The Cartographers

How could I just like and not love a book about historians, BIPOC found family, and adventure? Read on.

Anyone who gets excited over anything historic, vintage, and "the smell of old pages" would probably enjoy this book too if they can overlook the plot holes, underdeveloped characters, awkward pacing. The most glaring plot hole was the flimsy reasoning behind Tam choosing to leave her husband and daughter and stay in Agloe--choosing a map and an empty town over easing her daughter? That's rich.

For the first third of the book, I was so invested in Nell, a shunned map conservator/researcher/copier (she didn't create official maps from scratch so she's not a cartographer), so when the book split into 5+ first-person perspectives I almost didn't want to finish.

Narrative focus wavered many more times with too many characters launching into random flashbacks, which made me want two different books or at least a longer, more linear story to properly develop all The Cartographers.

Then, this book's first half turned into a game of Clue, which turned already underdeveloped characters into caricatures. There were too many moments (grocery store-cooking flashback anyone?) when the pacing was *just* getting good only to be pulled back into a slow, drawn-out flashback.

The magical realism was definitely a high point, but the rules were too vague. There were just more than a few things that pulled me out of the story, especially the map mechanics.

The tertiary characters like Snow and Humphrey were some of my favorites too, but some of the love triangles seemed too contrived--some characters didn't show romantic interest until it was convenient for the story.

The interplay between Nell and The Cartographers when all the cards were on the table was also entertaining, but it took until 66% of the book to get there. I also loved the reveals of some of the Cartographers' true identities.

I loved a lot of things about this book, and I really wanted to love it overall, but I had to settle for just liking this book instead.