I recieved The List* by Patricia Forde as an e-book from the publisher via Netgalley. This is an unbiased and honest review. 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.