Welcome to WordSalad, a novel that peers directly into the machinery of international security, psychiatric intervention, and the quiet terror of being a tourist in the wrong place at the wrong moment.
This is not a story about madness. It is a story about what institutions do when they believe madness is contagious.
“Neutrality is a myth. Every system has a breaking point. Every traveller has a threshold.”
Over five days in Geneva, a convention unfolds — part recruitment fair, part mental‑health symposium, part something else entirely. Visitors arrive expecting pamphlets, coffee stands, and polite multilingual chatter. What they encounter instead is a labyrinth of protocols, scanners, therapeutic cults, and a security apparatus convinced that unstable speech is a threat vector.
WordSalad is built for readers who savour:
Eight figures move through the convention’s fluorescent corridors — each representing a different institutional organ. They do not yet know they are part of the same organism.
A military policeman who distrusts democracy but enforces it anyway. His badge is polished; his conscience is not.
A customs officer whose protocols multiply faster than she can read them. Every form she stamps feels like a verdict.
A psychology trainee whose mind begins to fray under the convention’s lights. Her breakdown is observed, measured, categorised.
An ex‑psychiatrist offering salvation through a therapeutic sect. His smile is warm; his methods are not.
A customs assistant with “telepathic” instincts — or perhaps just a talent for noticing what others ignore.
An event planner who documents everything. He knows that the most dangerous systems are the ones that believe they are helping.
A dating‑agency owner selling “therapy retreats” to distressed tourists. He calls it wellness. Others might call it trafficking.
A fashion‑tech puritan who hacks the convention’s surveillance grid. She sees patterns no one else can.
“Every institution speaks its own language. When those languages collide, the result is Word Salad.”
These characters do not yet realise they are circling the same event — an incident that will force them to confront the question at the heart of the novel: What happens when security and psychiatry decide they are the same discipline?
WordSalad is not a puzzle to be solved. It is a system to be survived.
Across five days, the convention tightens its grip. Protocols escalate. Diagnoses multiply. Tourists are processed, categorised, and quietly redirected into corridors not listed on any official map.
“She’s got the word salad, boss,” someone mutters. The scanner beeps. A label appears. And everything changes.
The novel blends:
No spoilers here — only an invitation. WordSalad asks you to step into a world where language breaks down, systems contradict themselves, and the only way out may be to embrace the chaos.
If you enjoy fiction that makes you laugh, wince, and question the architecture of sanity itself, this novel is being built for you.
WordSalad — Pre‑Launch Dossier
For readers who know that the scariest institutions are the ones that believe they are helping.
« ¿ Ya está ? »
“Ta.”
Said the indignant idiot twice.