Lexicon by Max Barry

Lexicon by Max Barry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Jacket Blurb:  
Sticks and stones break bones.
Words kill.

They recruited Emily from the streets. They said it was because she's good with words.

They'll live to regret it.

Wil survived something he shouldn't have. But he doesn't remember it.

Now they're after him and he doesn't know why.

There's a word, they say. It shouldn't have got out. But it did.

And they want it back...

July's book group selection.

It's been a while since a scifi book has grabbed my attention and held it like this one did. I thought Lexicon was a really enjoyable read from the first page to the action packed conclusion.

Lexicon is not an overly complicated plot - runaway Emily is recruited into this mysterious world of words, where she learns the hard way that yes, words do have power. Will is abducted in an airport, interrogated, nearly assassinated, and is now on the run. Tom Eliot is trying to right a wrong. And everything hinges around a mysterious group call the Poets, run by Yeats.

It's how everything came together that I found to be just brilliant and delightful. It was the underlying nuances between Emily and Harry, between Eliot and Bronte that I think really cinched the whole "words are power". Emily and Harry figured it out. Alas, Eliot figured it out too late.

It was how the separate timelines and characters all came together. It felt so seamless - a merging so deftly woven the reader almost didn't know it was happening. I loved it!

Yes, there are some rather predictable aspects such as: I knew someone was going to die, and I knew who that someone was. There should be no surprise there for the astute reader. The happy ending. Also no surprise - but I sure as hell would have been pissed off if it had been any other way.

Sometimes, I just don't have much to say in my review, and this is one of those times. Overall, this is just a really enjoyable book with lots of delightful twists and turns.



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