This book and I didn't really click. I had trouble getting into it and it felt hard to pick it up again and again.

There might be a wonderful story hiding between the pages, but I couldn't find it.

This was a very interesting concept and unique to anything else I have read. I thought it was thought provoking and powerful and would recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for this ARC

A whimsical read. Written from the perspective of a word that has lost its meaning

Title: The Word Trove
Written by: Elias Vorpahl
Published by: Iron Bird Publishing
Genre: General Fiction (Adult) | Sci Fi & Fantasy | Teens & YA
Pub Date: 01 Jan 2021
Review on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3661044887


This book is the answer to the question what if worlds were alive? Well in this book we meet "Word" who wants to find out what is like to be spoken aloud. On his quest for the answer he meets many strange words.

Though I was really intrigued by the premise of this book, I unfortunately found it was not for me. I am not much of a literary reader.

I would however recommend this book to anyone who is a literary reader and likes adventure stories with Alice in Wonderland feel.

This was a wonderful read for anyone who admires the written word and takes an interest in grammar! A word has lost its meaning and has to search for it, meeting other words along the way. This was both charming and original and I foresee myself several copies of this per year to gift to literary friends! Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

Gorgeous book, I really enjoyed it!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me access and advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

This was such a fun read. So many twists and turns in the word's journey, just really lovely.

I received this book courtesy of NetGalley in exchange for a fair review..

This was such an unusual yet enchanting story, I am still trying to comprehend exactly what I have read.

The Word Trove tells the story of a young word which has lost it's meaning. We follow the word's journey through the world of language as it seeks to uncover who it is and what it means.

This book was so easy to read, I felt like I was flying through it. The word play was clever and definitely made me stop and think about the various uses of language and how it can be altered. The journey that the word takes reminded me a lot of some of my favourite childhood fairy tales. I almost felt like I was reading an old favourite book, revisiting a world I had already explored. The unusual characters drew me in, my particular favourite was Mad! I think my main complaint is that I want even more! I would love to explore more of this world with Elias Vorphal, but it has been left in the perfect way, with a fond farewell.

The illustrations weaved throughout this book were absolutely stunning. I can imagine they are even more striking and moving in the physical copy- I have a feeling I may need to pick up a copy just to keep on my bookshelf and treasure. I can imagine it could be a great read to share with children too, even if they don't fully grasp some of the clever language use.

I am so grateful to Netgalley, the publishers and author for allowing me to receive a copy of the ebook so I could give my personal thoughts.

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this book.

It's the story of a word who loses her meaning and ends up on a quest to find it again before the Brackets hunt her down and she's lost forever. There are so many fascinating things in this story, one of my favourites being the Linguistic Games.

The reason I'm 50/50 about this story is because there were parts where I was really drawn in, but there were also large sections where I found myself annoyed because it felt like the author was showing off how smart and meta they were and it was impacting the story. I can tell you for sure that this author was (not at all subtly) influenced by Alice in Wonderland, Watership Down, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Little Prince, and The Neverending Story. The problem is that The Word Trove at times feels more like all of these things cobbled together than a story in its own right. I think the idea and parts of the world were really interesting and unique, and for that I give it the two and a half stars, but to be honest, it was trying so hard to be these other books that it felt like the unique story of this lost word got a little lost itself in the attempted cleverness of the writer.

*However*, because this book is a translation, I'm giving it an extra half star as the benefit of the doubt as I know stories are almost always richer in the language they were written in. The half star extra is also a nod to the beautiful illustrations (though, once again, they reminded me strongly of Neverending Story)

If you've never read the books I mentioned above, you might find the Word Trove interesting and unusual (hopefully in a good way!), but if you've read the above titles, much of this story feels borrowed from them anyway. The author's writing voice is engaging and readable, but what really lets this book down is that it feels like the author can't help showing off their own cleverness at the expense of the story. If the author wrote another book in which they focused on the storytelling and the characters more, I would have no problems giving it a chance.

(I received a free copy of this title from Net Galley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions here are my own.)

This book was so great! I love books about words and books and this one started with a quotation of one of my most favourite authors - and it eventually turned out to be a story within a story?! Perfection!
Since the english language uses only one article, I can imagine this being confusing for native english speakers - matter of fact, how do you find out whether or not a word is male or female in English?
Besides that, the book was so well written and amazingly well told. I sucked in every word on that page and I was excited to figure out the Word's journey to find herself. The ending was beautiful and magical and I had to smile when I reached the end.
It was a great, refreshing read and I love this book very much. It's among my comfort reads now because it has an adorable way of dealing with disabilities and "otherness".
Like books by Michael Ende, this one is timeless and can - and should - be read by children and adults alike.
Everyone can learn a lesson or two from reading this book, no matter their age.

I received a free ARC by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A whimsical tale of a word, on her journey of discovery to establish just who she is. I loved the cast characters she met on her way, and the clever literary links to classical texts. Plenty of puns and clever wordplay too, lightening the ominous warning that words are easily forgotten and overlooked, losing their place in the world. One for a day-dreamy kind of day rather than a logical mood, but beautiful nonetheless.

I fell in love with this book. It was different to anything else I’ve read in a while and it was wonderful.

The book is so whimsical and I love all the literalness, connections to humans, and the intricacies of word-life.

The art is incredible. The book reminded me in a lovely way of The Phantom Tollbooth crossed with the Sylvia Cycle.

The way Deaf communicates fascinated me with <spoiler> literally choosing his words and them saying their names to form sentences. </spoiler>

The Alice in Wonderland esque adventures were so fun and it was complete with a mad word tea party!

Chapter 10 has a really interesting textual play on Babel, but a quick warning for dyslexics, it might be a difficult chapter to read.

Also, I was amazed at the translation work! I never would have guessed this was a translation from German. The translator, Romy Fursland, is incredible and seamless.

All in all, a five star, whimsical and delightful read for anyone who loves words.

This was such a unique story, I don’t think i’ve ever read something quite like this before. The author has done a great job not only with weaving this heartfelt tale but also writing it in a way that makes it so visual.

The world building obviously takes the win in this book, it’s so unique and intriguing. How do *words* view the world? This book shows you how and is such a clear way. From linguistics to “culture” within this world was so superbly presented to us. We follow the “word” as it tries to learn its meaning and encounters challenges within this world. I’d say the writing style itself also fit the themes and atmosphere of the content really well, so it was easier for me to imagine the character as a unique and distinct one, so points on that aspect as well. Last but not least, THE ART!!!!! i love when books provide art, its immaculate.

All that said, there are certain things I didn’t love about the book, first of all was the side plot with “lust”, it felt irrelevant in regards to this setting of the story and the book would have been so much better without that aspect. Yes it created conflict but that did not move the story forward, the conflict itself felt as if it was done for the sake of it instead of it impacting the story and character. That’s almost it that i can say i disliked specifically, but i simply did not enjoy this genre, and nor the book. It didn’t impact me, make me invested in the sense emotionally obsessed or well, it didn’t make me *feel*. My reading experience with this was, “okay cool book, cool premise, that happened, this happened, lets move on”.

So while i did not particularly enjoy this book, it will also be an injustice to this book and author to say this book was bad, this time it just boiled down to my taste, so I’ll definitely recommend this to people, bc well you might like it!!!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

A fantastic concept for a book. I really enjoyed Elias Vorpahl’s style of writing. Highly recommended.

This is a really good read, geared more to the young it is a very interesting take on the use of language. I would certainly recommend to my younger learners. Thanks to the author, publishers and Netgalley for this ARC. Much appreciated

This was a unique novel and story, like nothing I have every read! I am planning on reading to my children, I think they will absolutely love its whimsy and storytelling!

I could not decide what I thought of this book - it was quirky and almost eccentric. I found it hard to get into initially but from the middle was drawn in and enjoyed it. I was not sure about the ending though!

This is the story of a word who has lost her meaning. You follow her on her journey through the world of language as she seeks to find it. I liked the quiet humour and particularly enjoyed exploring Langwich and the Linguistic Games. It was lovely when the word got to use her imagination to tell her own story. I also liked the concept of the pleasure the words experienced from singing.

Lots to enjoy in this book but I would have liked a different ending.

I cannot put into words how much I adored this book. I only wished I had the same incredible grasp on language that the author has! The Word Trove is so magical and yet so hard to explain. There is a reason that the book blurb is so concise. I know the premise sounds weird, but the uniqueness of this book is what makes it truly special.

I loved the meta element of this story – a book filled with words, telling a story about a word, and giving the message about the importance of words and how words are wasted by the humans that speak them. It sounds confusing, but this whimsical story is so smart in what it does.

I really enjoyed the Linguistic Games and how it incorporated stories inside of the story, and it was really special to see references to other beloved books.

And, when I didn’t think I could be any more impressed, I learn that this book has been translated from German which makes the use of language even more incredible.

All I can really say is that this book was so strange but in the most perfect way.

As many others have spoken about, this book is a really original concept and is jam-packed with word play and witty puns. I am reviewing this from a translation perspective and it really is a masterclass in the art form. The humour is retained and changes have been made from the original German to make this work beautifully in English.

I spoke to the translator Romy Fursland for the World Kid Lit blog. Here are a couple of quotes from Romy's interview:

"The book is full of puns, wordplay, intertextual references and imaginative surprises. It’s a great read for anyone who loves thinking about words and the amazing lives they lead!"

"At the heart of The Word Trove there’s a kind of joyous fascination with the way words work and the games you can play with language"

You can read the full interview on the World Kid L:it website: https://worldkidlit.wordpress.com/2021/01/13/the-word-trove-by-elias-vorpahl/.

This book is wonderful, it is so different which makes it hard to review. All I can say is that everyone should read this book - it has echoes of the Phantom Tollbooth and I can see me now buying it and giving it to everyone I know to relish and enjoy themselves.