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halfblood_fiend's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-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
4.25
genie_213's review against another edition
2.0
The idea of this book was absolutely fabulous however, the sheer amount of gaslighting that the main character went through made this almost a DNF.
Absolutely loved the idea of the maps. However, the main character saying she had the same involvement as the actual serial killer was a bit unbelievable.
Absolutely loved the idea of the maps. However, the main character saying she had the same involvement as the actual serial killer was a bit unbelievable.
jennytseng01's review against another edition
4.0
like babel but for those who love maps and more fast paced and less nuanced! I enjoyed this immensely but there were a fair amount of loop holes and parts that were frustrating namely why couldn’t Tamara leave agloe and why couldn’t she have hid from Wally in the real world instead?? And wouldn’t this have all been solved earlier if nell’s father had pictures of his college friends for Nell and Felix to see? I saw that William was Wally so early on, it was not subtle at all. Regardless though great story
l_heathman's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
emachinescat's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
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? Yes
5.0
italiancarrotfarmer's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
ludo411's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
giuls02's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
"I Cartografi" è un viaggio avvincente attraverso ciò che è reale e ciò che non lo è. Trasporta i lettori in un mondo dove le mappe sono la chiave di un potere straordinario... se uno sa dove guardare.
Non avevo grandi aspettative per questo libro. Avevo letto l'anteprima ma non mi aveva convinto tantissimo. Nonostante le mie iniziali perplessità, ho deciso di dargli una chance e ne sono rimasta piacevolmente sorpresa. È stato come scoprire un tesoro nascosto. Mi è piaciuto un sacco.
Nell Young è una giovane cartografa che segue le orme di suo padre, il famoso Dr. Daniel Young, una leggenda nel campo. Lei e suo padre non si parlano più da anni però, da quando lui l'ha licenziata e ha distrutto la sua reputazione dopo una discussione su una vecchia ed economica mappa delle stazioni di servizio. Ma quando il Dr. Young viene trovato morto con questa mappa nascosta in un cassetto, Nell incomincia ad investigare e scopre un segreto sconvolgente che riguarda la sua famiglia e il vero potere delle mappe.
La trama è accattivante e piena di colpi di scena. Facevo fatica a mettere giù il libro da quanto mi aveva presa, volendo sempre sapere cosa sarebbe successo dopo.
I personaggi sono unici e complessi, ognuno con i propri punti di forza e debolezze. Nell, in particolare, è una donna forte e determinata, pronta a tutto per scoprire la verità.
Siete pronti a intraprendere un viaggio straordinario? "I Cartografi" vi aspetta. Preparatevi a scoprire i segreti delle mappe e a lasciarvi incantare da un mondo dove la realtà e la fantasia si intrecciano.
Non avevo grandi aspettative per questo libro. Avevo letto l'anteprima ma non mi aveva convinto tantissimo. Nonostante le mie iniziali perplessità, ho deciso di dargli una chance e ne sono rimasta piacevolmente sorpresa. È stato come scoprire un tesoro nascosto. Mi è piaciuto un sacco.
Nell Young è una giovane cartografa che segue le orme di suo padre, il famoso Dr. Daniel Young, una leggenda nel campo. Lei e suo padre non si parlano più da anni però, da quando lui l'ha licenziata e ha distrutto la sua reputazione dopo una discussione su una vecchia ed economica mappa delle stazioni di servizio. Ma quando il Dr. Young viene trovato morto con questa mappa nascosta in un cassetto, Nell incomincia ad investigare e scopre un segreto sconvolgente che riguarda la sua famiglia e il vero potere delle mappe.
La trama è accattivante e piena di colpi di scena. Facevo fatica a mettere giù il libro da quanto mi aveva presa, volendo sempre sapere cosa sarebbe successo dopo.
I personaggi sono unici e complessi, ognuno con i propri punti di forza e debolezze. Nell, in particolare, è una donna forte e determinata, pronta a tutto per scoprire la verità.
Siete pronti a intraprendere un viaggio straordinario? "I Cartografi" vi aspetta. Preparatevi a scoprire i segreti delle mappe e a lasciarvi incantare da un mondo dove la realtà e la fantasia si intrecciano.
surrealisttrees's review against another edition
slow-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
1.0
The first third of this book was good, which is why it gets one star. The conceit of secret towns and rooms that appear if you have the right map is incredible, I absolutely loved it. I loved seeing someone discover this mystery and how their parents were involved and a little bit of the magic — disappearing in the NYPL using magic map powers, sign me up! — but then it basically falls flat. This really can’t be called magical realism, because this book is the most mundane magical book that I’ve ever read, and it can’t be called a mystery, either, because the main character isn’t solving anything. The real conceit of this book is that the main character tracks down her father's old friends and they all just tell her everything that happened in the past AND it's all just... true. Factually. Mystery? What mystery?
And we don’t even get to see her reactions to the story as the main character, because the past is always told through the POV of someone else (four of her father's friends, to be exact.) I presume this one done to avoid having four different characters info dump, but it is just a mystery that relies on four different characters info-dumping.
And we don’t even get to see her reactions to the story as the main character, because the past is always told through the POV of someone else (four of her father's friends, to be exact.) I presume this one done to avoid having four different characters info dump, but it is just a mystery that relies on four different characters info-dumping.
And for so many characters, I just had an impossible time believing anyone in the real world would react this way. A few people, sure, of course. But everyone in this novel, including companies or libraries, reacted in such over the top, strange ways that there was no reality. You’re so upset about your daughter being put in danger you scream at her, get her and her boyfriend fired, and make sure that she can never work in the industry again? Why did her mother have to be disappeared for thirty years? Surely that wasn’t literally the only way to solve this problem? And why did Wally do, well, literally any of the things he did?
With Wally, I actually really liked the idea that this secret town was having this perverse, isolating effect on the minds of the character characters, and I understood Wally wanting to keep it a secret, and it was of course insane of him, but I never actually understood why everyone was terrified of him for thirty years, to the point of trashing their own careers. And why did it need to be a secret so bad? Possibly because he’s upset he doesn’t have a secret to share with the main character’s mom, who he’s in love with, which seems like maybe not enough to murder people over. And why was he then obsessed with creating a perfect map, like what did that really have to do with anything? The motivations were lackluster and completely nonsensical.
With Wally, I actually really liked the idea that this secret town was having this perverse, isolating effect on the minds of the character characters, and I understood Wally wanting to keep it a secret, and it was of course insane of him, but I never actually understood why everyone was terrified of him for thirty years, to the point of trashing their own careers. And why did it need to be a secret so bad? Possibly because he’s upset he doesn’t have a secret to share with the main character’s mom, who he’s in love with, which seems like maybe not enough to murder people over. And why was he then obsessed with creating a perfect map, like what did that really have to do with anything? The motivations were lackluster and completely nonsensical.
I loved the part of the end where the villain mentions that with technology, you can simply change the reality of the world through the map. It’s a shame that was only mentioned in the last thirty pages. Had that been throughout the whole book, there’d have actually been a reason for the giant fake-Google tech company and the chapters about that. But there’s not.
And to be honest, I really needed the author to research tech corporations and algorithms more. What does Fake-Google even do? I kept thinking throughout the entire book that “this fake google map is frankly too powerful and able to do things to, well, exist.” I could suspend a little disbelief, thinking it was going somewhere with this but it didn't. Like, how is this random datamap going to find a lost dog? How did traffic patterns help predict which way a car robber would drive, given that he’s certainly not following rush hour traffic patterns? Why would curators — because they’re curators, not cartographers — at the NYPL think Fake-Google is a threat to their work?? How does it name a girl as a murderer and why does the NYPD actually trust that without evidence? A lawyer would kill that arrest so fast. “Do you have any evidence that this person is the murderer? Oh a supercomputer map told you based on analyzing human data? Not even data on this specific person? So you do not in fact have evidence?”
Apparently the author meant this to be some sort of reckoning on the dangerous of intelligence without human wisdom, but there’s no payoff of this, at all. There’s no way I would have known that had I not been googling what she was thinking writing about this.
Overall, this book suffered a lot from thin character building and motivations and this long, convoluted backstory that really.... did not matter. Like, it mattered in terms of the main villain and everything, but it was one of those mysteries that only really mattered to like, 6 people.
Overall, this book suffered a lot from thin character building and motivations and this long, convoluted backstory that really.... did not matter. Like, it mattered in terms of the main villain and everything, but it was one of those mysteries that only really mattered to like, 6 people.
ncalv05's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0