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…
Find out why in one of the most mind-bending, page-turning, thrilling novels you’ll ever read.
*Winner of the Aurealis Award for science fiction and GoodReads Choice Awards finalist for best science fiction*
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…
Find out why in one of the most mind-bending, page-turning, thrilling novels you’ll ever read.
*Winner of the Aurealis Award for science fiction and GoodReads Choice Awards finalist for best science fiction*
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Reviews
Best thing I've read in a long, long time... a masterpiece
Dazzling and spectacularly inventive. A novel that jams itself sideways into your brain and stays there.
Wonderfully crafted, dark yet humourous, fast-paced and tragic in turn
Insanely good. Dark and twisted and sweet and humane all at once.
Sophisticated and laden with subtext... clearly reaffirms Barry's status as a gifted purveyor of suspense
Barry's smartest dystopia yet
An extraordinarily fast, funny, cerebral thriller
Brilliantly realised... strikingly relevant... a resounding success
Truly original... a crack-paced thriller... smart and tons of fun
Highly entertaining and engrossing... characters that are both complicated and likeable
A spellbinding, intelligent read...a freewheeling plot intermeshed with linguistic theory and some genuinely creepy horror set-pieces
Gripping... a pitch-perfect thriller, a jetpack of a plot that rocketed me from page one to page 400 in a single afternoon
Delightfully high-concept...think Noam Chomsky meets Christopher Nolan