I had the pleasure of reading an ebook version of K.A. Merson's "The language of Birds" in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the publisher for the privilege.

I had to sit on it for a bit after I finished it. The main character of the story is Arizona. She and her mother are on the road. Both are grieving due to the loss of Arizona's father in a motorcycle accident. I have to admit that I didn't really like Arizona for much of the book. I think it might be due to my age. Being older, I gravitated more to her mother's character than Arizona. Unfortunately, her mother is not in the book as much as I would have liked because the plot calls for her to be abducted.

The basics of the plot are simple enough. Seventeen year old Arizona shared her recently deceased father's love of solving puzzles and riddles. Unbeknownst to her mother and Arizona, her father had someone who was watching him and thinking that her father could solve some sort of special riddle and with him gone, the next person to solve the riddle is Arizona so they abduct her mother.

The details do push the 'suspension of disbelief' boundaries and the puzzles themselves do get tiresome. Not going to lie, I started to skim them after awhile. I did start enjoying when Arizona started to come out of her bubble and start interacting with others. Lily and Marty were welcome injections into the plot.

Mid-way into the book, it was easy to start seeing where it was going so there isn't really much of a mystery. While I did enjoy it overall and I will say that by the end, I did like Arizona more than I did at the beginning, I do feel like the ending was a bit of a disappointment although I think that may be the p0int of the ending too. Can't say much more because I wouldn't want to spoil anything, but I would understand if there were some mixed reactions. I didn't mind it, but again, I did have to sit on it and mull it over before writing my reactions/review.

K.A. Merson was able to create a unique story that I was hoping for from the description. The plot was everything that I was looking for and enjoyed about this type of book. The characters had that feel that I wanted and was invested in their lives. It had that mystery element that I was looking for and thought the use of a ransom for a secret was a great idea.

The Language of the Birds is a Da Vinci Code-type of young-adult exploit filled with complicated ciphers, codes, puzzles, American history, and conspiracy theories involving Herbert Hoover, the US President who botched the American recovery from the Great Depression. The book involves a seventeen-year-old Arizona, also known as AZ and her dog, Mojo. She has just lost her father in a motorcycle accident and is with her mother revisiting their family’s favorite sights to scatter his ashes, when her mother disappears. When Arizona and Mojo regroup at the family’s Airstream travel trailer, she finds a note stating her mother’s life depends on Arizona solving a cipher. 

Arizona sees patterns and hidden meanings due to her family history (her father was a cartographer by trade and a cryptographer by avocation) and her own brand of neurodivergence. She may be intellectually brilliant, but she is somewhat socially inept. Arizona fears involving the authorities, and attempts to solve the mystery assigned to her; however, once it’s done, the kidnappers present yet another mystery to solve. 

There are lots of literary references to Lewis Carroll, Mary Shelley, Jules Verne, and Robert Louis Stevenson as well as archaic texts on alchemy. The puzzles she must solve are encased in writings that in part derive from Alice in Wonderland and other poetry. I found the inclusion of these often-lengthy excerpts  and fragments of people’s journals and Arizona’s own writings to be overdone and thus skimmed a lot of them, especially since they frequently appeared in both Arizona's and the villain's points of view. The novel itself is written primarily in Arizona's point of view with some excursions into that of her mother and the villain. The bad guy and his minions were quite cardboard; a bit more character definition would have been appreciated. I also wondered how a seventeen-year-old paid for a multi-day diving expedition off the California coast as well as her other day-to-day expenses. I did enjoy the accurate and well-researched details on ghost towns and the California flora and fauna. I also liked Arizona's feistiness, the fact that as a result of this adventure she was able to expand her life with new friendships, and the fact that neurodivergent youngsters can see themselves in this book and identify with her character as well as non-neurodivergent young folks can get a glimpse into the lives of the "weird" kids they so often bully and make fun of.

The incredible effort put into the puzzles, the ciphers. the landmarks and the hunt is felt on every page. I would not be able to solve most of the puzzles, nor link up the historical significance. And yet I was swept up in the treasure hunt and was excited by each new riddle that Arizona was decoding. The geographical and historical links made this feel all too real, right down to the landmarks at Hoover Dam. I also got swept up in the need to know geometry, astronomy, geography, history, and literature to decode the messages. This is book that was exciting on so many levels. You have the treasure hunt, with the clues and the travel and the secrecy. It is a murder mystery because you know that Arizona is looking to solve the cause of her father's death. And you have the race against time as Arizona plays the games necessary to save her mother from her kidnappers. I also very much enjoyed seeing the diagrams, images, depicted ciphers and such as it gave me the feeling of taking part in the decoding (although, honestly, it mostly went over my head). The only inconsistency was Arizona, a loner, trusting strangers - I felt that was unlikely considering her background and what was going in in her life. But if was integral to the story, so I forgive it. Amazing adventure, and the twist at the end stopped me up short - I love it when a story can do that!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the opportunity to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

@netgalley
@randomhouse

Available: May 13, 2025

Arizona, her mom, and her dog Mojo go on vacation. Her mother goes missing. She becomes worried when she finds their camper ransacked and an ominous note on the counter. Where is her mom? Was she kidnapped?

Wow. I’m sitting here truly in awe of what I just read. I loved this book so much. I really hope to see more books written soon by K.A. Merson. What a captivating story this was and his storytelling will stay with you. Arizona and Mojo are of course my favorites! A must add to your tbr!!!

#read #reading #readmorebooks #booklover #bookstagram #books #netgalley #randomhouse #bookworm #booklover #bookaddict #booklove #fivestarbooks #tbr

Thank you NetGalley and Randomhouse for the eARC. My review reflects my own opinions.

Arizona is 17 and neurodivergent, and has recently lost her father. When she and her mother go to scatter his ashes in a place he loved, her mother is kidnapped. She returns to their camper, unsure what to do - until she finds an ominous note on the counter with a puzzle she must solve to rescue her mother. What follows is an elaborate trip across the southwestern United States as Arizona solves puzzles and uncovers clues that lead only to more puzzles. Along the way, she encounters people, and she must overcome her deep distrust of others to determine who is friend and who is foe.

KA Merson’s The Language of the Birds is interesting, and the puzzles that Arizona solves and the journey she must make are exciting. The ciphers and puzzles are certainly challenging for someone who doesn’t know much about cryptography but the explanations are more or less easy enough to follow, even if I could never replicate them. What didn’t quite make sense was Arizona’s comfort wandering all around the southwest on her own (with her dog). She makes decisions with the confidence of someone who is a grown adult, not a 17yo kid. The people she encounters are more or less trustworthy even when they behave bizarrely (like the 20something girl who tracks her across state lines to some remote campsite on a whim). The overarching conspiracy behind the puzzles is also a bit unbelievable, but the clues are kind of fun, especially because most of them are from real publicly available material.

3.5/5 *

Thank you to Penguin Random House and Netgalley for an advanced readers copy of K,A. Merson's wonderful book The Language of the Birds. What a fantastic novel. Do you like ciphers? or puzzles? Or historical mysteries? Then pick up this book. I could barely put it down. And feel like I need to read it a second time, to make more sense of the truly enjoyable use of ciphers to solve coded messages. In the publisher's description of the book, "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." This is just a tease. The story's protagonist Arizona, a seventeen year old girl who is brilliant. She has a remarkable memory and skillset solving codes and riddles. She and her mom are living in an airstream rv in the desert in the southwest, a mere two months after her father died tragically in an accident. When her mom is taken hostage by an unknown group, it falls to Arizona to solve a series of riddles and ciphers to find a way to save her mother. There is much more. All I will say here, is the book is compelling and draws you in.

When I first started the book, I wasn't sure if this was a YA title or a coming of age book. It might be a little bit of the latter, as Arizona learns that is is sometimes necessary to rely on others, when her natural inclination is to go solo on everything. But in the end, the book is truly book for anyone interested in solving complex puzzles.

The Language of the Birds by K.A. Merson is a celebration for those that love puzzles, cryptography, and being a bit different than the world around them. While difficult at time to follow and a bit repetitive due to the nature of mulling over the same clues (It would have been excellent to have illustrations or examples of the puzzle cracking through the story), I think most will enjoy the narrative of excitement, found family, loss and recovery, and history wrapped throughout this novel. While it would be a bit easy to compare it to National Treasure, there are similarities that will appeal to some readers. For those that love puzzles or just feel like they don't quite fit, I think this will be an excellent read!

A sharp, high IQ, introvert on the spectrum, and with her levels of anxiety, a clever seventeen-year-old just lost her father (a great cartographer) in an "accident," and her mother is kidnapped. It's up to her to decipher all the codes so she can save her mom. Arizona accepts the quest ( to different locations to perform different clue-finding action activities, such as diving) on this time-sensitive and high-stakes thrilling adventure for fans of treasure hunting, action and thrilling movies, and books. I relate to many aspects of this character, such as her misophonia and her lack of social skills, but she is fearless, and she lets some people in who prove to be a great help. Her dog Mojo is a loyal and fun companion. He doesn't like word puzzles, but he keeps her company. There are lots of amazing references to classic books (lots of Lewis Carroll's poems to decipher, ancient mythology, math, alchemy, geometry, and astronomy) and some references to pop culture, too. We get great detail into her process of deciphering the codes, not just mention that hours later, she did it (extensive nerdy details into it, we get access to the source material). Fun complex codes. Awesome to discover what the title means. 

This character is a great homage to the thought that we should read everything and learn as much as possible. 

My favorite sentence ( I read an arc, so I won't quote directly, but it's something like this in my own words. Anger isn't healthy to keep for a long time or any time at all.)

Thank you netgalley for the arc.

This is a fascinating book! It’s centered on cyphers and alchemy, so there is a lot of technical information that honestly was over my head. It didn’t detract from the book though. It was very interesting. Following the clues that Arizona unearths was a lot of fun. The book takes a lot of twists and turns. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced free copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

I am a huge fan of puzzles, codes, cyphers, and history. I have ton tons of escape rooms for this reason and one of my favorite books and movies was National Treasure and the DaVinci Code. This book reminded me of those. I love a good adventure, and this book delivered that. I have visited many of the places mentioned in this book and that aspect made it much more enjoyable for me. This is one I hope they turn into a movie one day. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I confess: I thought this book would be about birds. Alas, it is not. "The Language of the Birds" tells the often sad story of 17-year-old Arizona, who has just lost her father a couple of weeks earlier.

Arizona is whip-smart, and has frequently been bullied by her classmates. She knows she's different.

Someone has it in for her family. Arizona's mother disappears and mysterious puzzles start appearing. They include threats against Arizona and her mother if Arizona doesn't solve them.

Well, this won't do at all. As you can imagine an unusual young woman like Arizona has a battery of unusual skills. K.A. Merson has written a singular book that overlaps the mystery, thriller, and woman-in-jeopardy genres.

Arizona and her mother are sympathetic characters. The puzzles are fun to (try to) solve. The action moves quickly and I always had the feeling that some unpleasant threat lay just around the next corner.

I highly recommend this book. I could see it being expanded into a series.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read an advance reader's copy. This is my honest review.

This book was interesting!!!

It started off really fast, then had a slump and ended super fast.

I enjoyed the story line with the daughter and her trying to figure out how she could rescue her mother.

and the DOG!!!!!!! I will not ruin that for anyone.

I defiantly would recommend the book.

It has tons of excitement and mystery.

Eek was a convoluted book. I was rooting for it because it has everything I like - puzzles, codes, ciphers, and adolescence! I enjoy YA, and I could feel this book trying to be a Da Vinci Code. It was formulaic and was playing to be a mini-series or something else. I am also wary of books with characters on the spectrum as they are not done well, and this felt the same.

Three weeks after her father's death, Arizona, her mother, and her loving boxer Mojo take a road trip in their Airsteam to her father's favorite places to scatter his ashes. During their stop in Bodie, Arizona's mother goes missing and their Airstream is ransacked.

Arizona is given puzzle by her mother's mysterious kidnappers to solve in search for an unknown treasure. The search leads her all over the West coast following the clues. Can she solve the mystery her father was seemingly involved in and save her mother?

While not specifically labeled, Arizona's character is supposed to be on the spectrum with disabilities her parent's refer to as "differences." I'm assuming she's autistic due to her extreme intelligence (at 17 she has a Mensa card) and her social behaviors. This story reminded me of the National Treasure movies, deciphering clues left to cover up Presidential involvement in a well-guarded secret. The story was fast paces and engaging. It was easy to follow the thought process of Arizona deciphering the clues, despite how complex they were. Overall this was an enjoyable read with fairly low stakes involved. I loved the ending even though it was left a bit open-ended. Despite not wrapping up the mystery neatly, the end was satisfying in my opinion.

This book was very different to other books I have read before! It mixed fact and fiction in an interesting mystery. I loved all of the puzzles, codes, and mysteries!

Arizona's life has taken an unexpected turn. After losing her father in a motorcycle accident, she and her mother go on a road trip in their classic Airstream to scatter his remains in all the places he loved. While visiting a ghost town, Arizona's mother is kidnapped. Now Arizona must try to figure out a mysterious set of clues, given to her by the kidnappers, and unveil a secret the kidnappers are convinced her father took to his grave. Arizona did inherit her father's ability to solve puzzles and with the help of her dog, Mojo, and Lucy, a fellow camper she met the night her mother went missing, Arizona sets off on a strange journey to solve a mystery and save her mother. The novel started strong, but the ending was disappointing.

Wow! Nerd alert ...if you like solving puzzles, love learning about topics from alchemy to the Hoover Dam, and appreciate a female protagonist with a superbrain and a few social issues, this is one great read! What strikes me first is the amount of research that went into this novel for the clues provided to the mystery. The author must also have an intimate knowledge of the Arizona landscape to provide the details in such a strong visual narrative along with the more esoteric puzzle that is presented in the story.

When Arizona's father dies in a freak motorcycle accident, she and her mother revisit places that have meaning to the three of them, distributing his ashes along the way. But when Mom disappears at Bodie, a ghost town, AZ is launched into a frightening race to decode information as the only way to save her mother.

Prepare to be dazzled and challenged by Merson's plot. Not for those who don't want to think too much when they read! I couldn't put it down!

A fun and engaging read along the lines of Davinci Code or National Treasure. Our main character, Arizona, is so genuine and relatable. She is simply wired differently than the average bear. I suspect she would be on the spectrum based on her behaviors and thoughts, but that is what makes her as smart and logical as she is. She is basically forced to uncover, interpret and solve a bunch of clues within hidden messages when her Mom is kidnapped by person(s) whose motives are questionable. That being said, these puzzles/clues were way over my head, but the author did an amazing job of explaining and recapping along the way so I never really felt lost...but it is a lot of information coming at you. I just had to put that aside and focus on the story. I did find my brain wandering and wanting to skim read. It's probably just my pea brain needing a break from information overload, but it truly was a great story and the author handled explaining stuff extraordinarily well. If you are looking for something a bit off the usual paths you to take in reading, I highly recommend this.

How rare it is to find a novel that is both pulse pounding and intellectually stimulating at the same time. This book is the best and most pleasurable of the many I have read this year. Avid readers are familiar with the odd feeling of wanting to see how a story ends but not wanting the book itself to end. I had that feeling in spades.

Arizona is a teen who, as the story begins, is in the process of grieving her recently deceased father, the person most like her. She seems to be drawn to be neurodivergent. She has strong reactions to certain stimuli, a difficulty with social relations outside her immediate family circle and a difficult time even naming the emotions she has. But Merson doesn't focus on these issues. Rather, it is Arizona's strengths and growth through the story that are front and center . She has an almost super power in figuring out complex puzzles and it is these puzzles that are an intrinsic to the plot. She must use this talent to rescue her mother from kidnappers who have taken her to gain Arizona's help in solving an impossibly hard puzzle for their own nefarious reasons..

At the start of the story, Arizona is surrounded by a cocoon of love by her parents to save her from a less than tolerant world. But now, with the death of her father and kidnapping of her mother, she. must gather her courage and, along with her intrepid companion, a Boxer named Mojo, venture out into the world to find and decode a series of clues and save her mother.. Along the way, she accomplishes a task even harder than solving the puzzles: she must learn to trust others and discover the possibilities of friendship. If you haven't already guessed this is a great story and one in which teens and adults would enjoy equally.