The Unmapping by Denise S. Robbins
The Unmapping
by Denise S. Robbins
Science Fiction
408 Pages
Released 2021
Rating: ★★ 1/4
Goodreads
Content Warnings
Thank you to NetGalley and Bindary Books | Mareas for a copy of this ARC! Though it wasn’t my type of book, I appreciate getting the opportunity to read and review it!
When I first read the premise of this book, I was immediately intrigued. I love a good disaster-type story and so this book felt like it was going to be right up my alley. Unfortunately this story veers in some unexpected directions that made it not as enjoyable for me.
This book follows a multitude of characters in the wake of a completely unexpected disaster. At exactly 4am, the city of New York completely re-arranges itself. City blocks are completely scrambled, causing all sorts of problems around the city. As questions mount as to what could have caused the strange phenomenon, we follow several characters as they deal with the resulting chaos, both in their city and in their own lives.
I really struggled with these characters. For one, it was an unusual choice to give some of the characters names at the start of the book (Esme and Arjun, for example) and not others (the journalist, the woman who’s sucked into a cult, and several others that I honestly can’t even remember). By purposely not giving them names, it made me feel like they weren’t really important to the story even though each had several chapters of perspectives and so I never really felt invested in any of them.
Then we have three “main” characters that are named - Esme, a woman in an abusive relationship who becomes obsessed with finding her fiancé in the aftermath of the “unmapping”, Arjun, a young man desperate to be perceived as a heroic figure and dealing with unrequited feelings, and Antony, a young man that gets trapped beneath a building on the first day of the unmapping (though he’s mentioned more as a peripheral character, which was also frustrating).
I found myself not enjoying any of them, either. For one, I had a hard time relating to or really understanding what motivated these characters to make the decisions they did. A lot of things felt purposefully unusual to make for an interesting story instead of a fight for survival. It just didn’t feel realistic for a disaster-type story.
I also felt extremely frustrated that such an interesting concept wasn’t expanded upon more. There was so much potential with such an unusual disaster but it felt wasted by focusing so much on the characters and their nonsensical actions. There is later, also a hinted explanation for it but it made no sense whatsoever either. It’s like this book was trapped between science fiction and contemporary but couldn’t really find it’s footing in either genre.
Finally, I really struggled with the writing overall. This book has a sort of stream-of-conscience type of writing but with so many characters that strangely all sounded the same despite their different experiences, it started feeling garbled pretty quickly.
That said, I do think there is a market for this book. It’s a quirky, character-focused type of speculative fiction that I do think some will enjoy. So while it wasn’t my cup of tea, I think fans of speculative science fiction that focus more on characters than the disaster will like this one.
This book releases June 3rd, 2025.