Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - The Cartographers

Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Cartographers, by Peng Shepherd

14 reviews

kit_lit's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

I would have preferred more magical realism and map neediness. About halfway through it becomes much more of a typical thriller with folks getting murdered left and right.

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renyoi's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Really engaging text on cartography, interpersonal relationships, and familial dynamics. Author is good at making complex ideas understandable, but falls short near the end of the book in making her character motivations understandable,

Spoiler

specifically Wally, whose villainy went rather unexamined in any meaningful way the entire time

. Thoroughly enjoyable ready with fully fleshed out characters you will absolutely grow to care for deeply, even when they make seemingly nonsensical decisions. Recommended!

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junowo's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

This book was such a fun read. I was a bit intimidated at first with the introduction to the complex academic world of maps, but Shepherd guides the reader through it expertly, making it still feel complex without losing you.
The characters were well written and defined throughout the book, and I found myself impressed by how they all held such individual voices in the story.
I think my only disappointment comes in the ending.

Spoiler

I felt that Wally’s motivations for his actions weren’t as clear or strong as I was expecting, and I don’t know that I’ll ever understand Tam’s decision to stay in Agloe. Swann’s death also felt a bit unnecessary.

Overall, I highly recommend the book! It puts a fun and interesting spin on a mystery and brought me into the world of maps, which I never would’ve thought I would be interested in, but nonetheless I’m fascinated by now!

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mbmayo's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

Nell is a woman in her thirties, drawn back into her past life as an academic cartographer after her estranged father dies. A map hidden in his possession sets off a race for answers.

I can certainly agree with many of the criticisms of low rating reviewers. This was a plot heavy book with minimal character development. The characters we meet as adults bear little resemblance to their young adult selves. One of the twists is foreshadowed well enough that it is easily predictable within the first quarter of the book. The magic system can be wishy washy and you can't think about it too hard or it all falls apart.

Spoiler

For example, in the fire where Tam disappears, Agloe disappears around everyone else because they think all the copies of the map are destroyed. However, decades later when Nell tears up the gas station map, the city doesn't disappear around them, because there's still one more map, even though they don't know where it is and thus can't use it.

But, those didn't ruin my enjoyment of the book. I did wish we had gotten chapters from the point of view of Daniel, Swann, Wally, or Tam. I think this would have really rounded out the motivations of the characters. Overall, I found it a fun read, one of those "Medium paced" books that's actually a slow build to a sprint at the end.

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amplify's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I read through the first 3/4 very quickly and found the storyline engaging and enjoyable but, as expected from other reviews, the end did fall apart a bit and what plot holes were forgivable did become rather annoyingly obvious and distracting.

It almost felt as though the publisher put pressure to speed the process up and the author didn’t slow down to question motivations enough to make them believable. Not enough, “not what would I like to see happen and what should really happen” questioning going on while developing the finally thesis.

That said, I loved the concept and I really enjoyed a solid 75% of the book so…

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th18's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

This book was just fine. Nothing amazing. The writing felt juvenile and so many events were happening it felt rushed. I was irritated by the author constantly reminding us of how small the FMC was - her 'tiny frame' and how cardigans engulfed her etc.

Also she has a ton of bad personality traits that are just brushed away as her being a Young, like being too stubborn for her own good,not listening to anyone and not giving the map to the police like a sensible person after the break in and when she realised it would put a literal target on her back.

Spoiler

Lastly, her relationship kinda came out of nowhere after ignoring eachother the past 7 yrs. (Idk why Felix couldn't understand that she couldnt control her father firing him?!)

and honestly atleast 100 pages could've been dropped.

The nicer things:
Great idea but not great execution. It's nice that she still chose to stick with her passion for maps instead of going for a different higher paying job

Spoiler

(though unsure how she was going to be the SENIOR researcher at NYPL 2 days after returning to the place even though she hasn't even been working in a library the past 7 yrs).

Also somehow kept me reading until the end so props to the author for that.

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