Wil and Emily live in a world where people can be controlled with words. Not just metaphorically - literally controlled by carefully selected strings of words. In Max Barry's
Lexicon, a mysterious organization, the Academy, whose members are called Poets, determine personality type using a test of ten questions (linked
here). Using the answers to these questions, they can find out the segment (personality type) of the person they are interviewing. Once a Poet discovers your segment, they can control you and command you to do anything. Wil is an outlier - he is immune to these words. Because of this, he is being hunted by a Poet named Woolf. In the second of the two storylines, Emily, sixteen and homeless, is recruited by the Academy to become one of their newest Poets.
If you want a fun summer read, this book will suck you in. A gripping thriller, the novel's fast-paced science fiction action has intriguing links to the Babel legend and other similar events. The characters of Emily and Wil are believable in that they have their own faults and act like regular people (no heroics here, at least at first). The science behind it is intriguing, even if somewhat unbelievable. The book explores the power of words and how we persuade others, even without special command words. Despite a rather slow third act,
Lexicon will enthrall you from the second you see the first words on the page.
Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian
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