The Atlas of Untold Stories by Sara Brunsvold is a tangled story that jumps between a mother and her two daughters. All three are dysfunctional in some way or another and the story just keeps bringing up more issues without a lot of resolution. In many instances the issues are hinted at, but not fully described.

For example, the mother of the book has all sort of issues related to her mother, but the cause and issues aren’t entirely clear. It almost felt like the mother’s parts of the book were based on her rambling through her emotions to a counselor, and the counselor had to help her sort them all out. The only trouble is the counselor never came so the reader is left sifting through the character’s emotions and trying to determine exactly what happened in her past. The details the author gives don’t quite fill in the whole story. It feels like the characters are all messed up, because of the mother who was messed up because of her mother, but the reader is left wandering exactly what her mother did.

One of the daughters, Chloe is interesting. It seems like she could almost function as an adult, and yet the other characters rag on her for being too unaware. Many scenarios in the book seem a bit implausible. For example, if someone is going on a road trip in the heat without air conditioning, why didn’t the others insist on using a different car or renting one? The whole book seemed to be a mix of contradictions. In the end, the characters should have gotten a therapist. I don’t think the road trip would have fixed all of their communication and emotional baggage without professional assistance.

I wanted to like this book, but struggled to get into it. In fact, the characters I liked the best were the peripheral ones, namely the father, (although he was a bit confusing) and another character that appeared later in the book. If the purpose of the book was to have fictional characters visit interesting places related to the author, I would say great job.

Perhaps this book would really connect with certain people, but for this reader, it felt jumbled and I was often confused about the motives of the characters. In the end, it was a relief to be done with the story.

Review of an Advance Reader Copy Provided by the Publisher

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: None

Violence/Gore: None

Sex/Nudity: Characters kiss and embrace.

Mature Subject Matter:

Emotional trauma

Drug/Alcohol Use:

None