THE CARTOGRAPHERS by Peng Shepherd follows Nell Young as she gets pulled back into the world of cartography when her well-renowned yet estranged cartographer father, Dr. Young, suddenly passes away while at work. Nell soon discovers that all is not what it seems and there are many secrets to uncover and a mysterious old gas station road map may have all the answers.

This was such a fun read that I sped right through, there were many aspects that I wasn’t expecting, first off, who knew maps were so interesting!? I am completely fascinated with them now and want my own magical map. Although personally, I wouldn’t class this as a fantasy, as it is definitely on the light magical realism side and along with it being a mystery, it is part thriller and full of adventures involving an intriguing group of friends. I really enjoyed that we got personal accounts, perspectives and backstories from Dr. Young’s friends, it added such a different level to the book which elevated it and created a lovely depth to the story. The book really could have solely been about them and their hopeful yet messy dynamic, their interactions were my favourite moments.

If I had one frustration with this story it is that I would have liked the motivations behind one of the characters
actions to be stronger, at times I was left confused as to why certain things were happening. That being said the subtleness of how the mystery unfolded was nicely done and I didn't want to put this book down.

When you read this book make sure you read the authors acknowledgements, it gives a whole new incredible dimension to the story and the map it’s based on!

3.5✨

A mystery centered around the New York Public Library Map Division. When Nell Young's estranged is found dead at his desk in the library, she is brought back into the world of historic maps. Her father had her cruelly fired from her job in the same department over a disagreement about a map and they hadn't spoken since. When the same seemingly worthless map is found in his possession at the time of his death, Nell starts to investigate and soon discovers that there is more to this map than she could have imagined. A great book for map and library lovers.

** spoiler alert ** I have a lot of feelings about this book.

I really enjoyed reading it; it's immensely readable and I couldn't put it down, because there were things I just had to know. Shepherd's writing is so accessible and I like the alternating third to first person POVs.

But so much of the actual story felt so surface level. In part because we only get Nell and Felix's perspectives in the present day, and in part because it was kind of played out as outsiders' points of view, I don't see Wally being presented as an obsessive, slightly unhinged murderer. I see the importance of the appearance of the town, but don't get the feeling of how magical it was from the narrators' points of view. Everyone early on calls it cursed, but the *feelings* aren't built out for the people who were directly affected by it. Maybe I'm just too used to stories that are all about feelings, because I didn't get very many, not of romantic love, not of family, not of wonder, not of obsession. Those that I did get were often about maps and cartography, which totally tracks for Nell as a main character.

So basically, I like the idea of telling the story completely from the POV of the outsiders, but didn't get enough of the story, so I dunno.

Somehow, I still think it was a great book? Even without the execution I wanted. I dunno.

ETA: SETTING. Peng Shepherd is hella good at writing Place. Every place she wrote, even empty fields, felt real and settled. Maybe that was what kept me going through the whole thing. I wanted to keep being in some of those places, but really only when Nell was there, because she had the best eye for them.

Final thoughts: I have no idea how I feel about this book.

I really enjoyed this book! I haven’t read The Book of M, but now I am going to have to. This book will be a hit with anyone into academic mystery, map-making, or magic.

The plot immediately sucked me in, and I kept trying to find time to read because I could not stop thinking about the story or the characters.

I have already started recommending this one to staff and library patrons alike.

Going into this one the synopsis gave me serious national treasure vibes and I gotta say this one did the concept better! I loved unlocking the secrets of the mc’s father and following the map. I really can’t wait to see what else this author comes out with because this story was a fantastic introduction to their work!

Thank you to B2 Weird and William Morrow Books for my finished copy in exchange for an honest review and promotion. All opinions are my own.

This was so fun. I was stressed and anxious the whole time, but in a good way!

The Cartographers is all about maps, especially maps that might be a little magical. When Nell's father is found dead in his office, Nell doesn't know what to think. She hasn't talked to him in years since he cruelly fired her and destroyed her reputation in cartography. Nell finds the same map that caused their last fight in his possessions. She thought it was completely worthless only to find out it's incredibly rare and valuable. A mysterious collector has been hunting all copies down. The mystery of why sets Nell on a life changing journey.

I really enjoyed this book! I was immediately pulled in by the suspicious death of Dr. Young. From this Nell begins to dig into her family's past in order to find out exactly what happened to her mother the year she died in a fire. I loved seeing how all the pieces wove together.

While Nell is the main focal point of this story, we get glimpses into the perspectives of her parents and their friends throughout the book. I enjoyed getting to know all of them and see their various motives for why they did what they did.

I meant to savor this book, but once I started I could not stop. I was so invested in the mystery. I had to have answers more than anything else. I also really enjoyed that the characters were all older since I've been reading mostly YA lately. Nell and Felix are in their 30s and the other side characters are probably in their late 40's to 50's.

Overall, I'm so glad I picked this one up, thoroughly enjoyed it!

Rep: white cishet female MC, Black cishet male side character, Black cishet female side character, Asian American cishet female side character, white cishet side characters, male side character mentions having a husband.

CWs: Murder, death, death of parent, violence, injury/injury detail, fire/fire injury. Moderate: sexual content, infidelity.

There’s a question asked several times in this book that, essentially, forms the whole philosophical core of the text: What is a perfect map?

The answer, obvious to anyone who’s ever taken a single cartography class (and pointed out by one of the book’s characters) is this: There is no such thing as a perfect map. There can’t be. Every map is imperfect or distorted in some way. Even maps made using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software can’t be perfect, because even those maps rely on digitized map projections that already exist. You can trust me on this: I have a degree in geography and have spent a good many hours making maps using GIS software. Many people aren’t even aware of how many map projections there are, or how varied they can be. What they distort, where they distort it, where it isn’t distorted. More than that, though, maps simply can’t be perfect! The Earth is an oblate spheroid, and it’s always shifting. No matter how hard you try, every map becomes obsolete in a matter of a year or so. There’s no way to stop it, because ther only thing that truly endures is change.

The plot of this book isn’t completely watertight, and the pacing is a little uneven. I had expected it to be a little more suspenseful and a little more taute, but that’s maybe because I knew of the concept of “phantom settlements” (AKA Paper Towns) from back when I was still in community college taking Geography 101. I even knew about the actual paper town that’s discussed in this book, believe it or not. So I was thrilled to see Sheperd take the very real concept of phantom settlements and create a hypothetical scenario in which, by some way of some fantastic magical realism worldbuilding, phantom settlements actually appear so long as a map of said settlement exists somewhere.

What I didn’t enjoy too much were the stories from the other character’s POV, because I felt it took some of the mystery and suspense away from the story. Once those characters started telling their story I quickly realized every plot twist and turn for the rest of the book. That ruined a lot of the joy that could’ve come from reading this book.

Shepherd’s prose is on point, of course, as are the overarching questions this book may cause you to ask. I love magical realism as a genre, so I enjoyed seeing my lifelong love of maps employed in such a plot.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review, and another thank you to William Morrow and publicist D. Bartlett for my complimentary physical copy of the book. You’re the best!

The Cartographers had me hooked from the beginning. This book is a thriller with a dash of magic and dark academia vibes that I think will appeal to everyone!

When Nell's father, the renowned cartographer Dr. Daniel Young, is found dead in his office, Nell is shocked to find a seemingly worthless gas station map from the 1930s in his desk. Especially since it's the same map that led to him firing her from the New York Public Library and ruining her reputation as a cartographer years ago. Nell is drawn to this last piece of her relationship with her father, and after a little more research she finds that she may possess the last copy of this map. Someone has been meticulously hunting down and destroying every copy of this particular map. As the secrets Dr. Young kept begin to unravel, Nell begins to learn more about her past, her parents, and the secrets a map can hide.

The Cartographers had me absolutely fascinated with the world of cartography. This story alternates between Nell's timeline and her parents' college and post-college years. I loved the way the story of Nell's parents and their group of college friends unraveled. Their portion of the story gave me strong dark academia vibes that I really enjoyed. This book kept me hooked, wondering who could be trusted and what would happen next. If you've ever fallen in love with a map in a fantasy book or wanted the real world to hold just a little more mystery and magic, this thriller is for you!

THE CARTOGRAPHERS is an intriguing magical realism/thriller about cartography. Nell followed in her parents' footsteps, becoming a cartographer, but her career was derailed seven years ago by her father, who acted irrationally when she found some intriguing maps as well as a cheap gas station map and said it was her job or his. As he holds a prestigious position and is a critical staff member at the NYPL, Nell found herself out of a job, with no career prospects, and without her remaining family member.

When she learns of his death, Nell is shocked - even more so by the work hidden in the spot they used to use. Her father was hiding the cheap gas station map Nell had unearthed so many years ago. She cannot help but look into what this map was and what it might have meant to her father. This map is not a simple thing, and the journey on which it will take her or the ways her father's past will collide with the present, all while murders are appearing hot on her trail.

This was such an unexpected and wild ride that makes the reader reconsider maps in all sorts of cool new ways. The story is absolutely captivating, and although it starts in way, it takes a turn into magical realism and the unexpected. Nell is certainly an amateur sleuth, and I appreciated that the story shows her pitfalls as such. Her story felt very genuine and kept the reader hooked and invested in her mystery. The thing that ruined her life 7 years ago now seems to have led to her father's demise, and the secrets being kept are more impactful than readers could guess.

The book teaches some facts about maps and cartography that were absolutely fascinating with new respect for those who work on them. It was easy to get pulled into and hooked on this riveting story. The book also includes some key images of maps and features that I really appreciated. These small illustrations were incredibly helpful in picturing the story and brought it to life. I do not want to say too much about the story to avoid spoilers - but this was a twisty and unexpected read that is sure to delight readers who love a good mystery.

THE CARTOGRAPHERS is a riveting and compelling magical realism/thriller read that will delight and surprise readers. Highly recommend checking this one out if you love a good mystery, genuine characters, and twisty, well-crafted plots.

Please note that I received a review copy. All opinions are my own.

Adventure, mystery and more plot twists and turns than a road on some old gas station map. Full of very likeable and extremely unlikeable characters The Cartographers is a fast paced and unexpectedly wild ride. It is enjoyable for both male and female readers and will be a lot of fun to recommend to everyone!

In the modern world, it'd be quite unfathomable how important paper maps would be given the current technology that we have; but what if, instead of being mere reflections of streets and landmarks, maps have the power to change the world that they hold? This magical concept is centered in the wildly imaginative novel of Peng Shepherd's The Cartographers. This mind-bending novel is filled with astonishing twists and revelations crafted masterfully through incredible prose. This is one of those books that I'd love to delete from memory just to experience the adventure for the first time again. Solid 5 stars!

If you love a perfect blend of mystery, thriller, and fantasy, I suggest picking up this book as your next read!

4.25 ⭐ This book is SO good. While not without its issues, The Cartographers is a wild ride that got me out of a two-month-long reading slump I was neck-deep in. Equal parts love letter to maps/cartography and well-crafted, fun mystery, this book hooked me instantly and had me unable to put it down.

The book starts off strong, and in my opinion, I was invested right off the bat. I've seen criticism of the book about the characters, saying that they fall flat and aren't very complex, and while I definitely agree that there's some merit to that, it didn't hinder my reading experience whatsoever. While reading this book I was mainly interested in the mystery aspect of the plot, as I don't often read books like that, and I had a lot of fun guessing what was going to happen. Some of that plot was predictable, but for me, it made it more fun when my prediction turned out to be right. I can absolutely see how that might bother some people, but I really enjoyed it.

Nell and Felix were really cute as well. In my head, they were sort of similar to Rowan/Citra from Scythe because of their simplicity, but that was part of what made them so appealing to me as a couple; they're adults and Nell's character made it so she was much more invested in figuring out what happened to her father/how the map is involved than anything else, and Felix's feelings on that topic were *chef's kiss*. You love to see a man in love with a woman whose sexuality is mapmaking! Couple goals <3

I also really liked the multiple POV aspect of the book; I won't go into detail because it would spoil things, but the characters introduced later on were actually pretty interesting to me (a lot of people didn't like them and again, I can definitely see where those people are coming from, but for me personally it wasn't an issue), and I liked the backstory going on there. It was reminiscent of A Secret History but slightly less developed, which is fine because I stopped reading that book anyway (although now I sort of want to go back, having been drawn back to the academia genre? Anyways :/).

And while I won't go into spoilers about the mystery aspect of the plot, the second and third acts of the book were SO FUN. Everything about this book felt like a love letter to cartography from the author and I could feel it while reading. The characters, the maps, all of the real-life details that went into this book—it's infectious. I literally never thought about maps before this and now I'm like hmm. That would be an interesting job. Peng Sheperd what the hell???

Anyways I loved this book, the plot, certain characters (BEAR!!!!!!!!), and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun mystery to keep you guessing and trying to solve it right alongside the characters. Definitely not the most developed cast, but it's exactly what I needed right now and I love it for that.

4.5 Stars

This was my first book I read by this author and I must say it left me spellbound. I typically don’t seek books that have the fantasy genre, however, mystery/thrillers are my go to and I figured I should give it a chance and wow I am so thankful I did!

Rest assured a book about maps might seem dull, but not when it includes murder, manipulation, hidden secrets, mystery, magic, scholars, hidden lives, family and friends drama and a tad bit of romance.

I will never look at a city map again without thinking about this book and smiling.

I highly recommend this to all!

Thank you NetGalley, William Morrow for the gifted book in exchange for my honest opinion.

THE CARTOGRAPHERS gives the readers the feel of Dan Brown's DA VINCI CODE with the dark social story of elite academia like Donna Tartt's THE SECRET HISTORY. It s a twisty, interesting, intellectual and entertaining novel that obviously took immense research. The author does a very good job making us care about Nell, a cartographer whose life has been shaped by the loss of her mother and subsequent betrayal and estrangement from her father. There are multiple timelines in the book and the storylines are tied together well, helping the reader to understand the motivation for lies that were told and why a predator seems to be stalking the cartographic academic community, with a deadly focus on the collections and team of New York Public Library.

I was out getting brunch when I started reading this book, then I ended up ignoring my fish and chips, and immediately rushed home to read more. The Cartographers is about a young scholar of maps "who discovers that a strange map in her recently deceased father’s belongings holds a deadly secret." I love a good puzzle and I love it when authors bring us into a different world. In this case: the imaginative world of maps and what's hidden on them.

From the very first page, I felt like I knew Nell. Her love for cartography, her buried grief after her father's death, her determination to figure out the contents of the map . . . And she was fighting to get back into an industry readers end up knowing well, all because the author was meticulous in how she invited us inside. Every sentence, dialogue, description was done to pull us further in the rabbit holes she dug for us. I was more than happy to go in whatever direction the author was prodding us.

Clearly, the author did her research!!!

There was a large cast of characters, but all of them stayed with me. (I literally teared up when we learned about Bear!) Their individual storylines felt real, with real stakes. Like, I understood why they did what they did. And I'm a sucker for any books with "secret societies," groups that form because they all happened to love the very same, weird thing, and wanted to protect it.

I was curious, enthralled, scared . . . and now I'm deeply satisfied as a reader. What a great adventure. Someone needs to make a movie out of this!

When Nell's father dies at his desk at the legendary map division of the New Public Library, she regrets the time lost with her father after she was exiled when she tried to research a few junk maps. But Nell's regret turns to disbelief then anger when she finds one of those maps in her father secret possessions at his office. Was it simply coincidence, a cruel joke, or perhaps the cause of his death? Read The Cartographers to find out.

While I enjoyed The Cartographers, as an avid mystery reader, I found the mystery element to be predictable and the fantasy element to be a bit too light for my taste. But I did truly enjoy the storytelling, the character development, the diversity of the characters, and the human interest aspects of the novel which were the book's highlights. I also really enjoyed learning about the academics of cartography, Ms. Shepard did an excellent job with the research and it was quite fun reading about the politics of the NYPL. Despite the aforementioned flaws, I still believe that The Cartographers is well worth a read. 3.75 stars.

This book is SO fun! A mix of magic, sleuthing, secrets among friends, and lots and lots of maps. If you're into mystery and a touch of dark academia with very bookish characters (who love maps), you're in for a crazy fun wild ride. I absolutely loved this. I haven't had this much fun in a while and I'm so happy I read it. You will not regret it!

I learned about The Cartographers through Cindy Burnett’s Thoughts from A Page podcast Patreon group. Mysteries are some of my favorites reads but I hadn’t come across one focused on a map. So when I learned that the story incorporates maps, the NYPL, a present and past timeline with a daughter who is trying to puzzle it all out I knew it was a book for me.

I greatly enjoyed this tale and loved how the story unfolded. Starting with the murder of the head of the NYPL Maps division we are brought into the world of Nell and her personal and professional issues. Slowly, we, along with Nell, learn about her family history and it’s connection to present day events. I found the flashback to Nell’s parents and their life before the fire intriguing and I was so curious about why this particular map was important.

I was able to join in on a talk with the author, Peng Sheperd, and had a deeper appreciation for the book and also how it came to be! I find author chats really help solidify a book in my memory. It was a delightful event and I’m so glad to have joined.

Thank you William Morrow for my copies of the book and Cindy Burnett for organizing the read and author chat!

This one was awesome! I had no idea what I was getting into when I picked it up, but I ended up loving everything about it! (Let's not talk about me requesting ARCs without reading the synopsis because they have pretty covers...)

Anyways, this one was great! And what stood out most was the concept of the Paper Towns/Phantom Settlements. I'd read Paper Towns by John Green ages ago, but I'm not a fan of his writing, so the concept never really caught me. This one did. This one had me hooked. I seriously pulled my phone out to do a Google search while reading, I needed more info on the towns. They're such intriguing concepts, and this one brought them to life in such an amazing way. I wasn't sure where the magical realism was going, but it was done so well!

I also really loved the structure. I'll admit, I enjoyed the past/flashback scenes a bit more than the present, but even the present was awesome. I loved the small romance, and the character friendships were fun. The way everything wove together was captivating, and once I hit the last 200 pages, I couldn't put this down.

Although this one took me a while to read, I really loved it! I'll definitely be recommending it to my friends and rereading it :D

Thanks to Turn the Page Tours for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

I thought this title was slow to get into, but then it picked up. The story follows Nell, daughter of a well-renowned cartographer as she tries to piece together the mystery of his death, their falling out, and how a worthless map connects them both.
Some decisions made by the characters seemed unrealistic, but overall a fun read.