Scan barcode
A review by goldenbeebookshop
The Map of Stars by Laura Ruby
4.0
3.75 rounded up?
I really love this series and the world-building involved in showing this alternate version of NYC, but the last 100 pages or so left me a little perplexed. It felt as though there were going to be 4 books and suddenly it got pared down to 3.
Spoilers for the previous books and this book below.
-I loved getting to see Tess and Theo as adults and what NYC looked like in a future that could very easily be ours. One of the (many) reasons we left NYC was because the hurricanes were such a problem. I completely understood why Tess and Theo would go back and try to create a more sustainable world and it made me enjoy the world they ultimate grew up in all the more.
-Discovering that Ava was so powerful and akin to immortal because of the solar cells that were grafted onto her after a fire. I liked that there was a sense of conflict within her about the sadness that comes with immortality and the ability it gives you to do good for other people and to put your ideas into the world with a greater context.
Things that didn't work for me:
-I wanted more of Aunt Esther's story. She seemed like she knew more about the cipher than we really got to see in the book. It made me wonder if we would have gotten more of her and Grandpa Ben's stories if there had been a fourth book.
-Merry- to introduce her, her father, and their game, then not give anymore context or information and have them turn out to be the "true" villains over Slant was really confusing. I couldn't tell if this was supposed to be a big twist that fell flat, or again, something that would have been developed with more story.
-The mechanical creatures and the guildmen- why not explore the hows and whys of what the Morningstars created? And why were they suddenly not really working anymore on the trains? It felt like so many were created/released just for the purpose of the epic battle at the end, which didn't work for me.
-That battle at the end felt like it was stuck on for the sake of having a battle. The doctor experimenting on animals- I don't really get what his goal was other than killing people?
- The time travel- did Jamie hop into an alternate timeline? If he didn't and he only went back to the beginning of that summer, then how is his mom alive? It's great that he gets to see her, but what does that mean for Tess and Theo going back in time? Given Jamie's roll in working through the cipher I would have loved to see what the three of them might create as adults.
Did Jamie's mom send the schematics to Tess and Theo?
What does Ava want out of her travels?
I don't know if I have these many questions because I'm an adult reading a middle grade book, or because there really should have been a fourth book!
I really love this series and the world-building involved in showing this alternate version of NYC, but the last 100 pages or so left me a little perplexed. It felt as though there were going to be 4 books and suddenly it got pared down to 3.
Spoilers for the previous books and this book below.
Spoiler
Things that worked great in this book:-I loved getting to see Tess and Theo as adults and what NYC looked like in a future that could very easily be ours. One of the (many) reasons we left NYC was because the hurricanes were such a problem. I completely understood why Tess and Theo would go back and try to create a more sustainable world and it made me enjoy the world they ultimate grew up in all the more.
-Discovering that Ava was so powerful and akin to immortal because of the solar cells that were grafted onto her after a fire. I liked that there was a sense of conflict within her about the sadness that comes with immortality and the ability it gives you to do good for other people and to put your ideas into the world with a greater context.
Things that didn't work for me:
-I wanted more of Aunt Esther's story. She seemed like she knew more about the cipher than we really got to see in the book. It made me wonder if we would have gotten more of her and Grandpa Ben's stories if there had been a fourth book.
-Merry- to introduce her, her father, and their game, then not give anymore context or information and have them turn out to be the "true" villains over Slant was really confusing. I couldn't tell if this was supposed to be a big twist that fell flat, or again, something that would have been developed with more story.
-The mechanical creatures and the guildmen- why not explore the hows and whys of what the Morningstars created? And why were they suddenly not really working anymore on the trains? It felt like so many were created/released just for the purpose of the epic battle at the end, which didn't work for me.
-That battle at the end felt like it was stuck on for the sake of having a battle. The doctor experimenting on animals- I don't really get what his goal was other than killing people?
- The time travel- did Jamie hop into an alternate timeline? If he didn't and he only went back to the beginning of that summer, then how is his mom alive? It's great that he gets to see her, but what does that mean for Tess and Theo going back in time? Given Jamie's roll in working through the cipher I would have loved to see what the three of them might create as adults.
Did Jamie's mom send the schematics to Tess and Theo?
What does Ava want out of her travels?
I don't know if I have these many questions because I'm an adult reading a middle grade book, or because there really should have been a fourth book!