Every avid reader has words they inexplicably love — say, for example, irascible, and hullabaloo — and hate (moist). But even those loathed words that make your skin crawl (moist!) can't actually kill you — unless you're unfortunate enough to be a character in The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus.

In this fourth novel by the author of Notable American Women, a plague sweeps the nation: Children's voices have become toxic, killing the adults around them. Faced with a teenage daughter who is suddenly more noxious than obnoxious, Sam struggles to help his ailing wife and find a cure for the lethal language.

No grisly detail is spared in describing the suffering of the characters — including an ironic symptom of the ailment: "What was called LeBov's Mark had grown in fast, a hardened lump under my tongue, anchoring it down," notes Sam. Imagine the social upheaval that would result from a teenager's ability to tell her father to shut up and have it actually happen.

Monstrous children aren't the only tools Marcus uses to examine the way we communicate. He invents a secretive sect of Judaism that is outré but just realistic enough to make you question whether it's real or not. (It's not.) Sam and his wife Claire visit their own private synagogue in a hut deep in the woods. There, they plug in to transmissions from their rabbi. As Sam explains, "The secrecy surrounding the huts was justified. The true Jewish teaching is not for wide consumption, is not for groups, is not to be polluted by even a single gesture of communication. Spreading messages dilutes them. Even understanding them is a compromise. The language kills itself, expires inside its host. Language acts as an acid over its message. If you no longer care about an idea or feeling, then put it into language."

For all its heady ideas about language, communication, and religion, The Flame Alphabet is at heart a thoughtful, incisive story about family. Laced with caustic humor and wry observations, this is a novel that will keep you awake, frantically flipping pages until you arrive at the heartbreaking ending. You'll be grateful words aren't actually toxic — but even if they were, The Flame Alphabet would still be worth a read.