What If Language Was Forbidden?

I can’t help it; I love dystopian fiction. I know all fiction stories are stories that are in the land of What-If, but I do love a story set in a future where What If Something Happened that Changed Everything.

The List is set in a world where the Earth experienced a catastrophic melting of the ice caps, and the last known safe city is a place call Ark. The leader of Ark, John Noa, determined that the reason the Earth was destroyed was because of the careless use of language. Therefore everyone in Ark must speak List, a language of only 500 words.

Everyone except for Letta. Letta is the apprentice to the Wordsmith, the only person allowed to know and catalog all the words used in the time before. She knows many forbidden words, words like “music” and “pineapple” and “ladybug.”

But one day her master disappears, and Letta is now the new Wordsmith. John Noa tells her she must shorten List to fewer words. And then Letta meets a teenage boy who knows forbidden words, and she realizes she has to make a choice: participate in the elimination of language or follow a stranger on a journey that could mean freedom for everyone.

I loved this book the same way I loved The Giver by Lois Lowry. The story reminds us to be cautious of ideas that seem like they are for the benefit of all, but could really lead to a life of subjugation.