Publisher: William Morrow
Published: March 15, 2022
Source: Publisher
Summary:
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 also 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 discover the true power that lies in maps…
My thoughts:
As soon as I heard about this book, I knew I had to read it…and I’m so glad I did because I absolutely loved it! I had heard early buzz about this one and then it was picked for an early read chat for the Patreon members of the Thoughts for a Page podcast group. And, my own bookclub also picked it…which I’m so excited about…this book is just too good not to be read and discussed!
First, I just have to say how much I absolutely love this cover. And the more you look at it, the more perfect it is for this book. Once you read it, it all makes sense, but the colors and the detail are just amazing. As for the book itself, I loved how all the parts of this came together – and there really is something here for everyone. Dark academia vibes, a murder mystery, some history, a little fantasy/magical realism and even a little romance thrown in. It all comes together in such a tightly plotted, brilliant story that’s full of suspense and totally original.
The story is told from multiple points of view and moves back in forth in time. I loved how this helped to put the pieces together while at the same time, would leave us with little cliffhangers throughout as we moved back and forth. I found that I was never at a loss as to who was who because each and every character was so richly drawn and quite honestly, the intrigue that is surrounding the mystery of what happened kept me fully engaged and captivated. As much as I wanted to take my time with this book because I wanted to really immerse myself in this story, I also had a hard time putting it down because I needed to see how it all played out. I needed to know why each character was keeping secrets and how it factored into what happened all those years ago.
I loved the way maps really played such a big part in this story and felt I learned so much about them here. I’m not going to include anything here because of spoilers but I will say that I did love that part of this story was set in the Map Division of the New York Public Library and next time I head into the city you can be sure I will be heading there! Maps hold so many possibilities and I love the way the author explored this.
I cannot recommend this book enough. It was such an original story and one that I definitely plan on rereading at some point because I just loved it so much. If this isn’t already on your radar, definitely put it on your list – it comes out March 15!
