Peng Shepherd was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, where she rode horses and trained in classical ballet, and has lived in Beijing; Kuala Lumpur; London; Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; and New York. When not writing, she can be found planning her next trip or haunting local bookstores. You can find her online at pengshepherd.com or on Instagram @pengshepherd. You can find more of my reviews of Peng's works here.
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 surprised, she soon discovers that the map is incredibly valuable and 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 discovers the true power that lies in maps... Perfect for fans of Joe Hill and V.E. Schwab, The Cartographers is an ode to art and science, history and magic—a spectacularly imaginative, modern day story about an ancient craft and places still undiscovered.
I really love magical realism, but I always have a hard time finding books that do it really well. Shepherd definitely does with her premise: what if phantom settlements were real? It's a great question that haunts (pun unintended) the novel, and really makes one question what is the point of a map? That is, of course, the underlying question of the novel, and one repeated quite frequently, both in conversation and in the narration. For people who love to read books, or who love books set in libraries, or just love historical artifacts, this book is for you!
I was really fascinated with how the story was told. Divided into four parts, with alternating present day narration between Nell and Felix, which was interspersed by stories from the past, this book really captured how one story can be told from multiple angles. I never once felt like I wanted to go back to a different character's telling of the story, just because each character held my attention, and each chapter revealed more of what I needed to know in order to reach the end of the novel. This is really clean storytelling to me, and really appealed to me from a craft standpoint because as a reader, it makes the book feel like everything fell neatly and satisfyingly into place.
While Shepherd's other book was entertaining, I felt like this was her best yet. The storytelling was clean, and the story was compelling. The cast of characters was wide enough to include a good amount of twists, but also small enough so that readers could keep track of who is who and what was going on in each timeline. The mapmaking element was well done—not enough technical terms to lose readers in the details, but also enough details and fun tidbits to make readers really interested in what this field is, and how academia works in this sector. While some of the plot twist reveals were a bit predictable (and that may have been because I was trying to guess and I got it right), I think overall this story is engrossing and captivating, and one that readers really will enjoy and love to have on their shelves.
I will definitely be keeping an eye out for what Peng Shepherd publishes in the future—I think she may just be an instant-buy author for me! Until then, you can find her online at pengshepherd.com or on Instagram @pengshepherd.
*This review can also be found on my Goodreads page*
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