Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

The Language of the Birds is a light mystery/thriller which follows puzzle-solving teen Arizona as her mother's mysterious disappearance leads her down a rabbit hole of puzzles and clues that she must solve to get her mother back.

If I had read this book when I was twelve, I would have been obsessed. Despite the high stakes, The Language of Birds often read pretty light for me, and I had a lot of fun watching Arizona puzzle out ciphers and research history and alchemy. I enjoyed Arizona's arc, especially as she met a couple people who she actually let break down her walls a bit on her puzzle-solving journey. The writing was overall solid, though there were times when it felt like the pace lulled a bit much for me. Generally, though, I really enjoyed my time with The Language of the Birds, and I think it's a really decent debut that will keep me looking out for what K.A. Merson writes next.

“The Language of the Birds,” by K. A. Merson, Ballantine Books, 368 pages, May 13, 2025.

Arizona is 17 and is neurodivergent. Her favorite things include cryptography, geocaching, the writings of Jules Verne and exploring the Sierra Nevadas on her Russian Ural motorcycle, her dog Mojo riding shotgun in his sidecar.

Her father has just died. She and her mother are spreading his ashes in his favorite places. When they arrive at Bodie State Historic Park, Arizona walks Mojo while her mother tours a stamp mill. They agree to meet up, but her mother doesn’t arrive. She has been kidnapped.

Arizona finds a cryptic test accompanying the ransom note. Solving puzzles and cracking codes are what Arizona does best. What she doesn’t yet realize is that she’s been enlisted in a treasure hunt because the kidnappers think her father knew how to find the treasure.

Young adult readers who like puzzles may enjoy this book more than I did as much of this story is focused on solving the puzzles. The villains come off as B-movie bad guys and overall it reads juvenile. On the whole, this had a lot of potential but it doesn’t make it for adult readers.

I rate it three out of five stars.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the advance reader's edition of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Ballantine Books for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book and read it in one day. I loved the characters and the storyline. I thought the characters had great growth. I would definitely recommend this book.

The Language of Birds was a fun YA DaVinci Code-esque full of ciphers and code breaking in the western US. Arizona and her dog, Mojo, embarked on a quest to find her missing mother after getting wrapped up in some sort of secret society.
I thought it was fun and I’d recommend to fans of puzzles and mythology.

As soon as I started reading The Language of the Birds by K. A. Merson I was pulled into a compelling thriller, an exciting, fast-paced, larger-than-life, danger-around-every-corner thrill ride. A mystery full of puzzles and riddles and codes and ciphers and clues, of charts and tables and photos.

Arizona is grieving the loss of her father less than three weeks ago. She, her mother, and their dog Moj are camping near the site where he had his fatal accident. Arizona wants to be by herself, her mom wants to do something in town, so they go their separate ways for the afternoon. When she arrives at their meeting place her mother is nowhere to be seen, and no one has seen her. She does a quick search and reports her mother’s disappearance to a park ranger. She’s worried but not frantic. Of course her mom will show up. After a night of still no word she returns to the park and discovers the ranger she spoke to was an imposter; no one has been looking for her mom. And when Arizona returns to their Airstream camper she discovers it has been ransacked and a cryptic note and diagram left for her – her mom has been kidnapped. Not for money, but for Arizona to solve a puzzle and find a treasure an unknown person – or organization – wants badly.

From this point on The Language of the Birds is non-stop action and suspense, chasing from one point to another, solving puzzle after puzzle, breaking codes, switching from Arizona’s point of view to that of her mother being held captive and repeatedly trying to escape. But who is controlling this, what exactly are they after, and why is Arizona expected to solve it?

At seventeen Arizona is caught somewhere between maturity and childishness, homeschooled but extensively educated, possibly on the spectrum, brilliant but awkward socially. As the story develops, however, it becomes clear that she is the perfect person for this bizarre task: she’s capable, resourceful, logical, a mathematics wizard, well-read, an adept researcher with an amazing memory and understanding of history. The clues are complex and varied and often obscure. But Arizona is insightful, thorough and fearless.

The story is a fast-paced, breathtaking adventure. Most of the action takes place outdoors and the twists and turns will have you guessing and speculating (if you can keep up with the clues, that is!). Arizona feels safe talking to Ranger Samantha Yeats and becomes friends with Lily and her dog Gus at the campsite. Despite the danger and fear for her mother, her world is expanding – she’s learning to appreciate the value and reward from being with people. But who can she trust? Who is not what they seem? Because even though the story is wrapped up in the codes and puzzles and books and online searches, the danger is real. People have been hurt. Her mother has been kidnapped.

I couldn’t solve all of the puzzles but following along was challenging and enjoyable. The stunning ending left me shaking my head and still wondering if things really are as they now seem. This was an altogether delightful reading experience. The author bio is vague enough to make you suspect this may be a well-known author writing under a pseudonym. I received an advance copy of The Language of the Birds from Penguin Random House Publishing Group via NetGalley. I enjoyed it immensely and recommend it without hesitation. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own.

I’ll start by saying this book was not for me. While I appreciate the style of writing, I felt that much of it was redundant and overkill. Working through many different types of codes and riddles. Going over those details over and over again.
I had to skip over the parts of decoding to find hidden messages, and books of alchemy and the books that were cited. While I understand why that was put into the book, there was simply too much of it for readers that aren’t familiar. I did enjoy the plot.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc to read and review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/168550668?shelf=read&sort=date_updated&order=d

We can't build our dreams on suspicious minds

Arizona isn't like most other teenagers. She loves solving puzzles and following clues to find geocaches, and her taste in reading leans more to Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle than it does to Suzanne Collins. She shared many of these interests with her late father, a cartographer for the US Geological Survey. He died just 17 days earlier, and Arizona is still processing his loss as she, her mother and her dog Mojo travel towards the ghost town of Bodie (ghost towns being another of her dad's hobbies) in an Airstream trailer. She could never have anticipated what awaits her....her mother is kidnapped, and whoever has taken her has left behind a note which makes it clear that to rescue her mother Arizona must use her codebreaking and puzzle solving skills to hunt down a centuries old secret, one which her father had supposedly solved prior to his death. She (with Mojo at her side) travels across the western US on a motorcycle, solving ciphers and decoding texts that mix US History, famous landmarks, alchemy and conspiracy theories. As much as she enjoys the challenges the puzzles bring her, there is danger at every turn. She has to leave the safety of her preferred solitary environment if she is to fulfill the kidnapper's demands....and if she does, she might just change the world.
With an intriguing protagonist like Arizona, who brings to mind other contemporary characters who are neurodivergent (Nita Prose's Molly the Maid and Mark Haddon's Christopher John Francis Boone for example), the story is as much about her emotional growth as she makes new connections in her search for answers and finds out that she is far more capable of functioning in the real world than she ever believed as it is about the puzzles she must solve. There is, however, a large focus on the ins and outs of solving ciphers and the mechanics of different puzzles, which will delight fans of those subjects but might be a distraction for those who aren't as interested in that level of detail. Arizona is by far the most developed of the characters; some of the others could do with a little more depth. Overall it was an interesting premise, reminiscent of Dan Brown or some of Rick Riordan's The 39 Clues, and I found it an enjoyable read. It seems to be marketed as an adult mystery but skews a bit towards the YA, perhaps because of the age of the protagonist and the coming-of-age theme that runs through the mystery. I would rate it as 3.5 ⭐️ read rounded up to a 4, and think readers of the above mentioned authors might want to give it a try. My thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine Books for allowing me access to this tale which blends history, self-discovery and cryptography in exchange for my honest review.

First and foremost, thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book. I did DNF this book at 25% after realizing that I was not the intended audience.

The premise of this book is great - a teenager and her dog embark on a journey to solve a mystery after her mother has been kidnapped.

This novel is a 3rd person narration style and at times I couldn't connect to the main character -Arizona. The in-depth descriptions of how to crack a cypher or reaching a conclusion felt void of emotion and more informative. I do want to point out that I finally learned how to use a cypher wheel which I found great.

That being said, just because I wasn't a fan of this novel doesn't mean there isn't someone out there for this read. I would recommend this to someone that likes the narration style AND is a fan of things like National Treasure or the Da Vinci Code. Dig into this mystery!

This debut fictional mystery novel intrigued me and bored me in equal measure. I was also unsure if this was supposed to be for adults or does it fall into the category of YA. The young protagonist seemed to straddle the worlds between adult, and angst-ridden teenager who was also a math genius.

The story was one big elaborate jigsaw puzzle. The use of frequency analysis, arithmetic computations, and decryption methods to solve ciphers grew to be extremely lengthy at times. I was almost ready to give up on this story halfway through. However, the narrative eventually smoothed out some and I'm glad that I stuck with it until the end. It reminded me a little of the book/movie The DaVinci Code and/or the action-adventure film National Treasure. I would recommend this book to readers who love mysteries with complicated puzzles.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books for giving me the opportunity to read a digital ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

The Language of the Birds offers a fun, frequently exciting read. It does require a bit of willing suspension of disbelief, as so many good reads do.

The central character is Arizona, a brilliant 17-year-old who's on the spectrum. She's been home-schooled by her parents as they travel about with their Airstream trailer. Arizona knows a lot about her own triggers and has developed her own routines for coping with them. She's not good at trust, and given her family's mobility, her only close relationships are with her parents and her dog Mojo.

As the book opens, Arizona's father has died in a motorcycle accident, and Arizona and her mother are traveling, leaving bits of his ashes at many of the places he loved. At one of those locations Arizona and her mother split up. When the time they agreed to meet up arrives, her mother is a no-show.

It turns out that her mother has been kidnapped by a group of modern-day alchemists hoping to discover an equivalent of the philosopher's stone that has been hidden for hundreds of years. (This where the willing suspension of disbelief really gets going.) Arizona receives a phone call from a blocked number from a member of that group, explaining that Arizona will have to help the group solve a series on increasingly complex coded message if she ever wants to see her mother again. Basically, she's going to have to become a teenage Robert Langdon if she wants to hold on to what's left of her family.

As Arizona works on the ciphers she's surprised to find herself making her first outside-of-family friends. She's cautious—but she's realizing that some people will take her as she is and genuinely enjoy her company.

If you're looking for a read that is something more than a "cozy" mystery and that involves demanding puzzles, you'll have fun with The Language of the Birds. It would make a great summer read or serve as something to take you away from the quotidian and stressful nature of daily life. When you need a dose of complexity, bookishness, warmth and adventure, go for The Language of the Birds.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own

This was quite an interesting book. It's basically a cross between National Treasure and the Robert Langdon series by Dan Brown, but for teenagers. I do have to admit that Dan Brown books are my guilty pleasure. They're interesting and easy to read, but still keep your attention throughout the book and make you ask questions. I also like the puzzles Dan Brown uses in his books. They can be fun to try and solve and the story doesn't generally get too overwhelming with them. This wasn't quite on that level; while it did have an interesting storyline, it couldn't quite stand up to what it gets compared to.

I wasn't sure if I was going to like Arizona, but she grew on me. A teen on the spectrum, she loves puzzles and cyphers. It was hard to believe at times some of the things she does; it felt way out of the depth of most teenagers. While she isn't supposed to be your "typical" teenager, it still feels too much at times. And while puzzles and cyphers don't usually bother me, here they were more of a struggle to get to. Part of the problem is that half of them were missing - the text would skip right over where they should be and continue on. I know this is an advanced copy, but it really took me out of the story as I wanted to actually see and read the puzzles. The other part is they get over-explained and then solved way too fast. There isn't much anticipation and mystery. I did learn some new things though, such as what the language of the birds is and the difference between NAD 27 and NAD 83. I liked Lily as well. She's really the only other character the reader spends much time with. Arizona's mom and the villains aren't fleshed out and don't have a lot of page time, so it's harder to connect with them.

The ending was a little too neat for me as well. So a random character we're introduced to briefly in the middle of the book shows up again at the end to help Arizona after her crazy story and asks no questions? Then just disappears again? And Sam Yeats and her part seemed out of place. I just can't see things going the way they did.

I do think it was interesting though, and the author obviously spend a lot of time crafting the puzzles. With just a bit of polishing this could work quite well. I do think it will appeal more to its intended audience in its current form. It just didn't quite live up to my expectations.

The Language of The Birds by K.A. Merson was a delightful read. The novel begins with a young teen , Arizona, on a journey of personal growth , maturity and learning how to cope with grief. Arizona's father has recently passed away from a motorcycle accident . The family now will travel to all the fathers favorite spots to spread his ashes. The two women decide to spend the day apart in the state park, where they are staying, and meet up with each other at a specified time. Arizona and Mojo spend the day exploring while her mother has gone on a group trip. However, when she arrives at the meeting place to be relocated with her mother, her mother is nowhere to be seen. This worries Arizona and she informs a state park ranger that her mother is perhaps lost or hurt in the park, he tells her that he will conduct a search party once the park is closed. Arizona heads back to the family airstream to wait on her mother. Arizona awakens the next morning to find that her mother never returned to the airstream. She rushes to the state rangers office to learn that the person she spoke with is not a park ranger. Here begins her investigation into where and who has her mother. Who are the people that have kidnapped her mother and are they responsible for her father's death. I enjoyed plot, the details of how Arizona deals with her condition of misophonia, and her love of puzzles. Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Books for the advanced e-book for review.

K.A. Merson’s The Language of the Birds is a spellbinding novel that weaves together myth, memory, and the magic of language into a tapestry that feels both timeless and urgently relevant. From the first page, Merson's prose enchants—elegant yet accessible, poetic yet grounded in emotional truth.
What makes this book truly stand out is its depth. The story moves fluidly between the real and the surreal, blurring boundaries in a way that invites readers to look more closely at the world around them. The characters are richly drawn, particularly the protagonist, whose inner transformation mirrors the mythic arc of the birds whose language she seeks to understand. Each chapter opens up like a secret, revealing new insights into grief, identity, and the quiet power of listening.
Merson’s background in folklore and literature shines through, lending the narrative a sense of mythic weight while remaining deeply personal and human. The book feels like a conversation between worlds—between past and present, seen and unseen.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine for this digital e-arc.*

Seventeen and remarkable, Arizona is forced to use her puzzle solving skills to find her missing mother that is tied to her late father. She is brilliant and her abilities are taken advantage of.

This adventure reminded me of National Treasure, Indiana Jones, and The Davinici Code all meshed into one story. There are bizarre aspects that at times do not make sense, but for the character as she is written, it works! We get a coming of age story in where the heroine uses her brain to find her mother and solve her father's greatest mystery. It was a blast to read!

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and NetGalley for the ARC. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Arizona, the neurodivergent teenage protagonist of K. A. Merson’s The Language of Birds immediately attracted me to this mystery. As a teacher for many years, I have encountered neurodivergent students, each with their own challenges and talents. With her father dead in a motorcycle accident, Arizona is on the road with her mom, leaving his ashes at various places he loved. Following a brief separation to go to their own ways at one stop, Arizona’s mom fails to meet her at the designated spot. Several hours later, Arizona’s mom is still nowhere to be found. Arizona gives her contact information to a park ranger who promises to look for her missing mom and get back to Arizona, who reluctantly returns to the campground.

The man’s call proves he was not a ranger but simply posing as one. Instead, he is holding her mom hostage, determined that either the mom is privy to secret information held by her deceased husband or that Arizona can help him crack some codes and find other clues holding the key to secrets hidden in a journal with scattered missing passages.

Needing to save her mom, Arizona’s only surviving family member other than her beloved boxer Mojo, Arizona sets out to not only crack the codes sent to her but also to travel across the Southwest in search of other clues in ghost towns, cemeteries, parks, a restricted military zone, and the Hoover Dam. With codes relating to Lewis Caroll, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Edgar Alan Poe, hints tied to alchemy, metallurgy, and geographical survey markers, and a variety of allusions to books ranging from Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to Andy Weir’s The Martian and films ranging from Close Encounters of the Third Kind to The Sound of Music, this is a wild romp of a book appealing more to some readers than others.

Finding it difficult to look people in the eye and bothered by such things as the sound of florescent lights but gifted with mathematical and code breaking skills, Arizona must learn to rely on herself while also dealing with other people. She repeatedly asks herself what her dad would do. Kidnapped and hoping to return to her daughter, Arizona’s mom finds herself asking what Arizona would do.

What secret is the mysterious man called The Adept trying to find? Who was Malachi Sofer, the name on the grave? Did Arizona’s dad die in an accident or was he murdered for his secrets? What did Herbert Hoover have to do with all this?

You will need to read The Language of Birds to find out. Expect a twist at the end. Merson’s book may appeal most to readers who like the National Treasure or Dan Brown films or books. With its 17-year-old protagonist and clean plot, the novel is also appropriate for adolescents and school libraries although some parents may object to occasional expressions.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine/Random House for an advance reader egalley.

I was interested in this one as it was promoted as perfect for fans of puzzle books and intelligent suspense, but for adults. The premise was intriguing, but told from the perspective of the protagonist, a neurodivergent teenager, it read more like YA than adult until the closing chapter. I appreciated the storyline - it reminded me quite a bit of the movie, National Treasure, but the puzzles were a tad bit too complicated for the average reader. (That said, it might be much better in paper vs. the digital ARC that I had.) There are a lot of maps that I wished I could've seen in paper form and they add an extra level of interest. Overall, I would say it was a strong debut, just not quite for me.

I loved this book. Arizona is a beautiful character who is so beautifully written that she just jumps through the pages. I love her abilities to solve puzzles and use what some might think of as personality challenges instead of showing what a gift they can be. I enjoyed watching her make friends and broaden those she trusted outside her family and am so glad that the people she did let in stayed faithful. I also enjoyed being able to see the puzzles along with Arizona. I think that is a lovely addition for anyone who might want to puzzle right alongside Arizona.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book.

My thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books/Penguin Random House for the ARC of "The Language of the Birds" in exchange for an honest review.

If I wasn't so completely captivated by this book's main character, 17 year old Arizona, I would would've rated this book far lower than 3 stars.

Neurodivergent, brilliant and homeschooled after a painful childhood of schoolmate taunts, Arizona soaks up knowledge as she travels around the country with her parents....(via their Airstream camper). But then, amid the breathtaking landscapes of the Sierra Nevada mountains, her dad dies in what looks like an accident and her mom's kidnapped by people seeking a lost secret of antiquity.

The kidnappers leverage against Arizona is to use her spectacular analytical and mathematical mind to discover this eternal secret's hiding place. With her beloved boxer Mojo in tow and with a new found friend (a first for the socially awkward 'Az') she embarks on a 'Da Vinci Code' type quest to uncover the mystery and free her mom.

As much as I loved seeing Arizona cope with the real world during her Sherlock Holmes-ian hunt, the book lost me as it buries itself (and Arizona) in mountains of geometric riddles puzzles and lengthy impenetrable poetry packed with equally convoluted clues. For puzzle lovers, this sounds like a Godsend, but readers with minimal interest in this stuff may find themselves flipping through those pages with only a bare glance at them. (And there's a whole lot of that to flip through.....)

Arizona's adventures, which take her everywhere from scuba diving to ghost towns to Hoover Dam, are indeed both exciting and informative, a clever mixture of Dan Brown novels and the "National Treasure' films. But sorry, those endless pages of puzzles and poems functioned like (to me, anyway) cholesterol constantly clogging up the flow of the story.

A mixed bag, for sure. Loved Arizona, but I wish the author could've found ways to make the clues more digestible and entertaining, instead of like a textbook for a college course everyone tries to avoid.

“The Language of the Birds" by K. A. Merson is an enthralling read that masterfully weaves together the threads of mystery with the complexities of family relationships. From the very first page, Merson's evocative prose pulls you into a world brimming with secrets, where every character's motive adds another layer to the story's intricately crafted puzzle.

The novel excels in creating a palpable atmosphere, rich with tension and suspense. Merson's skill in character development shines through, as the family dynamics are portrayed with authenticity and depth. The emotional undercurrents between the characters add a compelling dimension to the mystery, making the reader care not just about the "whodunit" but also about the "why."

Overall, "Language of the Birds" is a beautifully written novel that offers both an intriguing mystery and a heartfelt exploration of family ties. Merson's storytelling leaves a lasting impression, making this book a worthy addition to any mystery enthusiast's collection.

This is definitely different from a lot of young adult novels I have read. There is definitely a lot of focus on all of the puzzles and deciphering those which is sometimes difficult to read on a Kindle. It also takes away from the character development a little, and the MC is intriguing. This is an interesting story that might challenge the reader to think about the themes of identity, trust, and resilience. I also always love a dog sidekick. Like I mentioned before, this is different from a lot of young adult novels, so if you are looking for that, this might be the one for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for advanced copy, and I give my review freely