Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Waiting on Wednesday #3

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted at Breaking the Spine where bloggers post spotlights on upcoming releases that they're eagerly anticipating.

This week, my pick is The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus. Publication Date: January 17th, 2012.


Goodreads Review: From one of the most innovative and important writers of his generation: a brilliant, mesmerizingly dark new novel in which the speech of children is killing their parents.

At first it's just Jews--then everyone. People are leaving their families to survive. Sam's wife, Claire, is already stricken and near death. In a year or two, as she grows into adulthood, their daughter, Esther, too, will become a victim. Sam and Claire decide to leave Esther on her own, hoping a "cure" will miraculously appear. Sam's car is waved off the road at a government-run laboratory where horrific tests are being conducted to create non-lethal speech. Throngs bang on the doors to be subject volunteers; they're all carried out half-dead. When Sam realizes what's going on, he makes a desperate escape, vowing that if he dies it will be with his family, the only refuge of sanity and love.

Ben Marcus's nightmarish vision is both completely alien and frighteningly familiar.

What caught my eye was, of course, the cover. It's so colorful! But beyond that, the content seems completely unique. Parents leaving children? The child's voice being deadly? It's horrific, yet mesmerizing and I'm interested to see how it plays out.

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