Book Review: “The Cartographers” by Peng Shepherd

Jul 20

Håfa adai! Welcome to my review of The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd.

This book review consists of two parts: a spoiler-free plot summary and my thoughts on the story. In the second part, I give my personal rating and break down the setting and worldbuilding, storytelling, cast of characters, and themes. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinions of the book and maybe encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.

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Spoiler-Free Plot Summary

Dr. Helen “Nell” Young has not spoken to her father, Dr. Daniel Young, for years after he torpedoed her budding career at the New York Public Library and destroyed her professional reputation among scholars of cartography after an argument over a cheap gas station highway map tossed into a throwaway pile. Now Nell is forced to return to the place where it all happened after her father was found dead in his office at the NYPL. And when she notices that law enforcement are not seeing what she is seeing, she cannot help but begin her own investigation into her estranged father’s death. The she follows leads her back to that gas station map from all those years ago. As it turns out, it is far more than a cheap throwaway.

My Thoughts on The Cartographers: 4.25 stars

The Cartographers was first brought to my attention in 2023 when a dear friend of mine lent me her copy of Peng Shepherd’s novel. I was immediately intrigued at the thought of museum professionals going on some sort of journey to solve some sort of thrilling puzzle. My education and training is in the social sciences and I had worked in a museum for years as a graduate student. Some of the practices and statements made throughout The Cartographers are inaccurate, but I did not let that deter me from appreciating the story at hand. This book is a novel depicting a fictional story, not an employee training guide for a large museum or university.

Set in modern-day New York City, The Cartographers primarily follows Nell Young with some chapters following Felix Kimble via third-person narration in the events following the mysterious death of Nell’s father, Daniel Young. The narration pops into the first-person perspective of those recounting the series of events that happened when Nell was only a toddler, setting in motion the present-time plot. The characters move from the New York Public Library, to various locations throughout New York City, and to a strange town located in upstate New York.

The conflict between Nell Young and her father Daniel young is frustratingly believable. In his attempts to protect his daughter from things that occurred while she was too young to form long-term memory, Daniel keeps secrets, lies by omission, and double-downs on withholding information by lashing out at Nell when she unknowingly stumbles across something others have been hiding. Daniel’s choice to permanently mar his daughter’s professional aspirations over something she was not fully informed about are, in my opinion, justification for Nell’s decision to not speak to him for years. Daniel Young chose secrets and the past over his adult daughter in the present.

But I am not entirely sure why Felix and Nell were also on not-speaking terms for so many years after the incident between Nell and her father. This was a part of the story that seemed a bit forced to me. Was the relationship that existed between Felix and Nell not standing on a strong enough foundation that the results of that fateful argument between Nell and her father threw it asunder? Was there something I missed or did not take into consideration that made the way events played out too much for their bond to withstand? It was a bit confusing to me because Peng Shepherd’s writing is so clear throughout most of the book that this aspect of it fell a bit flat. Regardless, I appreciated where things stood with Nell and Felix at the end of the story.

I give Peng Shepherd’s The Cartographers 4.25 out of 5 stars. Before the plot twist hit, I honestly thought I had predicted what was going on and who did what. But once the plot twist hit, I was completely taken by surprise! The pacing felt a bit slow at first, but I grew to really this intergenerational thriller following a bunch of map nerds. The anxiety and stress felt by the characters seemed believable instead of forced. Peng Shepherd’s writing is fantastically vivid and a delight to experience. The Cartographers explores how secrets, lies, and covering up the past can create lifelong rifts between once strong bonds of love and friendship. I recommend this book to anyone interested in speculative fiction.

Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd.

Rating Cheat Sheet

4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.

Post Date: 3 March 2025