GraphQL, a query language for APIs developed by Facebook and open-sourced in 2015, offers a powerful alternative to REST by enabling clients to request only the data they need through custom queries, thus enhancing client-server communication. The language allows for efficient data retrieval by supporting arguments for fields and nested objects, reducing the need for multiple API calls compared to REST. Using GitHub's public API as an example, the blog post illustrates how to construct GraphQL queries, including the use of aliases to handle field conflicts and fragments to manage repetitive fields for cleaner and more readable queries. Additionally, the importance of naming operations for better query management is discussed, and tools like LogRocket are recommended for monitoring GraphQL requests in production environments to ensure reliability and performance.