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sarahm 's review for:
The Cartographers
by Peng Shepherd
I really enjoyed this book! What an exciting concept - a mysterious map and an unraveling secret history tied to it. I would call this book fiction, as does my library and the description from the publisher, but it does have fantasy and magical realism elements to it. The synopsis doesn't hint at this, and anyway I had read the synopsis ages before I actually started reading. I didn't realize this until about a third of the way through the book when I had to stop and check what genres Goodreads uses to see if it was actually going in the direction I thought it was going!
The concept is so interesting and completely believable for magical realism or urban fantasy - it's not too outlandish. I won't spoil much about the fantasy elements, because they really don't start happening until about 40% of the way into the book, but just know I really loved them. 40% in does feel a bit long to me, but I guess it's supposed to reflect the main character learning and discovering that what she thought was an ordinary world isn't. It gives time to introduce the characters and the setting.
I'll also note that this is definitely a plot-driven book rather than character-driven. There is some emphasis on characters - the main character is often described as stubborn and "just like her father" in order to justify choices she makes, and there's a web of characters from the aforementioned secret history that share stories with the main character. Even so, the characters just share clues to further the plot, the romance isn't a priority, and there isn't much (if any) character development.
That being said, there's nothing wrong with a plot-driven story and there's definitely nothing wrong with this one! The plot here is fantastic and I loved the way everything unfolded. I really liked the format of the other characters sharing their stories in a first person POV chapter as though they're telling it to the main character, while the rest of the story is told in third person.
Overall, I really liked this one. I would have liked a bit more fantasy in the beginning, but overall I thought this book was great and I would recommend it.
Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the eARC!
The concept is so interesting and completely believable for magical realism or urban fantasy - it's not too outlandish. I won't spoil much about the fantasy elements, because they really don't start happening until about 40% of the way into the book, but just know I really loved them. 40% in does feel a bit long to me, but I guess it's supposed to reflect the main character learning and discovering that what she thought was an ordinary world isn't. It gives time to introduce the characters and the setting.
I'll also note that this is definitely a plot-driven book rather than character-driven. There is some emphasis on characters - the main character is often described as stubborn and "just like her father" in order to justify choices she makes, and there's a web of characters from the aforementioned secret history that share stories with the main character. Even so, the characters just share clues to further the plot, the romance isn't a priority, and there isn't much (if any) character development.
That being said, there's nothing wrong with a plot-driven story and there's definitely nothing wrong with this one! The plot here is fantastic and I loved the way everything unfolded. I really liked the format of the other characters sharing their stories in a first person POV chapter as though they're telling it to the main character, while the rest of the story is told in third person.
Overall, I really liked this one. I would have liked a bit more fantasy in the beginning, but overall I thought this book was great and I would recommend it.
Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the eARC!