The Unmapping
It's 4AM. New York City is sleeping, and without warning it shifts. Neighborhoods change places, buildings move to different boroughs, and people wake up to discover they're not where they were when they went to bed. Thus the Unmapping begins. This is not the only problem facing the city, as an unseasonal, climate change-fueled hurricane is due to hit and meteorologists aren't sure how strong it will be– just that it will be a disaster when it hits. And now that New York has unmapped and is experiencing gas main explosions, power outages, and water main breakages, emergency services can't get out to help people. Esme Green and Arjun Varma work for New York's emergency management team, and both are desperately trying to just do their jobs, get help where it's needed, and manage their own problems in the midst of it all. Esme is desperate to find her missing fiance, while Arjun is looking for a way to be the hero he's always imagined himself to be. While scientists struggle to find the cause of the Unmapping or a way to stop it, a strange cult appears, and the people of New York look for a way to deal with the new reality as their city shifts from one day to the next. Though the premise of The Unmapping makes it sounds like a tense, science fiction thriller, it's not actually that kind of book. It's not about people who can scale tall buildings to rescue a kitten, or about people who can science their way to a grand solution that saves the world. The Unmapping takes place in a world gone awry, but it is about the people on the ground who are just trying to get through the day when their lives are turned upside down again and again and again. Esme and Arjun head up a small cast of characters who are all very flawed and terribly human figures who don't always do the smart thing while things are unraveling around them. This is to the book's advantage, though. It's not about big picture solutions to massive problems, it's about people doing their best in the face of disaster. Never let it be said that a person's "best" is always a good idea or even remotely logical. Esme's reaction to the Unmapping is to overwork and spend her few off-hours endlessly searching for her fiance, who she'd had a terrible fight with the last time she saw him. Arjun's desire to help people and be a hero results in him looking and acting like a creep. But eventually, they and everyone else in the book find their own paths forward. Robbins' writing is fluid, often bordering on stream-of-consciousness without wandering too far afield. The perspective shifts– random-seeming at first– mimic the effects of the Unmapping, shifting unexpectedly from Esme or Arjun to other characters who seem to have nothing to do with anything. But eventually a pattern emerges. We start to see the connections linking them all together. Eventually we begin to understand how the communities they join come together to help each other, even when life is constantly throwing emergencies at them. The Unmapping is sometimes heartbreaking, occasionally confusing, and always about the connections that hold us all together. It is a strange and beautiful little book, and while I was unsure of it at the beginning, it quickly pulled me in and wouldn't let me go. Will everyone like this book? Nope. But if you're looking for a thoughtful story about human connection and community, this is definitely one to pick up. Thank you to NetGalley and Bindery for the advance copy for review. Note: The Unmapping was acquired by the Mareas imprint of the publishing company, Bindery. As a member of the Mareas community, I've watched the process of acquisition to cover reveal to publication, so I may be a little biased in favor of this wonderfully weird little book. Traveling in Books is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell Traveling in Books that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments.
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Sunday, May 18, 2025
Book Review: The Unmapping
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