Lexicon - Max Barry

Thriller

Rating: 8.5/10

What’s the magic word? Be careful before you answer.  It’s not what you think.

A dystopian, linguistics minded thriller in which words are wielded as weapons, and in the hands of a secret group of peopled called Poets who have the power to control others simply by speaking to them, they are deadly.

Narrated by two absorbing central characters, Emily and Wil, in alternating chapters, this book is a cerebral delight. Emily was plucked off the street where she was hustling people at cards, a talent of reading others that makes her perfect for training as a Poet.  And Wil is just a guy who finds himself pulled into the fallout of a mass causality event.  At least that’s who they are on the surface.

Barry has a gift for spinning complicated plots that aren’t weighed down by their intricacies, in his latest world, evil dwells in the everyday ways we are manipulated by language.  Through targeted media, information diluted through filters not our own and conversations laden with semantics.

He explores how our brains work to filter and file sensory input, and how it’s words that have the power to disable the filters and capture the brains attention. Like clicking through each tumbler on a safe to open the door, but in this case it’s the door to the mind.

Not much of anything is certain in this blisteringly paced thriller, but word nerds will love every minute of it!

Book Pairing(s): The Company by Max Barry, Babel by R.F. Kuang, Black Buck by Mateo Askariour