Like the author, Stephen King inspired me to just write. His book, On Writing, is one of the reasons I now read at least a book a week. Also like him, I am a big fan of Andy Weir and Blake Crouch. But mostly I am thankful that Merson was duly inspired to write.

Why? Because The Language of the Birds is a wonderful and unique book. The story, which revolves around real science and facts but is also very fictional, was wonderful. Being at the low end of the Autism spectrum, I could sympathize with many of things 17-year-old Arizona was going through/had to deal with. Having had a Boxer as one of our pets at about the same age, made that feel very real to me as well—Molly (like Mojo in the book) was a great dog. Finally, having spent several formative years in California and having visited some of the places Arizona visits, like the ghost town of Bodie and even Hoover Dam (on the border of Nevada and Arizona), the locations felt very familiar, as well.

What really stood out to me and why I will be purchasing an actual copy of this books is all the codes, drawings, and diagrams that were used as a part of Arizona’s thought process. So much fun! The Language of the Birds will not be available until May of 2025, but I imagine by the time I have the actual book in hand, I will be ready to read it again!

K. A. Merson

GoodReads says:

A brilliant, eccentric teenager must solve a series of puzzles left behind by her dead father in this debut that features codes, riddles, and a plot that ingeniously mixes fact and fiction.

When seventeen-year-old Arizona’s mother goes missing on a family trip, Arizona tells herself not to worry. Until she finds her family’s Airstream ransacked—and the ominous note on the counter. Incredibly, impossibly, her mother has been kidnapped.

Even more bizarre are the terms of the The kidnappers believe that Arizona’s dead father took some sort of great secret to his grave—and to get her mother back safely, Arizona must now uncover it for them.

If Arizona were a “normal” teenager, she’d have no idea what to do. Luckily, Arizona’s anything but normal. Like her father, she’s more comfortable with books than with people, and inordinately fond of puzzles, codes, and riddles—and she soon realizes that the trail begins with a cipher that points her West, to the peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Her dog Mojo at her side, Arizona sets off in the Airstream to uncover the truth and pursue her mother’s return on her own terms. Yet her journey grows far stranger than she could have imagined, as she finds herself cracking codes and solving riddles, poring through pages of ancient texts, poking through forgotten corners of U.S. history, and uncovering mysteries hidden in plain sight in the Western landscape—all on the hunt for an impossible, centuries-old prize.