Ella Minnow Pea

I basically finished this entire book almost in one sitting. It was so fun, so weird, and so creative! It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea though, because the whole crux of the premise lies in the words it uses to tell the story, so a lot of big words and confusing made-up words are used. I personally love that kinda thing, so this was right up my alley. This was a 4.5 star read for me, slightly rounded down.

The story is about a fictional island off the east coast of the USA that was founded by Nevin Nollop, also the author of the pangram: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” A statue commemorating him and his famous pangram stands in the town center. This is also an epistolary novel, where we just read letters written between characters in the story, mainly between two cousins who live on different parts of the island, Ella and Tassie. Everyone on this island seems to be very literary and use VERY big words in their letters, but almost in a very satirical way so I was pretty into it. In the first chapter, the “z” tile from Nollop's statue drops off and the Council governing the island takes it as a divine manifestation that the letter should be eradicated from their language, so everybody above the age of 7 must no longer use the letter in speaking or writing. More and more letters drop off and are banned from use until only LMNOP remain, appropriately foreshadowed by our heroine's name, Ella Minnow Pea.

The premise sounds pretty humorous and absurd, but the book actually has a pretty dark tinge of dystopia in it. The Council quickly devolves the island into a cult-like totalitarian state, worshipping Nollop and his “Omniglory”. It almost feels like A Handmaid's Tale but with the premise of banning alphabets. Not all characters make it out alive from this regime. While the premise sounds childish, this isn't a book for children. The letters between the characters are almost purple-prosey with how many multisyllabic words they use, and then devolve so much that I had to verbally read it out to decipher what they were saying. This is a book most suited for adults who love wordplay in creative forms.

The premise is by far one of the most refreshingly unique ones I've read about in a while and I appreciate the book for that. Because of that and the short length, I couldn't put the book down and basically finished it within a couple of hours. The only reason why this wasn't a full 5 stars for me was just because I got incredibly confused with the relationships of the characters writing to each other, as well as where they were. For a long time I couldn't figure out if Ella or Tassie were both in the same place or not, or where they were, and who was attached to whom. In the bigger picture it didn't really matter that much, but I wish I had more clarity on that.

Overall, this was such a fun and short read. I'd recommend it to anyone who loves wordplay and letters, and a narrative that isn't afraid to play around with that to tell a story.