A beautiful novel, although, a little predictable in parts. The List follows Letta, an apprentice Wordsmith, living in the post-apocalyptic town of ‘Arc’.

The start of this book is tough. I picked it up after glancing over the blurb. Something I’m thankful for as it gives too much away. It’s a slow dystopian novel to chomp through. The first half (or 51% to be precise) included beautiful world-building. This brings with it a slow pace, thrilling some readers, but leaving others struggling and bored. That said, if you, or your mini-me, like chomping and enjoy a book world’s gradual unfolding here is a great read.

As you’d expect with a slower beginning you empathize with characters living in a world with limited words and harsh rules. Letta, Marlo, Benjamin, Finn, even John Noa are enjoyable characters to watch progress.

Push through the first half, the plot starts to mature. A wonderful action adventure with deep, developed characters emerges. It’s an interesting, well thought out setting tackling real-world issues. Climate change, the innate need for humans to be creative and control form a fundamental part of the plot. Giving middle-graders, parents, or teachers discussion points around moral issues helping develop a further understanding.

This is a good book. It book offers a good introduction to dystopian novels for the younger reader. If you love middle grade fiction, I recommend this book, but be aware, the start is slow.

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Letta is the teenaged apprentice wordsmith of Ark, a community of survivors on post-apocalytic Earth. The ice caps melted and the seas rose and John Noa built a fortified town where some of humanity would survive. Letta's parents, residents of Ark, disappeared when she was a small child, bound to search for more survivors. Letta was raised by the wordsmith, Benjamin, to treasure words, though the people of Arc are only given license to use the 500 words on their List as their language.

Benjamin isn't pleased when he's told to cut the List to 300 words, and Letta isn't any happier. She's in love with language, and words are her trade. She relishes knowing more words than most of Ark's residents, and does her duty to keep making List words for the school children and apprentices of Ark when Benjamin goes on an extended journey.

John Noa's theory that deceitful words of untrustworthy politicians destroyed the world has warped his mind, and he wants language eradicated and man to return to that of beasts, is pretty out there. Benjamin fought against him, and lost, which Letta discovers before it's too late. She meets Marlo, a "Desecrator" or person who creates are or music and lives in the banished forest outside of Ark. Letta helps him recover from an attack by the Ark policing agents, and his family helps her track down the fate of Benjamin, and others who'd gotten in John Noa's way.

This is an adventure that's filled with intrigue and peril as Letta endeavors to find truth that's been well hidden in ignorance. Her worldview is opened by her experiences with the Desecrators, and in witnessing the callousness of John Noa's agents. They banish the old and infirm as well as the young. Their idyllic world is a shell game, and Letta's blinders have been removed. She does her best to save the day, but it's not over when it's over. Letta, Marlo and the Desecrators need to find a way to help their fellow humans find a new direction, and it'll take another book to get us there. Really interesting look at a totalitarian regime, and a censored society, from a teen's point of view, and the plot kept moving along nicely as Letta made truth her mission.

Looking forward to the next adventure on this journey.

“The List” is a Fantasy / post apocalyptic / dystopian story. I really liked this book a lot and I can see it being a big hit with middle school aged children this year. I found it to be a thought provoking story that leaves the reader with a lot of questions to consider.

This is a debut novel for author Patricia Forde. I will be looking forward to reading her future novels.

There's not a lot of “world building” in this story because the world has been built prior to the beginning of the story. The author does do an excellent job describing the locations and conditions, both physical and emotional, of this world of survivors. The characters are well developed and believable in this setting. Some characters you will like, others you won't. Some are nice and kind, others are cruel and ruthless. Before the story is over, maybe you'll find yourself liking some characters you didn't think you were supposed to.

Letta is the story's main character. She is one of the survivors, one of the followers of John Noa. During the years that Noa has been the Master of the survivors, he has limited their allowed vocabulary to 500 words. This is The List. Noa believes that words were the cause for the destruction of the world as it was.

Letta doesn't agree with Noa's plan to continue shortening the approved vocabulary list. Why are so many precious words eliminated? Abstract words such as dream, love and hope.

The story follows Letta through her discovery of a treacherous plot against the survivors. Through her struggle to discover the truth.

Letta simply wants peace, happiness and hope for the future of this small group of survivors.

I can see a lot of good classroom discussions coming from this story. The power of words, both good and bad. What are the moral responsibilities of the leaders of humanity.
What would you do if you were limited to 500 words?
Which words would be the most important to keep and why?

This is the first novel by author, Patricia Forde, and I will definitely be following this new author.
I wrote my review on paper before submitting online. After reading a few other reviews, I wish my review could better express my enjoyment of this book, or at least sound more “professional”. Alas, I'm a reader, not a writer. My review is that of your average reader.

Wow! What a great book. The story plot is unique and shows the author has a wonderful, creative imagination. The reader is given enough background to set the theme, time and conditions. The characters were well developed and the reader will feel an emotional connection to them.

The story is set in the post-apocalyptic world where there are few known survivors. There are 3 groups of survivors:
The followers of John Noa being the most “civilized”.
The people of Tin Town who live just outside the settlement. These are the late followers of Noa and he does not allow them to live inside the settlement, nor does he allow them much in the way of resources. They live in crude shacks, in filth and squalor.
The 3rd group, Noa has called The Desecrators. These are the people John Noa has banished. They must survive in the forest with the wild animals.

Letta is one of the survivors and is the main character in this story. Letta's group of survivors are the followers of John Noa and their settlement is called Ark. [ok, I found that a bit unimaginative – but it does set the tone of this story being a new beginning for man-kind].

It is Noa's belief that too many words will cause the destruction of this small group of survivors. In the decades that Noa has been the Leader {Master}, he has “deleted” all but 500 words from their allowed vocabulary. This is the List. Letta is the Wordsmith. It is her responsibility, under orders from Noa, to create boxes of the approved “List” words. She also has a duty to collect and catalog words deleted – for humanity in the future.

What Letta discovers about the other groups of survivors, even her own group, including their leader John Noa, turns her life upside down. People are not always who you think. People are also not always what you've been told. Letta begins to realize how every aspect of the people's life is controlled by Noa. He alone controls their vocabulary, food, water, clothing, even who they mate with.

I feel like I've left out so much that made the story exciting – but to include it would be a huge spoiler. You'll have to read the book.

The story leaves us with Letta's 2 strong and lasting beliefs:

Words have power because they create ideas. Extinction is the saddest thing of all.

This is an excellent book for middle school age and older. It is a great introduction to dystopian/post apocalyptic books for this age group.
Thank you sourcebooks jaberwocky and netgalley for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review. My review will be posted on amazon, goodreads, netgalley and moonshineartspot.blogspot

Thank you to Sourcebooks Jabberwocky and Netgalley for providing me a copy for review.

The List is a middle-grade dystopian novel set in the not-too-distant future where global warming has melted the ice caps in an event called The Melting. It follows Letta, the young apprentice wordsmith of Ark, the planned community of survivors which is ruled by John Noa and his Green Warriors

One of Letta’s jobs is to assist her master, Benjamin, in maintaining The List: an approved vocabulary of 500 words. Those not using List to communicate (aside from Letta, Benjamin, John Noa and his ruling class) are punished for infractions, and banished if they continue.

Banishment means being taken from Ark and left alone in the surrounding forest. Some people survive, some do not.

There is also Tintown outside Ark. These were people who arrived too late to be granted entrance into Ark, so they are forced to live outside and survive in any manner they can. Some scavenge and exchange their finding for favors from within Ark.

There’s also another group of people called Desecrators by those within Ark. They are looked down upon, considered evil and a threat to the way of life in Ark.

While Benjamin is away on a wordfinding mission (the wordsmith is in charge of gathering and recording words and their meanings from outside of Ark, determining whether they should be stored or a plea to John Noa should be made to have them added to List), Letta encounters a young boy, Marlo, who has been wounded by gavvers (Ark’s version of police/guards). Letta soon realizes Marlo is a Desecrator, but despite this, she risks her life to save his.

While Letta has always felt safe in Ark, in Marlo’s presence she begins to see how every aspect of life is controlled by Noa: vocabulary, food, water. the inability to choose one’s mate, the inability to have as many children as you like (each mated pair is allowed two: if you have a third child, it is taken away and given to a couple with one or none—having a fourth child means the entire family is banished). There is no art, no music.

Letta helps Marlo recover and contacts the Desecrators to come get him. Then Letta receives word that Benjamin died on his trip, and she is now the wordsmith and must carry on his work.

Aside from learning the man she has considered a father figure has died, there is something that doesn’t sit right with Letta, and as she begins questioning more and more the inner workings of Ark, she receives a note: BENJAMIN NOT DEAD.

Letta’s search for the truth leads her back to the Desecrators and uncovers a plot to rid Ark of all language, permanently. As wordsmith, Letta feels she cannot stand by and let this happen.

Her quest to foil Noa’s plan leads to revelations about her own forgotten past that changes everything she thought she knew about the world.

The characters are a strong point in the book. Letta is a likable protagonist. Secondary characters aren’t as well developed, but serve their purpose.

At times the story felt like a mishmash of other dystopians: The Giver, The Hunger Games, even a tiny bit of The Maze Runner. This felt more like an homage rather than a wannabe copycat retelling, but the similarities did very much lend an air of having read this all before.

If you are considering this for your middle-grade reader: be advised there are some descriptions of torture and death that might be an issue for some, based on maturity level.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I felt like the ending was setting up a potential sequel, and I would be interested enough to return to this world.

3 out of 5 stars.

The List was an engaging book about Leta's discovery of the power of language, and her own power to influence the future. Leta is a problem solver and once she sets her mind set to a task she gets things done. She is a very active and resourceful heroine, which made her story very enjoyable. The book was left open-ended enough that there will likely be sequels, I think there is a lot of potential for the this story to develop further.

I had a hard time understanding how everyone in the book became so willingly restricted in their words, a lot of the restrictions were based on fear, but I kept thinking it would have been interesting to explore how people become very creative with language. Throughout the book I kept thinking that despite the restrictive List that people would still be able to communicate in complex ways, and I am certain that it would happen quite naturally.

Lastly, I wasn't a fan of the subtle, but definitely there romance. It seemed unnecessary to include these elements, which are hallmarks for the young adult genre rather than middle grade (as which this book is classified). I would have been more interested in a well developed friendship.

Beautiful cover and the synopsis really appealed to me. For some reason I am just unable to finish this book. I have started it three different times and just cannot connect with it. Once in awhile, a reader just doesn't mesh with a book. My apologies, it doesn't happen often with me.

The List by Patricia Forde is a middle grade book based on the premise that if you control people's ability to communicate, you control their actions and hence their impact on the world. As a adult reading the book, the story has two competing forces - the power and love of language and the environmental statement on the destruction of Earth by man. It is the story of language that appeals to me but the environmental message that is at the heart of this book.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2017/09/the-list.html

Reviewed for NetGalley

First and foremost, this is a dystopian tween novel, but adults like myself will adore it. It's far more complex than I would have given a kids novel, but completely understandable and relatable for all ages. The story centers around a society where words are slowing being banned and the only ones you can speak are on "The List". This was such an incredible concept to work with and reading it was so much fun. The book does a great job of showing you things along the way and keeps you guessing. I would recommend it to any age group, for the message is a wonderful one. 5 stars from me!

I really liked the premise of this book but I couldn't get into it. The concept is very interesting. It has real promise. Perhaps it will appeal to younger readers.

I was drawn to the book because of the cover primary, but secondarily its concept. After reading the book, I felt like it was too predictable and even dragged on a bit for me. I still enjoyed it on an overall basis though!

For a middle school/ YA fiction story, this is quite good. Is it the most unique thing I've read? No. But it is interesting and the author does quite a good job in putting her spin on this situation. Letta was a strong character and I really enjoyed her perspective. She was brave, caring, and downright righteous in her actions and thoughts. I wish that the story had been a bit longer so that the plot could have been more fleshed out, but again, this is a book for middle schoolers and it is quite successful in keeping children of that age group interested. The only negative for this story was that the antagonist didn't really have a strong reason for his actions; if that had been worked out a bit better, this novel would have been even more successful. While I normally do not read books for middle schoolers, this was quite a good story and I would recommend it to any child who likes dystopian novels.

There were so many things to love about this book, however, there were also things that bugged me about this book. I loved the characters and the character development in this middle-school, YA read. I also liked how the fates of the characters weren't really clichéd. I found, however, the story itself seemed to sort of mimic other books/series that already exist within its genre, such as The Giver. At times, I felt like I'd disconnect with the story, however, I feel like the ending help redeem what my thoughts about the book had been.

I thoroughly enjoyed this. If you enjoy middle-grade genre fiction, then you should check this out because it's a nice, refreshing twist on dystopian classics (Fahrenheit 451 and The Giver to name a couple). It also doesn't censor intense scenes, which was a nice change. Personally, I think this is a novel that will be loved by both kids and adults. There's just something in there for all levels of readers.

The story follows Letta, a Wordsmith apprentice who later becomes the master Wordsmith, as she helps collect the words and distribute lists of approved words out. Unapproved words are destroyed. The world of Ark was created by John Noa after the Melting that happened long ago due to global warming being denied by politicians... sound familiar? There were so many Noah's Ark references I picked up on. The author, Patricia Forde, definitely wrote this as a dystopian retelling of Noah's Ark that's reminiscent of Fahrenheit 451, which made me that much more hook. The intensity and readability was just right on key. Definitely check this one out! I know I'll be purchasing a copy to had to my personal classroom library for my students.

In fact, 'The List' is a middle-grade that I'd definitely consider reading with my 7th graders since we'll be going over genre fiction at one point in the school year.

As a concept, this is decent. The word approach is unique. Sort of the opposite of The Giver, generalizing language rather than making it more precise. So that central conceit frames it in a new light, but at heart its much like every other dystopia: the growing realization that your perfect society is deeply flawed, its leaders corrupt and/or insane, those you demonized may actually be right, etc. In addition to language, art and all forms of creativity are dismissed.d I think this is easy for young readers to understand. We value art and especially music. The harder concept will be making the connection between vocabulary and ecological disaster. We end up concluding that Noa has lost his mind, weakening the character and thus the impact of the plot.

*This book was provided by NetGalley in return for a honest review*

As a librarian and an English major language is something that is very important to me as is access. In this story a group of people are living in a post Melting world in an area called The Ark. The leader of this group has decided to control the people who live within The Ark by restricting their language to 500 words.
Letta is an apprentice wordsmith and as such has access to all the words that have been used previously and distributes words to people as needed. As the story progresses the leader tries to restrict language even further and Letta must decide how to act in order to preserve something fundamental to humanity and survival.
This book was absolutely amazing and I tore through it in almost one sitting. The setting and story were so real and it was terrifying to think about a world in which the words that were said could be restricted.

My mom received a copy of this book from Netgalley and gave it to me to read. Thank you to Netgalley, to the Author and to the Publisher. I am 12 years old I found the reading level was a little bit easy, but good. I found the interest level excellent. I really liked the concept of the book, it was very original. One thing, at the end there was a lot of describing of where she was, and not a lot of things happening, so it got a little bit boring for a bit. The rest of the book was really good with a lot happening all of the time. I would definitely recommend this book to my friends. 4.5 /5

This dystopian middle school novel follows Letta, a wordsmith in charge of saving the words that the people of Ark are no longer allowed to use. You see, there are only 500 government-sanctioned words in her world, and Letta is shocked to discover that the plan is to silence her people once and for all. What is a dystopian heroine to do but rebel?

Though the plot was interesting and the world created is based on climate changes we are witnessing now, it did seem that the author threw every trope in the dystopian handbook into this one. Nonetheless, it was a satisfying read.

Can you imagine a world covered in water after the melting, a small pocket of survivors led by a charismatic man who knows that language is dangerous. The sheer volume of words & the slipperiness of their meanings kept people from hearing the warnings & changing their ways in time. So, in Ark, language is restricted-only 500 words allowed. Is that still too many? & what will the wordsmith do to defend language if there is a true threat to it?

Dystopian fiction for middle grade readers. I found the concept of this book intriguing, Letta is an apprentice wordsmith in a place that exists after the melting of the ice caps. Noa and a few other people saw the effects of climate change and made plans to survive, one thing that they believe is that language must be limited to save the society. Letta and the Wordsmith collect words and distribute them to people as needed for their jobs, then he goes missing and Letta uncovers a sinister plot to silence all the people except a select few.