The List By Patricia Forde

 

The List                                       *****

Patricia Forde        Publisher:  sourcebooks jaberwocky

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 3^rd 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