Review: The Cartographers

 

I'd just had a really bad af day and was having really emotional bad emotional breakdowns so I couldn't blog earlier. Man, I usually don't have such bad mental days that I have to take a dip but this one was perhaps one of the worst breakdowns I could have had. Anyways, we are not here to discuss MY non existent mental health.

Nell Young was once a young cartographer at the NYPL with a promising career. That is, one fateful day, her father Dr. Daniel Young fires her for over an insignificant map, ruining it forever. It has been seven years, and the two haven't had contact since, but now Dr. Young is dead. And Nell finds that same piece of map that he had fired her over seven years ago. With a deadly series of events being set off and Nell as the main suspect, Nell must do all she can to find the reason as to why her father kept such an "insignificant" map after all these years.

QUICK THOUGHTS AND REVIEW: 3.7/5, I DO FEEL LIKE THE STORY COULD HAVE BEEN PLOTTED BETTER.

WHAT DID I FEEL ABOUT THE  BOOK'S: 

1. Writing Quality: The writing quality is actually one of the best features of this book. If I could give a book 5 stars solely because of the writing quality, I would give it 5 stars because it completes all the checks on the writing style that I want to see in a book. Easy flowing words? Check. Mysterious vibe? Check. Easy to follow style? Also check. I simply love it because a. it doesn't give me a headache and b. I didn't have to go search every single thing on Google and personally, that stuff is really distracting. Did I tell you about the time I was gonna do some research work for a project but ended up studying about  mythology? No? Maybe I'll do some other time. Lia's story time!

2. Character Development: Character development is not that much in the story, considering that the story is mostly plot driven and there's usually less room for development but it felt like there wasn't much to say about Nell's character. The Cartographers weren't much to describe either? I feel like that Felix and Nell's relationship was an arc that could have had more story or could have had more development, it left a big question mark. As for Wally being in love with Tamara, I feel that also was a potential angle for character development that wasn't really followed, but it would have made a great angle or plot point or even plot twist if it did.

3. Couldn't put it down- Ness: I'd say a 7/10. The book is pretty interesting and quite short, so one might get through it very easily.

4. Plot Twists: The plot twists aren't that great in the story? At least they got pretty predictable in the end. Personally, I like those ones that I cannot predict, because if I can predict a plot twist, it's no longer a plot twist. That is called a storyline, my dear readers. And if you can predict it, the book loses all it's meaning. The concept of phantom arrangement was pretty interesting though. I mean, that was the one plot twist I really loved. Like imagine making a place on a map of your own and it can't be found by anyone else unless it's there on a copy of a map.

 

5. Plot: This could be said a different version of The Da Vinci Code, where Da Vinci Code dealt with paintings and the yada, this book deals with maps. Not that I do not like it, but I do feel like there could have been more action for this novel. Most of it was like stories from the past and Nell and Felix trying to patch it up but cannot? Other than that I couldn't quite place the plot because there were quite the gaps that were waiting to be filled up but did not. If the Cartographers hadn't actually narrated their story, I couldn't have found anything.