Reviews - The Unmapping | The StoryGraph

182 reviews for:

The Unmapping

Denise S. Robbins

3.49 AVERAGE

martalisat's review against another edition

4.0

emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I loved how all of the individual characters and stories all tied together, but I also wish that there had been more clarity on some things. I also didn't particularly love any of the main characters, though all of their stories were interesting. This book felt like an allegory for the pandemic, and it felt very unique and real.

allyexa's review against another edition

4.0

challenging reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

What an incredible and unique book. It starts with a bang, the kind of lags in the middle while people grope around for answers, but ends fairly hopeful.

I liked that the characters were not instantly lovable, but we still rooted for them. I liked all the weird interconnected stories in this disjointed time. It was like a catastrophe movie where people had time to think and feel and be a little messy. This would make a great prestige drama.

And the parallels to current world problems were numerous, but the commentary on complacency was especially striking. Stop thinking the “this too shall pass” mindset, and start asking “how do we think and work our way out of this?”

8/14/25

lesbiantoad's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous 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

a_strix_named_strix's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous hopeful mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

That romance plot sucked.

eiwex's review against another edition

4.25

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense

thoughtsontomes's review against another edition

3.5

hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is a book less about the mystery of what is happening and more about the day to day lives of the people being impacted. This has a similar feel to other apocalyptic books like Station Eleven and How High We Go In The Dark with us primarily following two main characters but also getting snippets from others around the city. Many of the people we are following are unlikeable and that’s the point. This was mostly a 4 star but the ending kind of dragged so it bumped it down a bit overall.

riverlethe's review against another edition

2.0

Mostly beautifully written prose but absolutely not my style. I found the end of the story more and more weird and dream-like, not in keeping with the first 3/4, or I would have rated it a star or two higher. “Literary speculative” simply means the author is taking a speculative concept as the McGuffin for whatever literary-style drama they want to explore, and as a fan of speculative fiction and scifi with deep exploration into the human condition, I find this rather disrespectful.