Reviews with content warning for Gun violence - The Cartographers

Tl;Dr: This book is the reading equivalent of junk food. A simple plot with twists you can see coming from 200 pages away, a cast of entirely two-dimensional characters, and nothing you have to spend any time at all thinking about. When I went back and saw this described as a "thriller", I almost laughed.

I'm sure it can feel good if you're in the mood for that, but I felt my time was entirely wasted on this.

It's been a while since I read a book like this, and 'The Cartographers' reminded me why. We have a main character, Nell, who we are constantly told is mousy, boring, and uncomfortable with herself and her entire life, yet she's constantly compared positively to her beautiful and passionate mother.

The second we're told she's estranged from her father, I knew he would die (and he did, like five pages later). She has two adoptive father figures of sorts who replaced him long ago in the book's timeline, but I-the-reader only ever developed an attachment to one of them.

We're told Swann was like a kind uncle to her while Nell worked at the NYPL, and sure, he never treats her badly, but all the affection we're supposed to have for him is secondhand. Humphrey, on the other hand, we're supposed to low-key despise for his choice of work, yet it's him we get touching bonding moments with. From Swann, we get expensive whiskey (the man is inexplicably wealthy for a researcher at a library struggling with funding).

Nell solves a mystery entirely from a list of first names and the knowledge that these people are vaguely related to the antique map world. Her ex works for an incredibly evil-coded surveillance company, yet this rings the alarm bells of no one until it's way too late.

Worst of all is the final "twist" of the book, which I put in quotes because it's not a twist at all, it's just bad storytelling. The plot device is that things you put down on a map become real, if you only you have that map (because, as the book saccharinely puts it, it's "not a place that makes a place, it's the people"). This somehow is supposed to explain how Nell's mother, who has been supposed dead for 25 years, survived in a phantom settlement - because if you just draw a map of a restaurant, food will materialize inside it. Or something. It breaks the extremely simple rules of magic for this plot device that had been established 250 pages earlier.

The villain - obvious the founder of aforementioned evil-coded surveillance company - is also the distinctly creepy childhood friend of Nell's mother. I cannot stress enough how this person is described by everyone in the flashback sequences as possessive, obsessive, and yeah, creepy - and yet everyone still wanted to hang out with him, and Nell's mother is seemingly oblivious to his general unpleasantness until it's resulted in her almost-death.

This book was a waste of everyone's time, including the author's.

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katrinarose's review

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adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

2.0

If I had read this is middle school I probably would have loved it, given it 4 stars. It has a fun original premise with an intriguing murder mystery and it’s very fast-paced and engaging. Now though, I can’t look past the gaping plot holes, cringey dialogue, questionable “magic” system, and bad character development. Most, if not all of the major conflict in the book would have been resolved if people just talked to each other. Even after it was “explained” later why (can’t say why - spoiler) Nell’s father fired her, ruined her professional and romantic life and cut her out of his life altogether for 10 years, the explanation makes no sense. This is the foundation for a large portion of the book and it is just stupid. All the character’s motivations were so underdeveloped. Another reason why this felt like a middle grade book is because every character acts and talks like a high schooler at the oldest. But Nell is supposed to be 35?! And everyone else is that age or older? I don’t understand why the author chose to make them that old when the story would’ve worked if Nell was 21 years old and at least we can imagine that her prefrontal cortex was not yet done developing to explain the stupid stuff she does. If I got more into the plot I could rant more but I don’t want to hate on it too much, at the end of the day it’s a cute little middle grade mystery that I’d recommend for those ages and that’s it.

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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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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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cursed_sapphire's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.25

The first half was a little slow, but by the end I was on the edge of my seat.

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erandle's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense 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? No

4.0

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