I really enjoyed The Language of the Birds (publication day May 13, 2025) by K.A. Merson, which is a young adult thriller/ mystery that features a neurodivergent, 17-year old main character named Arizona and her dog Mojo. As I read it, I was somewhat reminded of the middle-grade mysteries Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett, and The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin because of the centrality of decoding the riddles, but, the stakes here are much, much higher.
Arizona’s father has recently passed away in a motorcycle accident, and Arizona and her mother are road-tripping with their Airstream through ghost towns in southern California in his memory. Because Arizona needs some alone time, her mother goes to tour an old mill at a state park while Arizona spends time reading and hiking with Mojo. But when her mother doesn’t show up at the designated time, Arizona is thrown for a loop. Turns out she’s been abducted, and the kidnappers contact Arizona to solve a cipher.
Does this have something to do with her father’s “accident”? The Airstream has been ransacked, and so has their house, when Arizona goes back home to regroup. How will she be able to find what the kidnappers want her to, especially when it’s off the Channel Islands? And how do they know where she is?
Luckily, at one of her campsites, she meets Lily, another young adult camping in her van with her own dog, and she seems to be someone Arizona can trust. And meanwhile, her mother is not just sitting back waiting for the kidnappers to do something worse; she attempts to escape as well.
With themes of alchemy and ancient symbolism like National Treasure, and literature from Lewis Carroll, Edgar Allen Poe, and Robert Louis Stevenson, and national parks and monuments such as Death Valley National Park and the Hoover Dam, Arizona is pushed to her limits to solve the puzzles and save her mom.
I loved the characters and the puzzles, and Arizona’s development, realizing that she can tolerate some people. I highly recommend it! And it was completely weight-neutral.
Reading While Fat 