A Map of the Known World by: Lisa Ann Sandell

A Map of the Known World

by: Lisa Ann Sandell

From Amazon:
Cora Bradley dreams of escape. Ever since her reckless older brother, Nate, died in a car crash, Cora has felt suffocated by her small town and high school. She seeks solace in drawing beautiful maps, envisioning herself in exotic locales. When Cora begins to fall for Damian, the handsome, brooding boy who was in the car with Nate the night he died, she uncovers her brother's secret artistic life and realizes she had more in common with him than she ever imagined. With stunning lyricism, Sandell weaves a tale of one girl's journey through the redemptive powers of art, friendship, and love.
They say no land remains to be discovered, no continent is left unexplored. But the whole world is out there, waiting, just waiting for me. I want to do things-I want to walk the rain-soaked streets of London, and drink mint tea in Casablanca. I want to wander the wastelands of the Gobi desert and see a yak. I think my life's ambition is to see a yak. I want to bargain for trinkets in an Arab market in some distant, dusty land. There's so much. But, most of all, I want to do things that will mean something.

From Me:

Okay, So I read this book very fast - it took less then a day and I love it when that happens :]

Let me just say first that Lisa Ann Sandell is an AMAZING writer. Some of the words she used just flowed and it was beautiful and poetic just to read. I read Song of the Sparrow not too long ago and it was written beautifully as well, but it was written in free verse poetry which is part of the reason I adored it. I loved the idea of telling a story in that way and I was very pleasantly surprised to find that this book didn't lack that poetic feeling I savored from before.

The character of Cora in this book is a interesting one to me. She is dealing with this tragic thing, but it's almost as if there has been more then one death in her family. Her parents (particularky her dad) don't really pay attention to her anymore and there's a very heavy and dense feeling of grief throughout the book.

She gets her feelings out in a very unusual way though - atleast I thought so. I have never heard of someone drawing maps before...but I now want to go get my sketch pad and draw some up after reading this book.

I love the spin on art and I love the character of Damien, I always have had this dream guy in my head who is dark and brooding - but is just a passionate individual who delves in the arts. I love that main character and whenever I can read about one I freak out a little.

I enjoyed alot of the flashbacks which surprises me because normally I don't want to read flashbacks and rather wish to stay in the here and now, but I liked hearing about how Nate was before everything changed, and I think it was a necessary thing to know how he was with Cora before he became a "jerk".

All in all i really did enjoy this story and I want to get back to it soon. I enjoyed all of the characters and was easily able to relate to some of the things Cora experienced. My only wish is that there had been more interaction with Cora and Damien, just because I liked their conversations. :]

I give it a 9.

-Christina <3