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A review by singlier
The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd 3/5 🧭s
Sometimes a mediocre book is worse than a bad book. Because this book isn't bad! It's just. Fine. It feels like the book equivalent of a three course meal that forgot the seasoning. It hits all the right beats, tries to instill tension and anticipation, but none of it really sticks. The only reason I finished it was trying to figure out just why it doesn't work.
The plot of this book is not complicated. Main character Helen Young (Nell) is super into maps, just like both her parents. She lost her mother young, and was raised by her father. Seven years ago before the start of the book, Nell and her father got into a huge fight that ended with her being blacklisted from the map making world, broke up her relationship with her boyfriend, and basically left her without family or many friends to rely on. Cue to current day, where she gets a call that her father has died of a heart attack. As she cleans out his office she finds the last map he was working on: a fairly worthless travel map, but notably, the same map that they fought over and that ended their relationship prior. As she learns about the map, she unravels the history of her parents old dissertation group, and the map they discovered to a place that doesn't exist.
And, it sounds interesting. But it never truly to commits to what it's trying to do. Is it a murder mystery? No, we don't gather clues or do detailed investigations of the murder scenes. Is it a book about maps? Not really: there's only one major scene in the book where the characters are deeply analyzing a map and it's glossed over in two paragraphs (this is the nerd in me, but, if you're going to write a book about maps, show me the nitty gritty map making!). Is it a rekindling romance between Nell and her ex? Nope, they rarely interact except to pine for a bit but have severely underdeveloped interactions. Is it a dark academia drama-mystery where college students get embroiled in a secret and turn on each other? No, because honestly all of the secrets they keep from each other are... very mild, or at least, could be easily explained if they talked to one another. And, because of how many characters there are (I count at least 10 significant main characters), it's hard to have much feeling about any individual one.
So, TLDR: this book tries a lot and balances a lot of characters without ever really succeeding at any one thing.
Sometimes a mediocre book is worse than a bad book. Because this book isn't bad! It's just. Fine. It feels like the book equivalent of a three course meal that forgot the seasoning. It hits all the right beats, tries to instill tension and anticipation, but none of it really sticks. The only reason I finished it was trying to figure out just why it doesn't work.
The plot of this book is not complicated. Main character Helen Young (Nell) is super into maps, just like both her parents. She lost her mother young, and was raised by her father. Seven years ago before the start of the book, Nell and her father got into a huge fight that ended with her being blacklisted from the map making world, broke up her relationship with her boyfriend, and basically left her without family or many friends to rely on. Cue to current day, where she gets a call that her father has died of a heart attack. As she cleans out his office she finds the last map he was working on: a fairly worthless travel map, but notably, the same map that they fought over and that ended their relationship prior. As she learns about the map, she unravels the history of her parents old dissertation group, and the map they discovered to a place that doesn't exist.
And, it sounds interesting. But it never truly to commits to what it's trying to do. Is it a murder mystery? No, we don't gather clues or do detailed investigations of the murder scenes. Is it a book about maps? Not really: there's only one major scene in the book where the characters are deeply analyzing a map and it's glossed over in two paragraphs (this is the nerd in me, but, if you're going to write a book about maps, show me the nitty gritty map making!). Is it a rekindling romance between Nell and her ex? Nope, they rarely interact except to pine for a bit but have severely underdeveloped interactions. Is it a dark academia drama-mystery where college students get embroiled in a secret and turn on each other? No, because honestly all of the secrets they keep from each other are... very mild, or at least, could be easily explained if they talked to one another. And, because of how many characters there are (I count at least 10 significant main characters), it's hard to have much feeling about any individual one.
So, TLDR: this book tries a lot and balances a lot of characters without ever really succeeding at any one thing.