Book Club May 2022- The Cartographers
By: Peng Shepherd
Published Year: 2022
Publisher: 392
Pages: William Morrow
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): What is the purpose of a map?
Nell Young’s whole life and greatest passion is cartography. Her father, Dr. Daniel Young, is a legend in the field and Nell’s personal hero. But she hasn’t seen or spoken to him ever since he cruelly fired her and destroyed her reputation after an argument over an old, cheap gas station highway map.
But when Dr. Young is found dead in his office at the New York Public Library, with the very same seemingly worthless map hidden in his desk, Nell can’t resist investigating. To her surprise, she soon discovers that the map is incredibly valuable and exceedingly rare. In fact, she may now have the only copy left in existence... because a mysterious collector has been hunting down and destroying every last one—along with anyone who gets in the way.
But why?
To answer that question, Nell embarks on a dangerous journey to reveal a dark family secret and discovers the true power that lies in maps...
From the critically acclaimed author of The Book of M, a highly imaginative thriller about a young woman who discovers that a strange map in her deceased father’s belongings holds an incredible, deadly secret—one that will lead her on an extraordinary adventure and to the truth about her family’s dark history.
What I thought
Oh man… this book was so good. It’s so hard to talk about it without giving anything away and I really don’t want to give anything away.
After the passing of her father, who she hasn’t talked to in 7 years, Nell discovers the map that caused their rift in the secret compartment of her dad’s desk.
This is a great mix of mystery with magical realism. I flew through this book and was sucked in from the very beginning. As someone who often judges mysteries based off of whether or not I could figure them out, I would say that I figured out parts but not all, so it still won me over.
I really don’t know how to review this book without giving things away other than to say that it’s unlike anything I’ve read before. Nell is an interesting character who is trying to figure out the job her dad was last working on before his death and through that process learns so much more. There’s also a secondary band of characters but, if I talk about them, that takes away some of the mystery and parts of the story that I enjoyed finding out as I read it.
Basically, this is going to be the shortest review with me saying trust me and just read this book.
What Book Club Thought
All of us loved this one. We had so much to say about it because each of us enjoyed different parts. We did break down some of the confusing parts, so it was nice to know other people that had read it for that point. The interesting part is that I wouldn’t have called this a universal novel based off of the summary, but considering that all of us loved it and we have slightly different tastes. I think what makes this a good book club book is that sometimes when everyone loves a book, it doesn’t lead to a lot of discussion but this one did. There was a lot to break down and analyze as well as just a lot that we enjoyed that we wanted to express. I cannot recommend this book enough and look forward to reading more by Shepherd in the future.