Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

This book gave me anxiety in the best way. Set in New York City, we follow Esme as she travels to work at the Emergency Response Department to find that the city has unmapped itself. No one knows why or how it's happening, but at 4am each day, the city rearranges itself in a seemingly unknowable pattern. The Empire State Building ends up on Coney Island. People are missing or trapped underneath buildings. There are cults popping up everywhere. Why are there so many aluminum Christmas trees?
Robbins does a great job with the tone of this book. We see the Unmapping through several different perspectives which occasionally get flipped on their head. The narrative voice is always breezy and conversational even when we're unsure who we're following. We feel the despair and confusion of the city and we feel the small bright light of communities being forged from the darkness. It's a wide portrait of a country in crisis.
I will say that the book felt disjointed in places. There were some sections that skimmed past something crucial or focused on a seemingly unimportant section of the story for too long. This book has a gigantic premise and it does its best to present as many facets of that premise as it can squeeze into its pages. I enjoyed jumping around and seeing all of the different points of view, but I can see how some people could find it too scattered.
This was an anxiety-inducing but ultimately enjoyable read and I recommend it to anyone interested in speculative fiction about climate change and its many possible effects on our future. A great reminder that, in the end, our human connections are what make everything possible.
Thank you to Bindery Books and NetGalley for providing me with this eARC in exchange for my honest review.