Waiting on Wednesday: The Pledge

Title: The Pledge
Author: Kimberly Derting
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry for Simon & Schuster
Pub Date: November 15, 2011

Words are the most dangerous weapon of all. 

In the violent country of Ludania, the classes are strictly divided by the language they speak. The smallest transgression, like looking a member of a higher class in the eye while they are speaking their native tongue, results in immediate execution. Seventeen-year-old Charlaina has always been able to understand the languages of all classes, and she’s spent her life trying to hide her secret. The only place she can really be free is the drug-fueled underground clubs where people go to shake off the oppressive rules of the world they live in. It's there that she meets a beautiful and mysterious boy named Max who speaks a language she's never heard before . . . and her secret is almost exposed. 

Charlie is intensely attracted to Max, even though she can’t be sure where his real loyalties lie. As the emergency drills give way to real crisis and the violence escalates, it becomes clear that Charlie is the key to something much bigger: her country’s only chance for freedom from the terrible power of a deadly regime.--Goodreads


There are three reasons I want to read this. 


1) I love languages and linguistics. 
I find the fact that there are different languages AT ALL completing and utterly fascinating. I love etymology and language origins and learning how different languages intersect with and differ from each other. Mhmm. I'm a nerd. 


2) I love female characters with masculine names. 
When I was twelve, my mom told me she almost named me Reagan. Not that Reagan is a particularly masculine name, or that I dislike my name, but I remember saying "Why did you not name me that?!" proceeding to be annoyed for a day or two. ANYWAY. I super effing dig it when girls have boyish names. It makes me immediately like them THAT MUCH MORE. 


3) I love edgy books. 
Class issues. Language barriers. Drugs. Underground clubs. Boys with secrets. If you tell me that doesn't peak your curiosity, I will immediately tell you that you are in denial. 


So that's my pick for this fine week! Now I just have to wait until mothereffing NOVEMBER. Grr! Argh!


Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.