The Flame Alphabet (Ben Marcus)

This is an brilliant, disturbing book about language becoming toxic. It starts with the words of children (specifically Jewish children) poisoning their parents, then all children poisoning all adults, and finally all language poisoning all adults; only children remain immune. What would the world  be like if  hearing someone speak, or reading words, or speaking or writing yourself, made you physically ill? What if exposure to language gave you seizures and even killed you? Can people even survive without language? What would you do, who would you hurt, if it meant you could speak again, or hear the voice of your child once more? These are some of the questions this story raises, but doesn't answer. It definitely made me think, but I can't say I enjoyed it. Its level of existential pain made me squirm, and I'm sure that was what the author intended.