There are several things required for me as a reader to engage in a story. It has to have good if not great characters, a compelling plot line that I am invested in or relate to, and it has to grab my attention right away. If I have trouble getting into a story I am more and more likely to put the book down and not pick it back up.This story by Sarah McCoy met all of those requirements and more.
The Mapmaker's Children is Sarah McCoy's third novel and the first piece I have read by her. What immediately grabbed my attention was the historical nature of the book. This story is set simultaneously in the spring of 1859 and the summer of 2014. With every other chapter trading off to tell the story of Sarah, the daughter of the abolitionist John Brown, and Eden a modern woman attempting to come to grasp with what she sees as her failure as a woman and a wife.
Usually with books that trade main characters every other chapter I become more emotionally involved with one story line and skim or skip the other. This was not the case with Sarah, or Eden's stories.
Each chapter finds the reader in the same setting of West Virginia for the most part. However, the time and political temperament of The United States could not have been more different.
Sarah's story picks up in New York state in the tumultuous days prior to Abraham Lincoln's election and the eruption of The Civil War. When we first meet Sarah she is recovering from an illness that has left her barren. She is considered "damaged" and her mother wonder's aloud "who will love her now?" (5). IT is Sarah's strong character that creates not only a future for herself, but also for many escaping slaves and their families heading north on the Underground Railroad by her ability to create maps that are hidden within her beautiful drawings.
Flash to the future and Eden's story. The reader is transported 155 years into the future to 2014 where slavery has been abolished, woman have the right to vote, and the mysteries left behind by Sarah Brown keep a modern woman from losing her mind and coming to grips with not being able to have children.
Both women, though in different lifetimes and different situations find their stories mirroring each other as both women are forced to find what they will do with their lives now that they will not be mothers in the traditional sense. Both women face the reality of what and who they are without the desired and expected title of mother, wife, and partner.
This story, though filled with heavy topics, history, and emotions is kept light through the introduction of Eden's neighbor girl named Cleo who is wise beyond her years, and a small puppy named Cricket who lightens the mood of both the characters and the readers with each scene he is in.
This book did not take me long to read at all and I
highly suggest this for anyone who loves a good historical novel, stories about people, self discovery, or just a well written story.
I received a free copy of this title from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.
