Post-apocalypse., a city of survivors live under the dictatorship of John Noa. Convinced that freedom of expression, art, and 'language [are] what make man ungovernable,' Noa has limited the language of his citizens to words on a list managed by a young wordsmith, Letta.
When Letta encounters a rebel group and sees for herself the dangers in Noa's plan she risks all to try to save her city.
Craftily woven tale of oppression, love, and betrayal with compelling characters placed against a dark, yet easily visualised world.

I am conflicted about this book. I loved the beginning and the set up. The polar ice caps have melted resulting in global flooding. Many of the survivors are fortunate to live in a secure location known as the Ark led by John Noa. Letta is in training to be a wordsmith. Her job is to create and copy the approved list of words that people are allowed to use. This list has just been cut from 700 to 500. John Noa believes that language is what doomed the human race and he wants to limit people's creativity, drive, and future thinking. He believes people should live for today only - just the food they need for the day. He regulates everything in Ark and Letta never questioned it - until her teacher Benjamin disappeared and she met Marlo - a boy who lives outside of Ark and believes in the right of expression. Soon Letta is caught up in finding the truth. What she finds is more horrible than she imagined because Noa wants to get rid of language altogether.

This was quite intriguing - especially at the beginning. I did not, however, like the ending because the struggle did not seem to have any effect and it was still uncertain. Yes Letta saved the people from becoming wordless but someone else was in control who wasn't much better... This was originally published in Ireland with the title The Wordsmith. It doesn't appear that there is a sequel...

A heartfelt and inspiring tale set in a scarily recognisable near future, The List is a wonderful middle-grade tale of the power of words.

Cleverly twining etymology into her dystopian world, Patricia Forde allows us to see the strain that comes within a society where words are controlled by the regime. As a lover of words, and fiction, it was uncomfortable in such a brilliant way to see Letta and her fellow companions in Ark speak only List approved words. It was so intriguing to see how when you get rid of one word, how easy it is to then follow suit with others.

I adored Letta’s character and her love for words leapt from the page. In her battle to find out what happened to her long-lost family and her master, the Wordsmith Benjamin, you will root for her as she forges unexpected alliances and battles for the rights of words.

A really powerful book aimed at a middle-grade audience, this will make the reader think. There is also some set-up for future books in this world, which will give the reader a bit more closure, as I feel the end to this book was quite rushed. Nevertheless, I definitely recommend to readers aged 9-12, who want something that will challenge their thoughts and beliefs.

*Review copy kindly provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I loved the premise of the story, unfortunately I suspect it was intended for a younger audience than I thought.

Imaginitive and strong writing helped fulfill the potential however it didn't capture my imagination like ithought it would.

Dystopic fiction is one of my favourite genres and this book for middle grade readers will not disappoint.
Themes of censorship, civil disobedience, human greed all intertwine to make a story worth putting in your school library.
Recommended

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

When I read the description of the book I just knew I had to read it. I loved The Giver and have always had a special place in my heart for the dystopian genre.

I am not sure if it was due to the high expectations I had since it was compared to an award winning book or what but I wasn't impressed.

Don't get me wrong. It wasn't horrible but I took me forever to get interested in the book. Everything also seemed to play out way too easy for the protagonist.

There is so little information given about the Ark in the beginning that it can be confusing and if I could change one thing about the book, I have more "world building" in the beginning to explain how things work there. I would also love to know why Marlo was shot and why that weapon was never used any other time in the book.

I had to remind myself that this was a middle grade novel and not be so critical.

I would recommend this book to middle grade dystopian lovers.

I regards to comparing it to The Giver. Meh... I would say yes, they are both dystopian novels about the leaders controlling historical and educational information causing a brainwashed society However, The Giver does a far better job at "world building" and the story is more fluid

This middle grade dystopian novel was good. Not fantastic but definitely enjoyable. What carried the story through the most was the very interesting concept and world, but it was very typical and followed the standard dystopian recipe. You know, the heroine with a tragic past who meets some rebels and wants to overthrow the authorities who are limiting the people of their power. Packed with death, action and uncovered secrets of course.

So it was predictable and our heroine Letta wasn’t really a unique or memorable character, but her story was set in a unique world and the book was well paced. I kept turning the pages and it was exciting all the way through.

The ending really disappointed me though and it felt rushed and flat. It left me feeling very unsatisfied.

But.

I am not in middle grade. This book is not targeted for me, so of course I will have issues with it. I am actually convinced that for middle graders this is a great book and it will both be a very exciting and educational read about how important it is with words. As a bookseller I will definitely recommend it to younger readers.

I'd prefer not to review this book publicly as it wasn't a style of writing with which I could connect, though I understand and respect that the writer took a risk, composing her dialogue in the stylized manner that she did.

Ahoy there me mateys! I received this middle-grade sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. So here be me honest musings . . .

the list (Patricia Forde)

Title: the list

Author: Patricia Forde

Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Publication Date: TODAY!!! (hardback/e-book)

ISBN: 9781492647966

Source: NetGalley

This book caught me eye because of the premise and the comparisons to the giver and fahrenheit 451. I loved the concept. It takes place in post-apocalyptic America. Climate change has caused the sea levels to rise. The community of Ark is one of the last places where humans survive.

This village is controlled in every way by its founder, John Noa. One of the ways in which the population is controlled is through language. There are 700 sanctioned words on The List. Because if ye can't express a concept then ye can't act on it, right? The only people who have access to more words are the leaders and the local Wordsmith (kind of a living dictionary and the keeper of more complex words). For example, if a person learns a trade, like carpentry, then that person is allowed to learn additional words (like 25 or so) relating specifically to that task. Use words outside The List too often and face banishment or worse.

The story centers around Letta, the Wordsmith's apprentice. The master wordsmith goes off on an errand, leaving Letta in charge. Circumstances ensue which cause Letta to confront everything she has ever believed to be true.

While the concept was fascinating, the execution did not, to me mind, do it justice. It was a far cry from the two favorite books it had been compared to. For one thing, the use of language by Letta just seemed too complex. The List was hardly used at all in the author's writing. Letta's thoughts involve words like cerulean, pineapple, etc. despite having never seen pictures. How can you truly understand the words without a real frame of reference - especially with such a limited List to try and explain them. It would have been more interesting to me if the entire beginning of the novel had been put together only using List and got more complicated as Letta's understanding of Ark grew more complex.

Also the plot was sort of meandering. Letta makes extremely stupid mistakes to set up future plot points. For all of her learning, Letta just seemed helpless, unintelligent, and clueless. There is a type of insta-love connection between her and the non-Ark boy she helps. People sneak in and out of her house so easily that the guards are practically non-existent or just that plain dumb. The flow of the story was just not to me taste. The characters also seemed poorly developed and rather simplistic. Overall I would like to see this concept tackled in another way.

So lastly . . .

Thank you Sourcebooks Jabberwocky!

The author's website has this to say about the novel:

Fahrenheit 451 meets The Giver for tweens in this gripping story about the power of words and the dangers of censorship.

In the city of Ark, speech is constrained to five hundred sanctioned words. Speak outside the approved lexicon and face banishment. The exceptions are the Wordsmith and his apprentice Letta, the keepers and archivists of all language in their post-apocalyptic, neo-medieval world.

On the death of her master, Letta is suddenly promoted to Wordsmith, charged with collecting and saving words. But when she uncovers a sinister plan to suppress language and rob Ark’s citizens of their power of speech, she realizes that it’s up to her to save not only words, but culture itself.

To visit the author’s website go to:

Patricia Forde - Author

To buy the novel please visit:

the list - Book

To add to Goodreads go to:

Yer Ports for Plunder List

Fantastic book with great questions about the power of language, music and art. I really enjoyed it!

All the elements of this book are things I like: dystopian stories, people obsessed with language and words, action, and mystery. I was disappointed by the feeling like I was reading a combination of 5 different books. The elements worked together to tell an interesting story but they didn't feel new. The whole dynamic of the Ark felt confusing and not fully fleshed out as it could have been. Marlo and Letta were intriguing characters who I like learning about but the abrupt beginning made me feel like I was playing catch up to try and understand this world.

This young adult book, is set in a post apocalytic city called Ark, whose leader is John Noa. The time in undetermined, but is after the 'Melting', the time when there was global warming and the ice caps melted.
The language of Ark consists of 'List', based on only 500 proscribed words, and use of other words from before the 'Melting' is punishable by banishment.. John Noa, has also banned the use of any words assiciated with Music and Art.
Benjamin the wordsmith and his apprentice Letta, are tasked with the collection and archiving of all words.. When Benjamin dies in suspicious circumstances, Letta is made wordsmith, but discovers a shocking plot to rob the townspeople of words, and embarks on a plan to foil the plan.
I think this book is quite pacy and exciting, but is really a book of ideas, it certainly makes you think about how we communicate and whether the world would have evolved, as we know it without language.
I enjoyed the book, although some parts are predictable, and found it easy to read. It will appeal to anyone who is interested in this genre.

Living in a post-flood dystopian world, language has been culled to a small selection of approved lexicon. Letta is a wordsmith, one of the privileged who can use more words.

I liked this book, it was a nice read and I was engaged enough to keep reading. It was a good premise as well. How hard must it be to ban words? Not just words but also luxuries such as art, music and even cooking interesting food. The biggest issue is that there was so much that wasn't original. The flood aspect is Noah's arc... and the Arks leader in this story is call Noa. I think that sums up the originality. It's also very typically YA and dystopian, and therefore predictable at times.

However, the premise of the flood being because humans ignored global warming was a welcome problem. Especially as climate change is such a big issue in real life, with politicians denying existence. The antagonist was so single minded about saving the planet, he really thought he was in the right. Because of this you feel quite emotionally attached, and it also makes you think. Is it really because of us that climate change occurs? Should we really drop all luxuries? It's a hard question to ask.

The cover is truly stunning - but is this what Ark looks like? The actual look of the world Letta lived in doesn't seem to be fully described. I was imagining older styled houses, but then because it's the future will the be more futuristic? I'm unsure. I think the world was wonderfully written about the circumstances, but the actual look and feel was hard to grasp.

In a post-apocalyptic world where the ice-cap has melted, full uncensored free speech is no longer approved and attracts punishment as well as banishment from the safety of the city of Ark. In a return to medieval lifestyles, life is simpler but more physically arduous engendering a more rigorous policing of culture and the spread of knowledge. Letta (this name can’t possibly be lost on the reader) is apprenticed to the Wordsmith – keepers and archivists of all language.

This is an interesting read – a porthole to a potential future for the human race. We are so used to reading and watching zombie apocalypse and colonisation by aliens stories, that it was refreshing to read a story stimulated by climate change – a very hot topic especially with the potential attempted overturning of Barrack Obama’s well renowned and compassionate climate change policy by President Trump. I started to consider how language could be censored and lost, and I realised that youth speak in 2017 is very much like using the Ark’s List of 500 words. Social media, perhaps in particular Twitter with its limit of 140 characters, encourages shortcuts and abbreviations in language. Without schools, Dictionary’s and English masters perhaps language could be forgotten all too easily. In this article entitled the Biblical Tongue Reborn, it talks about the restoration of the Hebrew language and the use of the guardians of textual memory.

‘… it was a conscious decision by Jews who decided that if they were going to make it out of the Diaspora, their language was going to make it, too. So successful were the "guardians of Hebrew's textual memory," that when the time came to restore Hebrew as a spoken tongue after two millennia, they did so, in Glinert's words, "almost overnight."

I was hooked on this book from page one, despite being far older than the middle grade (8-12) core audience it is aimed at. It is a sweet but also a dark story about a young girl's bravery in a society where the person in power is removing human rights through limiting the words one can use and ban artistic activities like painting and music.

It is an easy read for an adult, but will get you thinking about how small changes can seem innocent at first, but the end result can be catastrophic. The book is too dark, in my opinion, for an 8 year old, but will be suitable for the older end of the core audience and beyond. I have given this book five stars and would highly recommend it.

Thank you to the publisher for letting me review a pre-publication copy to review.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for and honest review. The best thing about this book is the cover. Sorry. It is definitely a tween level book. It was simply written and flowed the same. I tried my hardest to like this book but I just couldn't. I finally gave up a little over halfway through. Mostly I couldn't get past the concept. The List is a list of words that people are allowed to use. Why anyone would think this was a good idea or that people would follow along with it is a question that is not sufficiently answered by the author. A tween's suspension of disbelief may handle this book but I just couldn't do it. The only reason it got two stars was the great cover and the fact that it had a strong female lead.

This book is kind of a letdown for me. I was so attracted to the cover, and the concept is SO intriguing. I really wanted this to be a winner, but it is not. When I review a YA novel I always think about my current 9th grade students. I question whether or not they would be engaged by the topic, would they be able to stick to it through the end, is the language age-level appropriate, etc. My number one issue with this book is how bored I became with it. I could easily put the book down, and I didn't want to come back to it. I do like the main character, Letta. She is so brave, and she becomes more brave as the story progresses. I love novels with legitimately strong female characters. The dialogue and action sequences in this book are very well done as well. But, there are SO many pages of explanation and inner thought...it made the book boring. I kept thinking, "Get on with it!" My other issue with the novel is that it reads just like the Giver, Oryx and Crake, and all the other dystopia novels out there today. It would throw me because multiple times the story felt paraphrased from these other very well-known and popular novels. Overall, I see great moments of seriously awesome potential, but inot the end it just fell flat.