Reviews with content warning for Death - The Cartographers

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Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

100 reviews

anika222's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Super fun, unique story and world building, great cast of characters with a great found family and bio family elements. Some parts were predictable but most of it was unexpected.

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caseythereader's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

- THE CARTOGRAPHERS is part mystery, part ode to libraries and curation. I was drawn in right from the start, happily along for the ride as this strange tale unraveled.
- To be honest, I could see where the plot was going pretty much the whole time, but Shepherd's writing was so cozy and the characters so real that it didn't matter if I figured it out before they did.
- This is the kind of book that I would love to see turned into a movie: the mechanics of the unreality elements would lend themselves so perfectly to the screen. So would the plot twists, tbh, but I won't give those away here!

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idun_aurora's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

It was a slow start, but damn, it got really, really good!

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tamara_joy's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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taelights's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

I started off really loving this book so I'm a bit disappointed that it went so downhill for me by the end.

The first half quarter of the book was honestly so good. I was so drawn in by the story and the mystery and the characters. But towards the halfway point I thought the story had grown very repetitive and boring. I was kind of desperate for it to be over so I could move onto another book which is never a good thing.

Also by the halfway point I had already guessed the two biggest twists in the story so I didn't really feel surprised at all when either of them were revealed. I was just like "oh okay cool I was right" but not even in a satisfying way.

I thought the ending was super unsatisfying and a bit too open ended for my tastes at least.

Also I felt like a lot of the sacrifices and choices made by the characters were just dumb and unjustified.

Wally's whole motivation made no sense to me and his actions were so extreme. Like turning into a serial killer just to protect the secret of this town??? And for what reason??? Literally makes no sense to me still. Also Tam deciding to live in the Agloe for multiple decades just felt pointless. Like what person would give up their whole life with a loving husband and a tobbler just for some town even if it was a secret town. Turning the husband you are supposed to love into a single parent when you could idk just call the police and/or run away. Also Swan's death was overly dramatic and I thought it added nothing to the story.

Honestly the idea of the book really interested me but the execution of it was disappointing. Most of the characters fell flat and were unbelievable to me. The story also felt underdeveloped and had a few obvious plot holes. Plus the world building just wasn't it and left me with so many questions.

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nixiedixie's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

it was a beautiful book with an amazing premise. the story unfolded nicely in my opinion and it was a very fun read. the ending felt slightly rushed, though (i just wished for a little more and the end left me feeling sad and disappointed, as if something was missing).

it would have been great to have some kind of epilogue, even one page, just to show the new dynamics in place and to see the characters after the events but unfortunately, the book ends on a slightly positive note and then nothing.

overall it was a great book and i enjoyed it very much! it was an entertaining read. unfortunately, the end just didn't do it for me.

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jpisano's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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grantsharpies's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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bluejayreads's review against another edition

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4.0

An enjoyable, magic-tinged puzzle with a ton of different pieces to put together, featuring a present inextricably bound to the past, interesting and mysterious family friends that the protagonist's father never told her about, and interesting thoughts on the nature of maps and navigation. The first half was about figuring out why this particular map is so special, and the second half about trying to keep it away from the antagonist, with small pieces of the story behind the map running throughout. My only complaint is that the protagonist just seems to accept that the antagonist shouldn't get the map without reason, as it's never made entirely clear what would be so bad about them getting it in the first place. It was a fun adventure of discovery and magical realism weirdness and cartography, and I enjoyed it.

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rebeccarudisill's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book is well written and has great narrative drive, but what was the point? The motivation of the main antagonist just doesn’t make sense. They really seem to be blowing things WAY out of proportion. There is a ton of buildup leading to a “payoff” that just doesn’t matter. The twists were unexpected, but they pulled me out of the story in not a great way. Because again what is the point of what’s happening?

Finally, Nell would have been 21 (solidly a young adult) in 2008 when the John Green novel Paper Towns was published. You expect me to believe that a map obsessed cartographer in training would NOT read a widely popular novel CENTERED AROUND A MAP with a fake town in it???? She would have then immediately recognized Agloe as the paper town (copyright trap/phantom settlement) at the center of that story. Because I sure did know that Agloe was the phantom settlement before she and Felix did. TL;DR Margo Roth Spiegelman did it first and did it better. And I don’t want to live in a fake world with no John Green in it.

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