the Desecrators. Maybe a sequel?
Shades of 1984 in this clever new dystopian novel. The central idea is not one I'd seen before, and for once there was no awful love triangle! The heroine was clever and brave and I was on the edge of my seat coming up to the end. I hope there's a sequel in the works! I'll be looking forward to this one coming into stock. Thanks Sourcebooks and netgalley for allowing me to read it.
Recently I’ve been really into books that are like possible futures of society, and the premise of this one is super cool. The entire world flooded because all the ice caps melted (very possible oop) and a small society survived and everyone is only allowed to use these 500 words in order to try to prevent everything bad that humans did from happening again (wars, climate change, etc). Noa is a relatable antagonist because I can understand why he wants to do this, but also like this is changing human nature and my opinion is that it might just be better to let humans drive themselves extinct than to knowingly deprive them of what it means to be human.
I like how the story is told through Netta, a young girl (actually I dunno how old she is, like mid-teenager?) who has been raised in this new society her whole life and she’s very innocent and believes deeply that Noa is doing the right thing for humanity and everything, and she slowly learns about what the world used to be and [SPOILER ALERT] eventually turns against Noa and his rules against language. It’s interesting to watch Netta learn about what is our world currently while we’re seeing what is the only world she’s ever known which is very different from ours.
Also just thinking about List (the language of only 500 words) is pretty wild, like all the dialogue of people speaking in List sounds stilted, like very young children who don’t understand grammar yet or someone just barely learning a new language. And the way Letta uses List because she’s a wordsmith and has access to a lot of old words is kind of like it’s a different language, like she has to think about how to say what she wants to say and she stumbles over her words when she speaks List but not when she speaks the old tongue (I think that’s how the book refers to it). It also made me think about what if today everyone could only speak 500 or 700 or 1000 words, like how hard it would be and what words would or wouldn’t be allowed. Also now I’m wondering how many different words are used in the book itself or even this review, like how many different words is 500 words actually?
Anyways, this book made me think a lot, and now I kind of want to see if I can piece together the words in List from dialogue and the words themselves that are like the titles of the chapters (which is also very cool). Also Noa’s thoughts in italics at the end of some chapters? 10/10 very good, I didn’t know who it was at first but I liked the little peeks into his thoughts, it wasn’t too much and it wasn’t too little. Oh also no romance! I just realized that now and it might be because of Netta’s age which I still am not sure about but no outright romance! There might’ve been a little of something between her and Marlo but I saw it as just good friendship times.
I like how the story is told through Netta, a young girl (actually I dunno how old she is, like mid-teenager?) who has been raised in this new society her whole life and she’s very innocent and believes deeply that Noa is doing the right thing for humanity and everything, and she slowly learns about what the world used to be and [SPOILER ALERT] eventually turns against Noa and his rules against language. It’s interesting to watch Netta learn about what is our world currently while we’re seeing what is the only world she’s ever known which is very different from ours.
Also just thinking about List (the language of only 500 words) is pretty wild, like all the dialogue of people speaking in List sounds stilted, like very young children who don’t understand grammar yet or someone just barely learning a new language. And the way Letta uses List because she’s a wordsmith and has access to a lot of old words is kind of like it’s a different language, like she has to think about how to say what she wants to say and she stumbles over her words when she speaks List but not when she speaks the old tongue (I think that’s how the book refers to it). It also made me think about what if today everyone could only speak 500 or 700 or 1000 words, like how hard it would be and what words would or wouldn’t be allowed. Also now I’m wondering how many different words are used in the book itself or even this review, like how many different words is 500 words actually?
Anyways, this book made me think a lot, and now I kind of want to see if I can piece together the words in List from dialogue and the words themselves that are like the titles of the chapters (which is also very cool). Also Noa’s thoughts in italics at the end of some chapters? 10/10 very good, I didn’t know who it was at first but I liked the little peeks into his thoughts, it wasn’t too much and it wasn’t too little. Oh also no romance! I just realized that now and it might be because of Netta’s age which I still am not sure about but no outright romance! There might’ve been a little of something between her and Marlo but I saw it as just good friendship times.
Sounded cool - was disappointed in ending ( like thats it ?
Good novel. Words carry weight and the story shows the importance of our ability to communicate and build relationships. I recommend this read.
A middle grade dystopian novel that follows Letta who becomes the Wordsmith for Ark. She is now in charge of 'List' which all the people must speak, which consists of only 500 words.
If the whole 'List' was provided somewhere in the book if would have been fun and challenging to use to write a review with.
The story starts out slowly and only speeds up at the half way point. It wasn't a fantastic read for me but I'm not the target audience. It's a typical dystopian story...maybe I'm just burnt out on them.
If the whole 'List' was provided somewhere in the book if would have been fun and challenging to use to write a review with.
The story starts out slowly and only speeds up at the half way point. It wasn't a fantastic read for me but I'm not the target audience. It's a typical dystopian story...maybe I'm just burnt out on them.
Received an ARC from NetGalley.
I found the first half of the book to be rather slow. good premise, I'm interested in finding out more of what happens, but it didn't grab my attention.
About halfway through, the plot finally picks up and we understand more of what the storyline actually is. I enjoyed most of the second half of the story, though I feel like the end fell short. Lots of build up for a disappointing ending.
The plot idea has a lot of promise, but I didn't find this as enjoyable as I thought it would be.
I found the first half of the book to be rather slow. good premise, I'm interested in finding out more of what happens, but it didn't grab my attention.
About halfway through, the plot finally picks up and we understand more of what the storyline actually is. I enjoyed most of the second half of the story, though I feel like the end fell short. Lots of build up for a disappointing ending.
The plot idea has a lot of promise, but I didn't find this as enjoyable as I thought it would be.
In the future, Earth has met a series of disasters related to climate change and the lack of care that the human race showed towards the impending doom of the planet. John Noa created an Ark that believers of the end of the world as they knew it boarded and survived the rising sea levels and other catastrophes. Letta's parents were some of those people, but they lost their faith in Noa and supposedly were lost at sea looking for a different land. Letta is apprenticed to a Wordsmith, who is the only person who knows the wide vocabulary of the English language. However, Noa believes that language is what caused the downfall of the world and he keeps cutting the words that residents of the Ark can use, and Letta learns that he has a horrifying plan to make everyone Wordless.
An interesting premise that feels choppy, and full of holes. Plus I didn't like the forced romance between Letta and a rebel who she secretly nurses to health. The only reason she likes him, IMHO, is he's different from what she knows, and doesn't have experience with anyone else.
Middle school/YA
An interesting premise that feels choppy, and full of holes. Plus I didn't like the forced romance between Letta and a rebel who she secretly nurses to health. The only reason she likes him, IMHO, is he's different from what she knows, and doesn't have experience with anyone else.
Middle school/YA
After "the melting," the city of Ark is the last remaining safe place to live. The Ark's leader, John Noa, is determined to keep it that way by limiting the vocabulary of the residents to 500 words. He blames deceptive and persuasive language for man's destruction because politicians used words to hide the effects of global warming until it was too late.
Letta, the apprentice to the Wordsmith, begins to realize that there is more going on in Ark than meets the eye. John Noa is planning to use extreme measures to keep people safe and Letta must work with those on the outside to stop him.
Honestly, this book was only a 3-star book for me as an adult reader, but I gave it 4 stars with my middle-grade readers in mind. I think it would make a fantastic introductory book to the world of dystopic literature for more sensitive readers. So many dystopic books are full of graphic violence and disturbing images. In comparison, this world was rather mild. That made it a little slow for me as an adult fan of dystopian books, but I think it would fit the bill very well for the middle grades.
While the violence is mild, there is still violence in the book. For example, Letta does learn that her missing master was tortured for information and she overhears that his fingernails were removed. While the torture is mentioned, it is not described nor is Letta (or the reader) present when it happens.
The plot moves a bit slowly and is pretty predictable but I think younger readers new to this genre will find it intriguing. The idea of limiting words opens a wonderful opportunity to discuss censorship and freedom of speech. Some of the characters felt underdeveloped, but I did like the main character and I wanted her to succeed!
Overall, this is a solid choice for some great discussions and an introduction to the world of dystopic literature. Many fans of The Giver will find this is a gentler version of a very similar story.
Letta, the apprentice to the Wordsmith, begins to realize that there is more going on in Ark than meets the eye. John Noa is planning to use extreme measures to keep people safe and Letta must work with those on the outside to stop him.
Honestly, this book was only a 3-star book for me as an adult reader, but I gave it 4 stars with my middle-grade readers in mind. I think it would make a fantastic introductory book to the world of dystopic literature for more sensitive readers. So many dystopic books are full of graphic violence and disturbing images. In comparison, this world was rather mild. That made it a little slow for me as an adult fan of dystopian books, but I think it would fit the bill very well for the middle grades.
While the violence is mild, there is still violence in the book. For example, Letta does learn that her missing master was tortured for information and she overhears that his fingernails were removed. While the torture is mentioned, it is not described nor is Letta (or the reader) present when it happens.
The plot moves a bit slowly and is pretty predictable but I think younger readers new to this genre will find it intriguing. The idea of limiting words opens a wonderful opportunity to discuss censorship and freedom of speech. Some of the characters felt underdeveloped, but I did like the main character and I wanted her to succeed!
Overall, this is a solid choice for some great discussions and an introduction to the world of dystopic literature. Many fans of The Giver will find this is a gentler version of a very similar story.