Nell’s father is a legend in the field of Cartography, acting as her mentor until an argument over a seemingly worthless gas station map leads to her professional exile.

Several years later, Nell is estranged from her father and living with the remnants of her shattered dreams. When he’s found dead in his office at the New York Public Library, Nell discovers the worthless map they argued over hidden in his desk. Drawn back into the academic world of Cartography, Nell seeks to understand the mystery surrounding her father’s death, and the magic of the map she now possesses that proves more valuable than she could ever imagine.

I tend to automatically adore novels about secret societies and magic hidden beneath the veneer of our decidedly un-magical wold. The Cartographers provides plenty of intrigue and mystery, but it does suffer from some minor holes in both the logic of how the magic of maps work, and some of the character motivations revealed at the end.

The story is fast paced and engrossing enough that I was able to suspend my belief adequately to enjoy it, without getting too caught up in the logic of how things worked. The book reads like a thriller, especially in the beginning, and is full of plenty of twists for the main character to unravel. Only after I finished did I start to examine fully some of the logical issues that I pushed to the back of my mind during reading.

This is a light fantasy, and the magic system is very much a “soft” one, therefore I am a little more forgiving in this instance than I would be reading an epic fantasy with a hard magic system that seems to defy its own logic at times. If it weren’t for these flaws, this easily would have been a five star read.

If you enjoy books that feature secret societies, dark academia vibes, and a light approach to fantasy, then I would recommend this for a quick blast of magic and mystery. It shares similarities with books such as Holly Black’s Book of Night, Olivie Blake’s The Atlas Six, and Donna Tarth’s The Secret History.

Entertaining although a bit dragged-out. I found the ideas in the plot very interesting but it is definitely a slow burn and takes a long time to get anywhere.

A slow burning, character driven, and fascinating book. It's got the charm of the old musty maps and features a cast of fleshed out characters.
It's not one of those "love at first page" book but it's a book I liked.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

The premise of this book was intriguing and I have loved maps since childhood. Hardcopy maps used to be a way of life only twenty years ago, and were an essential tool for exploration, something that has been lost in the digital era. Maps were more than a depiction of a route they were also descriptive of the landscape and what could be found there - Ordnance survey maps still are the best for me.
Reading this book brought back the joy of using maps and follows the story of a cartographer called Nell Young, disgraced daughter of an eminent cartographer who ran the map division in New York Public Library. After he is found dead in his office in suspicious circumstances Nell is called in and when investigating her fathers office finds an old gas station map, the argument over which led to their estrangement. Nell connects with an ex-lover and delves into why her father would have hung onto a seemingly worthless map...and so the hunt begins.
I did enjoy this book although I found the interspersion of flashbacks to be distracting from the main narrative, a useful but contrived way to impart background information. Still the premise is good and keeps you rooting for Nell to the end.
My thanks to Orion publishing and Netgalley for access to this ARC, all views are my own.

An enjoyable read!

About a woman on a quest to figure out her father's secrets, I loved how this book began. It was a little slower paced but very character driven. I liked the character relationships and the different personalities of the side characters really shone through. This is my first book by this author and I can't wait to check out the book of m which is their debut novel!

thanks to netgalley and the publishers for an e-arc!

I will always be drawn to maps in books, so a book about maps and those who create them was always going to grab my attention and I have to say that overall I really enjoyed this book. The Cartographers is one of those books that manages to straddle the boundary between several genres at once, dipping into history/secret history, romance, mystery and adventure among others, and it does it well - especially the mystery aspect and it made my nerdy self very happy, although I will say that you do need to be able to suspend belief and go with the flow to really get the most out of this one. The romance subplot was probably the weakest part of the book for me, but that is more personal taste than anything I think, as the book is well written, and the characters are beautifully fleshed out. However, as much as I did enjoy it, it did feel as though the plot wasn't as developed as it could have been and the book seemed to lose some of the drive and focus as it went through, which was a shame as this book starts very strongly and had me invested. That said, it was still a book I enjoyed both as a map lover and a reader.

The Cartographers is a great book with overlapping genres - it's part magical realism, part thriller and part family saga. The writing is a bit repetitive and simplistic but it is clear the author has down a lot of research on maps. I enjoyed the story although there definitely some plot holes in the story, but if you'll still enjoy it if you don't read too deeply into it. I enjoyed it and will definitely check out any future books by this author.

I absolutely loved The Book Of M by Peng Shepherd and then I also read The Future Library, it was also so good for a short story. So when I saw an opportunity to request The Cartographers, I did not hesitate a single moment. So, yeah. I am glad to report that the author did not disappoint. I might not be as much in love with this one as I was in The Book of M but it was still so good!

Let’s talk about the things I loved! First, the geeks! Omg, everybody is a geek in this book and they are all awesome! Granted I have never really been fascinated by maps to the degree these characters were but their geekery was infectious. It was full of academia which I loved but more than that, it also had family drama and some great friendships as well as thrilling crime solving and such. There is also the clever weaving in of magical realism.

The way the author blended all the genres and the way the story was laid out really worked for me. The pacing also worked so well. There’s present and past storylines weaving in and out throughout the book and it did not, in any way, endanger my enjoyment at all.

Let’s talk about maps! I learned so many things about mapmaking and in general about maps. It was so interesting and I always love it when I learn new things from fiction books so yay for that! Then come the characters. I really loved the characters and the way they were written and introduced to us. There’s representation and it’s done so brilliantly and seamlessly.

There were a few things that didn’t work for me, the key part being the first person narration. First person narration rarely works for me but this time, I could always get out of the zone because of how rarely it works for me. There are some logical plot holes that become more and more obvious as one starts reflecting on the book. The whole villain reveal was not quite the crime solving thing I hoped it would be and it wasn’t as thrilling or suspense filled as I thought it would be. I will say that I read the book for maps and cartography so I wasn’t super disappointed with that part of the book.

Overall, if you, like me, love learning about new things and enjoy some mysteries mixed in with magical realism then you would definitely enjoy this one!

The Cartographers is a vibrant and exciting story with a real killer of a central concept (one which, however, I can't say too much about because spoilers) which I greatly enjoyed.

Nell Young is in a corner, financially and professionally. Brought up in the rarefied academic atmosphere that accompanies her cartographer father, Dr David Young, all she has ever wanted to do is work with him in the rare maps department of the New York Public Library. But years before, she was cast out of Eden and now scratches a living - literally - by touching up fake copies of old maps (adding in little drawings of sea monsters to make them more saleable) for online seller Classic.

When Nell's dad is found dead in his office, she realises that she has lost the chance to reconcile with him, and embarks on a quest to understand him instead. Orphaned - her mother dies many years before -her only clue is the unremarkable 1930s gas station map that she finds in his desk...

As Nell begins to track down and question her father's oldest friends, she realises that there is something very strange in their background. And that somebody else may be interested in that very ordinary map.

I did, as I've said, greatly enjoy The Cartographers. It's a testament to the interest of Shepherd's story and the strength of her writing that the book is able to zip back and forth, exploring events of thirty years before to paint in the background to what threatens her now, yet without ever losing headway. I often find myself being slightly floored if a book has too much flashback, but done well, as here, it maintains, rather than squashing, tension.

And the story that is teased out is rich and psychologically detailed - a story of a group of charismatic college friends, at the height of their abilities, joining together to try and make something truly new, a fusion of cartographic science and of art, a 'Dreamer's Atlas'. We see the allure of the project, and for me, also, Shepherd captured that sense of possibility, of being able to weigh how one will spend one's life and who with, that is I think a very special (and sadly brief) phase of growing up. We also see how that ends - with consequences that play out into the "now" of The Cartographers, where hope has become fear and spontaneous trust and love, suspicion and manipulation.

How Nell will negotiate this, whether she will be able to grow herself enough to understand her father and what he did, and whether she will be able to break that spiral in her own relationships - and above all, whether she can do any of this in time, well, you will have to read the book to see. Intelligent, fun and rather sad, this is a substantial and engaging book that I'd strongly recommend.

I loved the general idea of The Cartographers. And I enjoyed the "Secret History" style flashbacks in the early part of the novel. But ultimately I felt so much of this book just didn't make sense and I lost interest towards the end. The romance subplot just didn't work for me at all but the main issue I had was with plot holes and the choices made by characters, which were utterly bewildering to me.

Despite all of these flaws, for most of the book, The Cartographers was a fun read. But unfortunately, it was nowhere near the quality of the author's first novel, The Book of M.

A book that stays with you long after you finish reading – The Cartographers is definitely a new favourite. The story follows Nell Young, a young woman currently working for Classic – a company that reproduces ancient maps for people. Nell had once held the hope of following in her father’s footsteps and working at the New York Public Library, but after he publicly fired her over a worthless highway roadside map, Nell hasn’t set foot in the library in years. Until one morning she receives a phone call that her father has been found dead – or murdered – in his office. When Nell discovers that same highway roadside map hidden in her father’s desk it will lead her on a dark journey to discover the truth behind her family and the power of maps.

This was such a fun and intriguing read! I’ve always wanted to read The Book of M by Peng Shepherd but I’ve never quite gotten around to it. When I read the synopsis for this book (and saw that incredibly beautiful cover) I knew I had to read this one as soon as possible. From the beginning, I was so intrigued and the story kept me engaged till the very last page. I really enjoyed Shepherd’s writing style – she really took the reader on a journey. The story does start off a bit slower paced but it increases quickly as the plot develops.

The Cartographers is a clever, compelling story and has definitely made me want to read more from Peng Shepherd. The story has some really interesting characters and I really enjoyed the multiple points of view. The characters felt well crafted and I really liked Nell as a main character. As there is quite a bit of mystery in the story I was constantly trying to work out what was going on. There were more than a few moments I didn’t see coming and that definitely kept me glued to the book and turning pages long into the night.

The Cartographers is a really fascinating tale, so if you’re looking for something that will keep you hooked right to the very last page, this should definitely be your next read.

I received my own finished copy of this book, so will not be reviewing the arc due to formatting issues. I expect to read the finished copy in future, and am excited to do so.

I'm completely torn on how to rate this book - the writing, characterisation, locations, descriptions, fun factor - all 5* - but despite it being classified as 'magical reality' there were some fairly obvious unexplained plot holes, not covered by either the 'magic' or logic (wish I could say more).

The story revolves around volatile Nell, who falls out with her father over a seemingly unimportant map and gets fired from the New York Public Library for causing a public scene. Seven years later she is shocked to hear that he has been murdered in his office, leaving the offending map and a photograph for her in a secret drawer. This sets Nell off on a course of discovery with a very surprising culmination.

The story is basically about the purpose of maps and the effect they have on people - do they reflect the real world or do they inspire it? The book is highly entertaining and charming, so just enjoy the flow, suspend belief and don't think too hard or try to analyse it.

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd is a magical adventure set in one of the most magical places on earth, the New York Public Library.
Our heroine is Nell, a young woman who dreamed of following her father into the world of Cartography, until one fateful day when an argument with him over a seemingly worthless gas station map results in her being fired from the library. It has been years since she spoke to him , so the news that he has been found dead in the library and that foul play is suspected comes as something of a shock. It is not the only shock however, hidden in a secret compartment in his desk is the very map that caused their falling out in the first place. When Nell googles the map she discovers that every known copy is missing, and it is the focus of an online hunt where people are offering huge sums of money for any copy. As Nell dives deeper into the mystery of the map, she will be forced to face not only her own past, but that of her parents and the truth she uncovers is stranger than anything she could ever have imagined.
This was a fascinating glimpse into a world I knew little about, never having much cause to think about maps in a where we rely on GPS. While much of the book is set in the real world , there is an element of fantasy that I thought was really well incorporated and gave the book an interesting and unique hook that kept me turning the pages. The characters are well written and largely sympathetic, and even the more secondary characters felt like there was some depth. The author's note which outlined the inspiration for the story was fascinating, but I feel like saying too much would be a spoiler for the book. The book moves at a steady pace, and I enjoyed both timelines, neither felt like it overwhelmed the other.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the Publisher, all opinions are my own.

As usual in my reviews, I will not rehash the plot (which would give away far too much about this story!)

I loved this book! I was drawn to the title as I've always loved maps and spend hours poring over them, laughing at amusing place names and imagining what different towns and cities are like based on their topography.

This is a great mix of history (real and imagined), romance, intrigue, and a thrilling adventure -you will have to suspend your belief and go with the flow of the story. I enjoyed the flashbacks which put flesh on the bones of the story. What a great concept. I would love to see this turned into a TV series or movie.

The characters are very well written - Nell makes a great heroine, and the supporting cast are well rounded, complete with their various flaws. There are some darker undercurrents involving grief, loss, death and murder, but they add to the plot.

Recommended for lovers of multi-layered adventure stories with a touch of fantasy.

I would definitely read more by this author.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for granting my wish for an ARC. All opinions my own.

In a Nutshell: When I finished this, I was on a book high. But as the day passed on, I could see a few logical loopholes in the plot. So as long as you don’t overanalyse this book, it can be one heck of an entertainer!

Story:
Nell Young has always been passionate about cartography. But after a very public spat with her illustrious father (who is also a respected cartographer), Nell’s career track has been a standstill. But now, after seven years of no contact with him, she learns that her father has been found dead under mysterious circumstances, that too in his office at the New York Public Library. In his possession is the same map the two had had a fight over – a mass-produced highway gas station map. Why is this ordinary map still with him? Did he die or was he killed? What is the secret behind the conspiracy that seems to be ballooning every day?
The story comes to us mainly in a limited third person narrative of Nell and her ex-beau Felix, but with some first person interludes from other key characters.

Where the book worked for me:
😍 The storyline was innovative enough to keep me hooked till the end. Yes, it had some flaws that kept it from becoming a perfect narrative, but its uniqueness and pace made me forgive and forget most of the problems.

😍 I loved the way the book mixed up its genres and does justice to almost every one of them. Part family drama, part friendship saga, part crime thriller and part magical realism, the book straddles all these with ease without going over the top. I especially loved the magical realism bits. They were so unexpected and imaginative.

😍 I found the pacing working very much to my liking. With its constant tempo and a steady unfurling of events without much of rambling musings, I could complete this within a day.

😍 I learnt so many things about maps! Every detail connected to cartography is almost like an eye-opener. I especially loved knowing about phantom settlements. Who knew! What an idea to ensure copyright protection!

😍 While there is the mandatory romantic arc in the plot, it never overpowers the main focus of the story and never feels artificial.

😍 All the main characters are geeks, and that too highly intelligent. So when the reader is also a geek (albeit in a different subject area), it is a match made in heaven. I drooled over the tech terms and cartographical insights. (It reminded me of my initial experiences with Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon books. It is fun to see braniacs at work when they aren’t being pompous about it.)

😍 The author’s note at the end about something crucial in the story was just mind-blowing! I have nothing to say but WOW!

😍 Yay for the representation, and a bigger YAY for the way it is seamlessly woven into the story. There are characters from many backgrounds but nowhere is present a stereotypical stress on their ethnicity/nationality and never will you feel that they are there just for a token representation. There’s also an LGBT character and again, this person is a routine part of the story. I felt like I was interacting with these characters as I would in real life; it just felt so natural. Simply loved the handling of diversity in this book!

Where the book could have worked better for me:
😑 The first person perspectives didn’t work very well in the book. With a similar-sounding voice across multiple characters, it became very confusing to remember who was narrating that specific flashback. I’d have preferred having the third person narration even for the flashbacks.

😑 The methodology of presenting scenes was quite jarring at times. For instance, the first person flashbacks contained some references that no one in real life would recount while narrating a story. There are some well-timed coincidences and some minor plot points that never get explained. (Then again, it is a magical realism story. Not everything will get explained.)

😑 There is a secret villain in the story but it doesn’t take any genius to figure out who the villain could be. So if you are reading this primarily as a crime thriller, you will be disappointed. Luckily for me, I was reading it more for the cartographical details and the magical realism part. So I was okay with the crime detection going for a toss. (The book still offers many thrills, just not as the crime thriller.)

Despite these minor flaws in the execution. I still find myself highly satisfied with the book. Every geeky cell in my body was engrossed in the narrative. I relished the story and look forward to reading more books by this author. Definitely recommended if you are looking for a cerebral entertainer.

4.25 stars from me.

My thanks to Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Cartographers”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

I think I haven’t savoured a book as much as I have The Cartographers in quite some time. Set around the NYPL – one of my favourite places in New York – and maps, this book is a love letter to people who are passionate about niche things, those who love hiding in archives and behind books. It is nuanced and delightful, tragic and compelling, all in all one of my new favourite books. Growing up I’ve always had a special connection to maps as, in the years before Google Maps, my parents would make me get out an atlas and figure it out whenever I asked where a certain place was. Add in to that that my mum was a geographer who had worked on maps and a love for them was born early – these days, I mainly look at old maps, but have had some sort of map on my walls for most of my adult life. Thus, I easily dived into The Cartographers, connecting with the characters’ passion for the obscure art.

This is both a work that dives into themes of dark academia and magic, as well as a thriller. Nell, the main character, gets sucked into a world where she is in constant danger, where people around her start dying – and all because of a map. But what is the secret of this weird piece of paper, one that was sold at gas stations? It’s not like it’s a traditional treasure map… And The Cartographers keeps the truth about the map from you for a long time. It focuses on telling its story, on setting up the characters past and present over revealing too much too soon. And ultimately, the mystery isn’t the most important part of the book. It is about relationships, about trust, about following your dreams more than that. It’s good enough that I guessed a major part of the resolution early on, and it did not take away from my enjoyment of the story at all – The Cartographers is a story that is about the journey, not the destination.

Oh, the writing. It is clean but compelling, literary without overdoing it. Shepherd manages to hit that balance and provide readers with a book that is compulsively readable, magical, but also sparse and leaving the reader to wonder within the confines of the world. I absolutely loved The Cartographers, stayed up far too late to finish it, and now I want to read anything Peng Shepherd has written. A book that hurt me, that made me feel all the emotions and most definitely gave me a book hangover. Five bloody stars.

This was just magical. Honestly its really difficult to describe how beautiful this book is while remaining spoiler free, but I will say if you are the kind of reader that pours over beautiful maps of worlds found in the beginnings of fantasy books, who flicks back to see where the characters are traveling too, maybe even has a couple of fictional worlds decorating your home, this is the book for you. If you are the kind of person that sees the beauty in paper maps this is the book for you.

This is an urban fantasy/magical realism novel but at heart it is a mystery, that is beautifully character driven as it explores family, love, friendship, loss, family secrets and lies. Told from the perspective of Nell, whom had become estranged from her father, after his death delves deeper into his work in hopes of resurrecting her own career. Nell is a fantastic character to view her father’s life from as her own enthusiasm and curiosity match that of the reader to keep delving and find out more and the events of her families past take a step into the realm of the peculiar. This also leant itself to the interjection of snippets of ‘personal recollections’ from various important people throughout Nell’s father’s life.

I really liked how these flashbacks built the story and revealed the mystery while the modern day portions built up the mystery and the tension. I also liked the romance that served to give more context to Nell other than the reader’s perspective into this group of friends and what they had discovered. The romance was cute and really gave Nell more dimension while not distracting from the overall plot. On a personal note I have to highlight that this is another book focusing on the lives of higher level academics. All of the characters we encounter have PhDs and are portrayed as emotional beings. To often the media forgets that there are people behind the credentials and that they function just like every other person with a range of emotions from love to grief, to clumsiness and confusion. It was just so nice to read, especially as a person who holds a PhD myself as is just as broken as the rest of humanity its nice to see a book where the PhD holders act like actual people and not academic obsessed robots.

The concept for the plot and the source of the mystery was just fantastic it added just enough magic to tip this over into the fantasy genre but I still think many none SFF readers may enjoy this one. There is something mystical about paper maps and Shepard really brings that wonder and beauty to life in the descriptions of them in this book. I really liked that a lot of them were included in the book itself and even though I read this as an eARC I am excited to see what they look like in the hardcopy edition (I have a pre-oprder).

Shepard’s writing style is lovely, there is a beauty and floweriness to it when capturing the maps and the wonder of the New York Public Library, which the book centres itself around, but also a real feeling of authenticity when diving into the lives of those concerned. The further we dive into the secrets the more the emotions rise and they are depicted beautifully throughout. I found the prose really absorbing. I do wish the characters were slightly more distinctive from one another, they tended to blend together a little particularly as they were all academics from the same field of study that when they discussed the maps they just blended into the same narrative voice instead of holding distinct personalities. This made them a little hard to distinguish when we switched out of Nell’s perspective and into one of the flashbacks.

Overall I adored this book, I loved The Cartographers and getting to learn the mystery behind them, both the magical and the emotional. I think it will be enjoyable for those that like character driven stories or light fantasy.

5 Reasons to read The Cartographers:

1. The Found-Family
If you like the found family trope, The Cartographers is for you. I wasn’t expecting this trope to come up in this book, but I was pleasantly surprised when it did. The family dynamic between all the characters is amazing, and honestly I think this book needs a prequel.

2. The writing is gorgeous
I was obsessed with this book from the very first line. Shepherd really did an amazing job with the writing. The story is well paced and the mystery sucks you in right from the start.

3. The cartography
Who knew cartography could be so exciting? Not me. Most of us don’t even think twice about maps anymore since the dawn of GPS. I can’t remember the last time I held an actual map, and I definitely don’t know how to read one. However, the Cartographers is fascinating. Shepherd really did her research and it shows in the writing. This is every nerd’s dream. I would watch a 10 episode Netflix miniseries based on this book in a heartbeat.

4. The National Treasure Vibe
Admit it, we all love National Treasure. It is…a treasure. It’s also fun and goofy and lets us live out our treasure hunting fantasies. The Cartographers is like that. It felt like I was right there with Nell, trying to decipher ancient maps and solve the mystery.

5. The magic
I knew this book would have a magical element going into it, and it was really well done. It feels so real, like this could happen in the real world. I love books that give me just a hint of magic, a taste of something wonderful. The Cartographers is magical, and you should definitely read it.

I received The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd for free by the lovely Alainna at Orion Books in exchange for an honest review as part of a blog tour. Thank you so much for having me on the tour! This review is also available on Book, Blog & Candle.

I always love it when there are maps at the start of a book so when I saw that this book was all about maps and cartography I immediately wanted to read it! I was drawn in instantly from the blurb, the premise is fantastic and this is the exact kind of book that I would pick up in the bookstore and buy with no hesitation!

Our protagonist is Nell and we join her when she gets a call that her father, whom she hasn’t spoken to in years, has died. In his office she finds the mysterious and seemingly worthless map that they had argued about and from there she is set on a journey to uncover a whole world of secrets.

This story definitely had some dark academia vibes that I absolutely LOVED! This map that the story is centred around is shrouded in secrecy, mystery and even mysticality. It was well paced and engaging all throughout, I was completely hooked. I also really enjoyed the flashbacks and piecing together this puzzle alongside Nell.

One of the things I love most about this book is that is has definitely sparked something in me. I’ve finished it wanting to learn more about cartography and the intricacies of map making. I loved learning about all of these little secrets that maps can have and I want to go down the rabbit hole and learn even more!

The Cartographers is beautifully written, intelligent and rich in detail. A story that showcases love, obsession and brilliant mystery! I loved it!