Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Mapmakers and the Lost Magic by Amanda Castillo, Cameron Chittock

2 reviews

mattyb's review

adventurous hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Police brutality, Animal death, and Death of parent

Minor: Death, Violence, and Ableism

emily_mh's review

adventurous lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I see that a main criticism of this book is that the world-building is poor, so before going into all the reasons why I loved this book, I wanted to offer a different perspective on that point. 

1. It’s a children’s graphic novel - it’s not exactly going to have the complexity you might find in YA or adult graphic novels.
2. I viewed the world (in this instalment in the series at least) as a backdrop for themes to play out, and characters to act - both of these things were handled brilliantly, as I’ll go into.
3. The world building aspect that WAS super important to the story and therefore needed to be fleshed out more - the mapmaking - WAS well thought out. It had tenets, stages of training and working, history, social structure and more, and the Memris made it super unique. The only criticism I had here was that I wish we had seen how all the instruments worked to create the map, but I think this is something that will be expanded upon as the series progresses.
4. It is only the first book in the series! I.e. the world will continue to develop and be built upon. I was actually glad there wasn’t all this info-dumping in book 1, as that allowed world building to unravel more naturally, and there were hints given of certain things that make me look forward to picking up future instalments.

With all that said, let me gush about this book. I REALLY ENJOYED reading it. The art style felt so solid and had a rustic, kind of autumnal colour palette. I loved the concept of how mapmaking is essentially a spell, one that requires connection to and knowledge of the land - the map itself can then pass on this connection and knowledge.
 
The book addresses two important themes so naturally and seamlessly. Firstly, it stresses the importance of having a small ecological footprint as a human; that we need to live alongside nature rather than in dominance of it. In doing so it highlighted the significance of humility in being a good human. Additionally, the story showed that you should question what people in power tell you, as they often do not have your best interests at heart.
 
Finally, the character development we see in the MC Alidade is fantastic! She goes from this selfish, individualistic person to being self-aware with genuine care for her community, family, and friends. In the vein of characters, I appreciated that Lewis wasn’t just for decoration and had his own things going on - my one critique here was that I wished we had seen an explanation for why he changed his mind about adventuring.
 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, Police brutality, and Animal death

Minor: Murder, Ableism, Violence, War, and Death

Moderate: loss of a loved one