Authors: Peng Shepherd
Genre: Magical Realism
Published: 2022
Rating: 5 Stars
Summary
Nell loves maps. She grew up with a father who loved maps and dreamed of following in his footsteps. Her mother passed when she was young but she carried that same love for all things cartography. Must be a genetic trait?
While Nell loves maps, she hates her job. She spends her days creating copies of existing maps to sell to people of all sorts. It feels like a cheap alternative to the prestigious academic life of her dreams. Even more so, it feels cheap compared to the role her father holds at the New York Public Library.
Nell’s future didn’t always look so bleak. She worked under her father for a few years only to have it end quickly and mysteriously. After discovering a box of maps, Nell is rather dramatically banished from her work at the library and from her father. Their fallout is complete and she doesn’t speak to her father for 7 years. When an unexpected call comes through, Nell rushes back to her beloved library and learns of her father’s sudden death.
While sitting at his now vacant desk, Nell finds a secret compartment. Inside she discovers a small map. She’s shocked when she realizes it’s the same map that got her fired many years ago. With her father gone, Nell’s left with only questions. Why did he hold onto this map? Why did he protect it? Could it be related to his death?
The ensuing adventure takes Nell beyond her own time and experience. She dives deeper into her parents’ past to discover something truly extraordinary. Like her father and mother before her, Nell treads a dangerous path to keep an incredible power secret.
Themes
Loss
Nell struggles with the weight of loss. While separated from her father, she didn’t love him any less. His death shocks her back to life. She’s spent too much of the past seven years hoping her life would change with little motive to do so. As she unravels the mystery behind his death, she reminisces on the man she knew and the version of him she didn’t.
Loyalty
Nell’s research on her father’s past leads her to a group of college kids hoping to make a difference in the world. What starts as loyalty to a mission greater than themselves turns quickly into groups divided by their own desires. Some crave power while others want secrecy. Some even chase after something they shouldn’t have. These competing loyalties soon collide.
As Nell struggles to understand the past, she’s left questioning the loyalty of those around her. Reconnection with a past love only complicates things further. As she digs deeper into the mysteries surrounding her, who can she trust?
Love vs. Obsession
Without giving too many spoilers, one character’s love quickly turns into obsession as he works to destroy anything and anyone to keep his secret safe. As he’s revealed in the text, that dangerous line between love and obsession becomes obvious.
Quotes
“Maps are love letters written to times and places their makers had explored.”
“Cartography, at its heart, was about defining one’s place in the world by creating charts and measurements. Nell had lived her life by that idea, that everything could be mapped according to references and thereby understood. But she could see now that she had been paying attention to the wrong references. It was not a map alone that made a place real. It was the people.”
“How many years had her life been only her small, dingy apartment, endless subway rides, and the cramped offices of Classic? Everything on Fifth Avenue was three times brighter and louder, as if someone had turned up a dial on every surface.”
“Maps were love letters written to times and places their makers had explored. They did not control the territory- they told its stories.”
Final Thoughts
If you’re okay getting lost in a book for hours, then this is the book for you. The story starts off simple but with each new complication, a deeper story unfolds. The mystery of Nell’s separation from the father is intriguing enough. His unexpected death and the discovery of an old seemingly worthless map only pull you in further. Before you know it, you’re knee-deep in mysteries while joining Nell in her quest for the truth.
The characters are remarkable and will surprise you in more ways than one. As you learn their history, you can’t help but be captivated by the choices they made in the years since.
Looking for your next five-star read? Check this one out!
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