I loved this book! I'm familiar with the author's work with The Great Courses, where he is one of my favorite professors. After getting an advanced review copy on NetGalley, I decided to buy my own copy.

What started as a pretty enjoyable romp through the ever-evolving joys of the English language, lost my attention when the author tried to use the novel to seemingly make dismissive digs at his wife. McWhorter tries to compare the adoption of facts to his wife ceasing cleaning the litter tray at home when pregnant due to risks of "some virus?". In a book that is meticulously researched and often goes ridiculously deep into the rabbit hole, this dismissive, derisory comment really bothered me. Especially as it gets brought up again later on in the book as another snide aside.
As a result, McWhorter changed from being a nutty professor to a chauvinistic pig in the space of a few pages, leaving the rest of the book feeling like one epic example of mansplaining. One to avoid. Like, literally.