Adored this book. A chance encounter with vocal cords leaves us with a word who has forgotten her meaning. We journey with her thorough the realms of langwich and meat a whole host of well drawn word characters who help or hinder her on her way. Gorgeous tributes to Alice in Wonderland and Watership Down (among others). Beautiful metaphors and a real focus on storytelling, accompanied by excellent wordplay and witty puns. Perfect for people who love language and clearly a real labour of love from the author.

My only criticism is that the end felt a bit abrupt and I would have like it to be a bit more substantial not to mention slightly more clearly explained. Would have loved this to be longer as well.

Hard to tell on a review kindle copy, but the illustrations look gorgeous and I’ll be buying in print to get a better look.

I didn't really know what to expect from this very short book with a rather concise but intriguing blurb and a fascinatingly bookish cover. I'm pleased to say, I quite enjoyed it. There were times when I was left a bit muddled but for the majority of the novel it was an interesting adventure of a 'word'. This is a translated novel orginally published in German, but I think the translator has done a very good job of finding a way to keep the true essence and meaning of this story while changing up parts of the journey to match the flare of literature in the original.
The Word Trove is quite similar in a way to a story told by Lewis Carroll and contains an ode of sorts to the Mad Hatters Tea Party.
It's an imaginative fairy tale of a story full of excitement and light peril. I would definitely recommend this novella to fans of joyful and whimsical tales.

This was such a beautiful read! It was so unexpected and strange but in the best way. I love words and this was such a fun ride through words and their myriad meanings.

Thank you, NetGalley and Iron Bird Publishing for the opportunity of reading this unique story.

I absolutely loved this from the idea in the synopsis to the execution. I was expecting to enjoy this as much as I did.

This was a quick and beautiful read about a word who has lost her meaning. I thought it sounded a little odd but my the idea behind it intrigued me. This book was magic from start to finish, even if I did struggle reading a certain chapter.

A stunning book and a must-read.

I’m conflicted; I wanted to love this, I genuinely enjoyed the writing style and the concept in theory, but unfortunately, though I wanted to be drawn into this world, to be able to marvel at it, I found I kept getting distracted by its inconsistencies. Words, which manifest in different forms, (sometimes seemingly human, sometimes animal) not directly related to their meanings, most known only as their word, but a few unaccountably known by proper names (wanting to put grace notes to literary works is great, but only naming few specific characters so you can do so seems odd), almost all objects in the world known by their nouns, others referred to whimsically (like chairs being “h’s”)... I just found the framework of the world too nebulous. If you’re the type of person who is not asking “how” or “why” all the time and does not mind these types of inconsistencies, you should be able to enjoy the cleverness that shines through in the wordplay. If, however, you do like a solid foundation, even when reading fantasy, and are someone who is subconsciously always analysing structure and the larger metaphors in a work, you may find it aggravating. There were multiple times I felt the story was only a vehicle for lingual cleverness, not a fully realised cohesive work. I wanted to love it, did love that it was a homage to language, but unfortunately, ultimately, I was disappointed. I don’t know if the issues I have with it are affected by it being a translation—I think it’s unlikely and was impressed by the skill it must’ve taken to translate a book like this, but I do not know German, so perhaps I my entire impression would have been different if I’d have read it in its native language.

In any case, I’m sorry for the less than effusive review; I hope it is taken as constructive criticism, as intended—it is not meant in any mean-spirited way. I appreciate and thank NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the advance copy for review.

The Word Trove follows a word who has forgotten her name and is on a quest to find its meaning. That premise alone hooked me!

“Some stopped at the little stalls where jewellers sold silver tongues and golden silences, and confectioners peddled vox popcorn and sugar-coated truths.”

The best thing about The Word Trove would definitely be the writing… and The Word Trove is a translated work (German to English) so I am even more impressed. There are so many metaphors used as well as puns and wordplay which made me crack up. We have a city called “Langwich” where the “Linguistic Games” are held, with “buttered toast, syllable salve and verbal tea”. If you appreciate witty humour, then The Word Trove is definitely for you.

The Word Trove also explores many different aspects of language cleverly. I particularly enjoyed the metaphor for archaic words and will be adopting the word “wherefore” now… and the role of brackets was so ingenious!

"Personally, I like changing my suits eleven times a day, doing somersaults and making sure the hares don’t get too bored."

This book had a huge “The Journey” trope, in fact, it was the essence of the plot. At first, it felt like the word was simply wandering around aimlessly, however, after a while, I quickly began to appreciate the path she took, especially the other words she met along the way.

The personalities of the different words were intriguing to read about, and I love the references to classic folktales like Watership Down and Alice in the Wonderland. Mad was one of the most hilarious characters ever!

Another aspect of the Word Trove I enjoyed immensely would be that of stories. The Word Trove touches on the meaning of stories to words, how they help words be remembered and I absolutely treasured the moment where our little word got to experience a story for the first time. It was magical and reminded me how much I loved reading.

My only criticism is that this book felt way too short because there were so many other areas that could have been explored, plus the ending was a bit too abrupt.

Overall, The Word Trove was a short but beautiful read, a great reminder of how much words matter to us and a clever take on their life. I would definitely recommend this love letter to language!

A huge thank you to Netgalley and Iron Bird Publishing for an ARC of The Word Trove!

In this book you meet ‘a word’ that has lost its meaning. On its fantastic journey through the world of language, it attempts to rediscover its meaning all on its own.

This is a very interesting and different story, it's a history of literature, and words and how they are used and spoken! I was fascinated by the beginning of the story the very idea and concept just seemed really interesting and pulled me in and the first 2 and a half chapters i was interested, then i quickly lost interest because it felt really tropy and i didn't enjoy it as much as i did at the beginning and i feel horrible for saying this as i can sense the love and passion that went into this book, and how it was a labor of love for 10 years for the author! But i honestly feel that this would of worked better as a short story/poem, but despite that it's a fun and different story.

I was excited to hear about this as I love a book about books and words. This is a very interesting concept, words having a life of their own and having concerns about being forgotten or misused - 'If humans stop reading us, we'll be forgotten'.
There was lots of clever wordplay, like syllable salve and verbal tea as well as playing visually with the actual words on the page. I found the graphic and gory description of being spoken was a bit too horrible for me. It almost put me off wanting to speaking at all. It also gets a bit sinister in parts with the scary brackets.
There were some hints as to what the word actually is though I couldn't guess, and I'm still not sure what it was, I don't think it is clear, though I might have missed something.
The physical book is wonderful, with lovely illustrations and wordplay with the actual printing. The cover underneath the dusk jacket is beautiful! Plus I love the author's name, makes me think of Alice vorpal sword! In fact, the story is quite fantastical like Alice in Wonderland, while the ending made me think of The Neverending Story.

This is a contemporary fiction that focuses on a central character called Word who goes on a self-discovery journey.

In an alternate world where different words live together in harmony like pages in a book. Word has a terrible argument with his father and while at his best friend's house, Deaf. He gets shouted out loud by a human and looses himself. Unknown and alone he goes on adventure to find himself.

Elias Vorpahl, the author has written it beautifully by using personification of the different words and metaphors to highlight the importance of using the right word correctly.

I thought this book was absolutely amazing. I loved how it was written and the character developments. It had an Alice in Wonderland vibe, whereby Alice went to Wonderland and had an adventure. I also liked how each chapter had a title with a black and white picture sketched.

I think it's an amazing debut and I would be looking forward to reading more books by the same author.

Surreal, from start to finish.

Think of a word. All that we know is that is female, not the word the gender.

What happens when a word forgets its meaning. Is forgotten over time or replaced with a newer one.

A journey, a chance encounter with vocal chords and a friendship with Rhyme and Reason

Status: Completed

Rating: 3.8/5.0

🌌 How wonderful it is to surf through some other world, may it be a wonderfully created fairy world or a parallel universe or maybe an animal kingdom. We have witnessed all of this type of world in books and films at several points of time. But we are yet to know the world of words. And here is a book I recently read which introduces to the most astonishing world of words - The world of language.

📖'The Word Trove' is Elias Vorpahl 's Debut novel. The book is originally in German which was translated to English by Romy Fursland.

🌬️The book starts with a story of a Word, which is loudly read by a human which in return makes the word forget it's meaning. And this incident accidentally sends the Word on an unknown yet an interesting journey through the world of language to find its meaning. Let's see where it leads too. How cool is this?

💌I loved how the writer has chosen the theme. He has beautifully written about how words are afraid of being loudly read by humans, and how they enjoy being a part of the song or how they feel of being out of use and he also tried to represent the unbreakable yet important relationship between a human and language.

🎎The author has established the characters, situations and the surroundings very nicely. It must have been difficult to select the names as it was important to carry the meaning of their name along with the story. I also loved the part of the book where the author has mentioned how deaf people do conversation.

🧧The language of the book is simple and easy to understand. You will find some Archaic words. As you can see the wonderful cover of the book, but that is not the only illustration. There are many more wonderful illustrations inside the book. I will really like to appreciate Julia Stolba and Lena Toschka for the wonderful cover and the illustrations.

📢There are a few very beautiful lines which I have quoted below.

1️⃣"There are thousands of paths for you to take. Recognising the path that gives you meaning is the greatest challenge of all."

2️⃣"Saying the right words at the right time is like magic."

🗣️This must be for the first time that I wished that this book should have been a bit longer, I wanted to read it more. Overall I loved the book very much and do recommend this to every reader. You can buy the book from Amazon.

🥳At Last, I will Thank Netgalley and Iron Bird Publishing for the eARC of the book. And Yes, I would love to have a physical copy of this. 😅😅

I received an advance copy of this via NetGalley. Thank you.
Wow. As a lifetime lover of words and word play, it was an honour to go on this adventure with a word, from her origin, being spoken (not a pleasant experience) and on her travels, meeting words, idioms, forgotten words, nonsense and danger.
There are echoes of Wonderland, Oz, Narnia, Disc-world, the Galaxy and The Phantom Tolbooth in this tale, as well as strong feelings of familiar traditional fairy tales.
There are several messages within this book. My main take away is the importance of the right words at the right time.

4 stars

I really enjoyed reading this book, loved the concept and the writing style. The book could have been longer as there were scenes that I felt were rushed. I also don’t know how to feel about the end of the story. I enjoyed this novel, it was an original story of a word that has lost its meaning, exploring our language the meaning and importance for us. I’m so glad I gave this book a go!

Every so often an author has an idea and it is one so novel that you read the first few chapters and instantly start making lists of people you want to buy copies for. Imagine my delight when I saw that the book is due to be published here in the uk before Christmas!
This is a short, whimsical tale for anyone who loves a beautifully crafted story and for anyone who simply loves words. The ultimate fairy story with an edge of danger and darkness like the traditional European tales of old (no Disney princesses here thank goodness!) and also a mystery story. I spent the whole book trying to guess Words name but ultimately failed despite the author offering clues. At times I felt like a child again, not entirely sure of the literary landscape and of not being on level footing something the adult reader tends to lose as they spot formulas, tropes, tricks and plot devices in the books they read. I was glad The Mad was a character because I felt the same as I did when I first read Alice to myself many moons ago.
I have always loved using older words (I refuse to say outdated) hitherto-fore being a favourite and from now on I shall make sure The Wise old Wherefore is remembered, and written down by this human. Though now I feel a pang of guilt every time I use brackets and I can’t even let my head go to what happens when words are spoken aloud.
I was very glad to see at the end of the book a note from the translator and how they’d tackled the very tricky problem of not just translating something verbatim but keeping the sense of word play and grammatical detail as fun and creative as in the original German. If only my GCSE level German was sufficient for me to read the original too!
Read this book and buy it for the wordie in your life.

Quirky and wonderful!

This book is so unique. I loved the story if the word. I loved the word play and seeing meaning and connections throughout the book.

I smiled throughout the book. And to find that it is translated from German adds another level of wonder....to be able to write such a clever book based on linguistics that can be translated from one language to another without losing the humour is certainly an achievement.

I loved the concept of this and the language used throughout.

It was very informative and an idea that I don’t think I’ve read before, meeting ‘a word’ that’s lost it’s ‘meaning’. How original! I had my reservations about this as it’s not normally a genre I go for but I really enjoyed it.

The various paths one word can take you down and the change in meaning if used in certain mannerisms etc.

I do think it could have been doing with being a little longer but other than that, I enjoyed it and look forward to reading more from Elias!

This was a difficult book to review, because I loved the writing and the concept behind it, and there were some moments that showed flashes of brilliance. Yet, at the same time it is one of those books that left me unsure of how I felt about it at the end. The execution I feel could have been tighter, and it may have been a book that benefited from being longer, as there were ideas and scenes that felt a little contrived, but I feel would have worked if they had been extended just a little. However, for all that I did enjoy this book, and it was a love letter to language and words, and such an intriguing, unique concept, that I'm glad I gave into curiosity and gave it a go.